Three and a half years have passed since Jaroslav Halak last wore the crest of the Canadiens on his sweater. He’ll return to Montreal for only the second time since the trade that sent him south to St. Louis on Tuesday night.
A warm welcome is all but assured as it was in his first homecoming.
The Slovak netminder was the hero of the 2010 playoffs for the league’s most storied franchise. Halak contained two of the most prolific scores of the modern era, Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. As herculean of an effort as it was, it didn’t secure his long term future with the club.
Halak returns to take on his former goaltending tandem partner, Carey Price. The one Montreal decided to entrust their future in. It’s not just an old teammate he has to beat for bragging rights. The one he was traded for, Lars Eller, is also looking to get a piece of the action.
As one of the three first round picks the Blues selected in 2007 the future of that franchise seemed to be partially put in his hands as well. However, he was sacrificed for the greater good and to expedite the exit from a deep rebuild. Now in his fourth full season with the Habs, Eller is finally coming in to his own and becoming the player Jarmo Kekalainen thought he would. A solid two-way player capable of producing 50 points or more a season.
It’s not just the Danish center the Blues will have to stop. Elite defenseman PK Subban leads the team in points with 14. Savvy vet center Tomas Plekanec has and 11 points in 15 games as does the highly touted Alex Glachenyuk. Brendan Gallagher leads with seven goals.
Alex PIetrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester will see quite a bit of the home team’s best players, but the forwards they routinely work in concert with will likely change.
TJ Oshie is expected to swap places with Chris Stewart. According to head coach Ken Hitchcock the move will help spread the offensive load and the inflexions tenacity that Oshie and Alexander Steen bring to others. Therefore curbing the number of perceived passengers. Goal scoring has come more frequently in volume that it has in the past, but it’s been condensed in bunches against weaker opponents and within the Steen-Backes-Oshie line. The alterations are the coaching staff’s attempt to get ahead of what they see as a growing problem.
Gritty winger Brenden Morrow has been placed on IR retroactive to October 29th. That means he is available to come off at any time as of Tuesday. Morrow did not travel to Montreal to join the team. Magnus Paajarvi remains on IR, but is with the club.
Based on the recent changes stemming from the loss in Tampa Bay, the expected lines and pairings are:
Steen – Backes – Stewart
Roy – Sobotka – Oshie
Schwartz – Berglund – Tarasenko
Porter – Lapierre – Reaves
Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo
Jackman – Shattenkirk
Leopold - Polak
Montreal is expected to be without wards Daniel Briere (concussion), Brandon Prust (shoulder) and Travis Moen (face), and defensemen Alexei Emelin (knee) and Davis Drewiske (shoulder).
Quick Hits
-- The first Llywelyn's Pub Watch Parties of the season is tonight at their Wildwood location, 2490 Taylor Road.
Click here for details.
-- Fox Sports Midwest released October TV ratings numbers this week. It was a historic month as the Blues earned their highest rating for the month in the 18 years on the network. They averaged a 3.5 household rating in St. Louis which is a 94% increase over 2011. Impressive considering that the St. Louis Cardinals were in the midst of a World Series run all month and there were several nights where they shared or ran in to each others start time.
-- Current Blues 4th line center Maxim Lapierre spent parts of six seasons with the Candiens appearing in 293 games and amassing 40 goals, 80 points, and 284 PIMs.
Pick the Goal Scorer
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St Louis Blues Blogger • 
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