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$5,000 Easter Eggs For Lucic. Perry?

April 19, 2014, 10:01 AM ET [7 Comments]
GARTH'S CORNER
NHL news by Garth • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Updated:


The Answer:

$5,000

The Question:

The amount that the NHL has fined Boston's bag checker, Milan Lucic, for "spearing" Detroit's Danny DeKyser in Game 1 on Friday night.

Lucic, no stranger to the greasy, punk play, makes his living with his fists. Why does he devalue himself so much by sticking vulnerable opponents?


@dafoomie  on Twitpic
Thanks @MyRegularFace

Lucic never risked a one game suspension for cranking DeKyser.

In March, Lucic has got away with spearing Alexei Emelin from the Montreal Canadiens. He escaped a fine and supplemental discipline for his cowardly act on Emelin.

After Saturday's skate, Lucic told a scrum of reporters that he is “not that kind of player”.

Though he admitted to spearing opponents in the junk ONLY three times in his career. If he's willing to admit to three such felonies, its likely that he has committed at least 20 such infractions.

Game 2 is Sunday afternoon in Beantown.

By this Lucic fine standard, Anaheim's Corey Perry should write his $5,000 check now for doing the same thing to Dallas captain Jamie Benn.


GIF: Corey Perry spears Benn in the groin. Cool thing to do i... on Twitpic
Thanks, @PeteBlackburn



***



Steven Stamkos and the Tampa Lightning better get their act together and quickly. Otherwise, they will find themselves sun bathing on Clearwater Beach next week.

The Montreal Canadiens entered the first round series vs. Tampa the prohibitive underdog.

Then, Carey Price jumped into the phone booth in the hotel lobby and has emerged as Superman.

The Habs now head home to the hostile and boisterous confines of their barn with a commanding two games to none choke hold on the series.

Its like a flash back to Sochi. Price got better with each passing period and game. In the end, he led his team to the gold medal victory. History has a way of repeating itself.


In my opinion, the Habs are the best team in the East at this juncture of the playoffs. They are rock solid in goal with Carey Price providing timely saves to kill Tampa momentum. The Habs forwads and D are working in unison to deny Bolts possession time in the defensive zone, and they are adept at transitioning turnovers into odd man rushes and scoring chances the other way.


Grinder Dale Weise gave the Habs the dramatic 5-4 OT win on Wednesday in Game 1.

In Game 2, Montreal had it al over Tamapl: anger, fights, face washes, heavy body checking, great goaltending ala Carey Price, and immense skill.

The Lightning desperately miss their injured starting tender Ben Bishop. Anders Lindback has not been Price's equal thus far. In fact, Bolts head coach may be leaning towards starting Latvian legend Kirsters Gudlevskis in Game 3 over Lindback. Gudlevskis shocked the world in February when he made 55 saves for Latvia's Olympic hockey team in their near-upset of the eventual gold medal winning Canadians.

Montreal owned the puck for most of the night and their special teams saved their bacon.

“It’s such a fine line in the difference between the games and for us it’s just about sticking to our systems and limiting our mistakes,” said Brendan Gallagher, who scored his first goal of the series on Friday night, giving him three goals in seven career postseason appearances for Montreal. “Obviously with Pricer [Carey Price] back there making big saves, it helps a lot. We just felt comfortable today. We were able to execute our game plan as well as we wanted to. But we know Game 3 is going to be a totally different story and it’s going to be a battle.”




The Habs PP had gone 9 games without PPG in 27 opportunities. That all changed on Friday night when Subban-Markov,Vanek-Desharnais-Pacioretty finally killed that wicked witch.



The Habs PP went 1-for-4 with the man advantage. While Therrien was happy to break the goose egg early on, the power play isn’t a major cause for concern for the Habs bench boss.

“That was a big goal for us on the power play and it gave the guys confidence,” admitted Therrien, who saw David Desharnais score his first career playoff goal on the power play marker. “Even the last one where we didn’t score, I really liked the way we executed with the puck. I’m not panicking with the power play. I know by working and by teaching that things are going to get better and that was the first step tonight.”




Source: canadiens.nhl.com


***


Carey Price is the x-factor for the Canadiens. As he goes, so go the Habs. Right now, I can't see a better goaltender in the Eastern Conference. Henrik Lundqvist is my second choice for best of class for Eastern goalies in these playoffs. Rask, Fleury, Howard, Bobrovsky, Emery, and Mason are good, not great.

I can see Price leading his team to the Eastern Conference Finals if/when his stoic, impressive performances continue.




Price is 2-0 with a .904 save % and a 2.17 GAA. He's allowed 5 goals against on 57 shots faced. Michel Therrien will use the day off in between Games 2 and 3 to fine tune, and tighten up the Montreal team D structure. Less shots on Price means less scoring chances against him.

The Bolts and Stamkos will have to play two opponents in Montreal: The Habs and their passionate, crazed fans.


Advantage: Canadiens.



***

Sabres GM Tim Murray will have $24-ish million in cap space to sign UFAs in July.

Makes me ponder the thought of buying Paul Stastny.

The Sabres need a true #1 center and Stastny is a UFA-to-be. He's at the and of a long term deal that has paid him $6.5M AAV per season.

How can Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic afford to sign Stastny and Ryan O'Reilly to blockbuster long term deals in the same summer?

If I'm Murray, I'm targeting Stastny.




After an amnesty buyout of Ville Leino is completed, Murray can take Leino's $4.5M AAV and add $2.5M per season to it. I'd have no problem paying Stastny $7M AAV per season for the next 5 seasons. No problem at all. He's only 28 years old and is entering his prime years of his career. The kid is a beast and plays the game the right way in all three zones. He would be a pillar of marble for Murray and the Sabres to build their young team around.




The Sabres can recruit Stastny with their infinite available salary cap space and their amazing array of high draft picks in the next two entry drafts, their impressive core of kids who will graduate from juniors and Rochester. Not having Joe Sacco as an assistant coach in Buffalo will go a long way in recruiting Stastny. Sacco wasn't very well liked by his young players in Colorado in his four seasons there. Not that it really matters to a world class player like Stastny. Ted Nolan could slide Stastny in between Marcus Foligno and Chris Stewart to create a heavy, skilled line that would command immediate respect from opponents.

Stastny scored twice, including the game tying goal and the OT GWG (plus an assist) in Game 1 vs. Minnesota on Wednesday night.



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