The Canadiens have had some good but just not good enough hockey lately that should be viewed as a win win to fans right now.

With a pair of weekend losses to Pittsburgh and New Jersey the Canadiens showed some good signs of improvement.

The PP went 1-1 against Pittsburgh and if not for the Penguins feasting on the Habs PK, the game was pretty good.

The next day the Canadiens went toe to toe with the New Jersey Devils until Taylor Hall scored on a breakaway as he exited the penalty box late in the game to give the Devils a 2-1 victory.

The Habs improved their PK that night killing 5 of 5 penalties while scoring on 1 of 4 power plays.

Players like Reilly, Juulsen, and Lernout continue to impress while Carey Price seems to have shaken off his season long funk.

The Canadiens then had to take on the high flying Winnipeg Jets who are having the best season in franchise history this past Tuesday night.

The game went predictably as the Jets were taking Montréal to the wood shed early jumping out to a 3-0 lead before the Canadiens stormed back in the 3rd led by Alex Galchenyuk’s 3 point night.

The Habs entered OT tied at 4 but lost the game on rookie standout Kyle Connor’s 30th goal for the Jets.

Newly acquired call up Kerby Rychel scored his first as a Canadien, on his first shot in the two games he’s played since being called up as well.

The kids are improving and one has to think with a healthy squad next year as well as all the new, young, talented blue liners we have seen the last couple months the results will be better.

Bonus of these losses is thatits moved Montréal into 3rd last in the draft which is clearly the best spot they could achieve this draft considering the situation in Ottawa and Buffalo.

I’ll be rooting for the Coyotes big time to close out the season.


Carey Price Becomes Montréal Canadiens All Time Leader in Games Played By A Goaltender

The Montreal Canadiens saw the history book rewritten in a big way last night as Carey Price played his 557th game for the Canadiens. Price passes J Plante as the franchise leader in games played at just 30 years of age.

With Price’s new contract kicking in next season it’s fair to say Carey Price will make the all time games played by a goaltender record near impossible to break.

Factor in that Price is a mere 29 wins away from taking over the teams all time wins record you realize we all have been watching a living legend of the Montreal Canadiens franchise.

Hopefully Price can add a Stanley Cup to his long list of Montreal Canadiens accomplishments in the future.

Even without the Cup, it will be argued in the decades to come that Carey Price was the greatest goaltender in the long history of the Montreal Canadiens.

Congrats Carey!


Scherbak Concussed... Injuries Seem Like Scherbak’s Downfall...

Nikita Scherbak has been showing so much promise in this lost season, even looking dominant at times with the puck.

He has been using his frame effectively and generating chances every game.

Unfortunately it looks like a collision with D Byfuglein of the Jets last night has ended his season.

Scherbak is no stranger to the injured list. He is consistently injured whenever he has been called up.

One has to wonder if the player is worth keeping around in hopes he can stay healthy, or if another team wants to buy his potential. I’m wondering it myself.

If Scherbak is showing promise but can’t stay healthy I think it would be wise of management to explore his trade value. Injured players don’t help but Scherbak is at a stage where there could be teams that feel they can help him protect himself more.

The Habs could feel that way too I suppose but reality is the kid is struggling with the ruggedness of the NHL.

I have had very high hopes for Scherbak since he was drafted and his maturity took a while to come around but it seems like he’s figured out the hardest part between the ears. But unless he can learn to protect himself better he could be an injury just waiting to occur every game.

It will be interesting what management will do with him as an asset. Keep him and hope he figured out how to keep his head and knees out of harms way, or trade him to a team that really feels strongly in his game.

I suspect they will keep him but I think they should be open to anything with Scherbak at this point.

Thanks For Your Patience

As some of my frequent readers know, I have been preparing to sell my house and move. This journey has been long and not without difficulties from repair work, to family illness, to basement flooding, a offer that fell through, and my laptop screen breaking and being sent in for service early last week.

I’ve been doing these last few blogs from my iPhone and it suuuuuuuuuuucks.

But thank you all for reading still and thanks to all the folks on twitter who have chatted, supported, and read my work.

It’s been a difficult and busy 2018 for the Smillie House but we are happy to say the home is sold and my family and I will be moving to Calgary, AB in the last week of April.

I will continue to write about the Habs as long as Eklund allows and I look forward to chatting about the draft with you all.

Thanks for reading my ramblings this entire season and I apologize for the infrequent blogs lately. I will still be busy as hell over the next 4 weeks as we set up shop at my brothers house in Alberta but I’ll still try to keep up the HockeyBuzz work.

Thank again,

Brandon Smillie

Go Habs Go!

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