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McCormick Will Play

February 2, 2013, 8:13 AM ET [708 Comments]
GARTH'S CORNER
NHL news by Garth • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Updated 1:34pm:

Here are Buffalo's starting forward lines:

Vanek-Hodgson-Pominville
Ott-Ennis-Stafford
Foligno-Grigorenko-Hecht
Scott-Ellis-McCormick.

Same D pairs as the Boston game:


Sulzer-Ehrhoff
Myers-Leopold
Weber-Sekera




Cody McCormick has been nursing an injured finger and has been on IR for the first seven games of this season.

@kwsnow reports that McCormick is on the ice for warm-ups in Montreal right now. does this mean that he will play today? If he plays, who will he replace? Gerbe? Ellis?

Mike Weber will play his third game in a row as he is taking the place of veteran Robyn Regehr who is recovering from a high ankle sprain. Is Regehr now on IR, along with Ville Leino? Is Kaleta going to be moved off the active roster to the IR as well?

Having McCormick in the lineup os a positive thing for Buffalo as he is big, mean and nasty.
He played Ruff's style of heavy hockey and he plays within himself.

More to come...









Updated 11:30am:

No morning skate today due to the 2pm matinee start time.

The Habs have tweeted that PK Subban will be playing in hi sfirst game of the season today.


Big surprise

***

Montreal, like Buffalo, added grit and team toughness, in the off season. They signed piss-n-vinegar winger Brandon Prust away from the NY Rangers. They also pried Colby Armstrong away from the Toronto Maple Leafs.


Being Montreal's go-to fighter. I seriously doubt that Prust will be interested in being put to sleep by 10 John Scott right handed shots of Ambien. All NHL tough guys and wannabes have to do is watch the Scott-Thornton incident in Boston to realize its not a good idea to chirp and challenge the Sabres. When provoked, they will attack.

Scott has two fights this season. Ditto Prust.

Prust will look someone in his own weight class to tight today.

Thus, I look for for Prust to ask Steve Ott to dance. Ott will gladly accept the pre-Valentines Day invitation.


I anticipate an Ott-Prust scrap in this game because it will serve to set the physical tone between the Sabres and Habs, who will play each other twice in the next week. Division points are critical in this abbreviated season, and neither coach wants to leave valuable points in the standings on the table.


I look for Marcus Foligno and Mike Weber to be at the ready to toss the mitts as well.





***

The Rochester Amerks have signed winger veteran NHL winger, Patrick Rissmiller to an AHL tryout contract. Nice depth signing if he sticks with Amerks.


The 6'4 220 pound winger has played 192 games in the NHL with San Jose, Atlanta, and Florida.




Rissmiller scored 2 goals and added 8 assists in 8 games with the Rochester Amerks in 2010-11, when the Florida Panthers acquired him in trade.


_____________________________________________________________________


Lost in the after glow of Thomas Vanek's virtuoso performance in Buffalo's 7-4 win in Boston is the fact that Ryan Miller made 38 of his best saves of the season in the win. Miller made 15 outstanding saves in the third period alone to preserve the victory.


Look at this beauty of a save of Patrice Bergeron!




Miller needed to be at his best in Boston, and he was. Having allowed Toronto's Matt Frattin to score the GWG on him with one second left on the clock in OT on Tuesday night, Miller needed a huge bouce-back effort. He gave his best performance of the season in Boston, when his team needed a win the most. Heading into Montreal on a five game winless streak would have been a daunting task for Miller and the Sabres. The win in Boston re-focused Miller and in so doing, has re-energized the team.


Miller enter today's game in Montreal with a 3-2-1 record. 2.64 GAA and .920 save percentage. He's faced 201 shot attempts in six games, and has allowed 16 goals against. Lindy Ruff has said that he wants his D to do a better job of limiting opponents from landing shots on Buffalo's net. In order to do so, the D have to eliminate man off the puck with good body positioning and heavy body contact. The Buffalo D are blocking shots in front of Miller. They'll have to do more of the same in Montreal today.

At the lonely end of the rink, Carey Price will bring his impressive 4-1 record (1.98 GAA, .924 save percentage) into this game. Price and his D will have to be on their toes for sixty minutes if the want to contain the Vanek-Hodgson-Pominville line, who enter today's game as the second most offensively productive line in the NHL.


The Sabres will look to win consecutive road games for the first time this season in Montreal today. Its time to string back to back wins together.

The Sabres are 8-0-1 in their last nine games against Montreal, with their last regulation loss coming on 11/2710.


The teams next meet five days from today, on 2/7 in Buffalo.


***


I'm looking forward to watching the first of many exciting battles between eighteen year old super rookies, Grigorenko and Galchenyuk.

Grigo, the 12th overall pick in the 2012 NHL Draft has a goal and assist in his last two games.

Galchenyuk, the 3rd overall pick in the 2012 NHL Draft, has a goal and four assists in five games played.

Sending Grigorenko back to QMJHL Quebec Remparts would not have done much for the kid's NHL development, so the Sabres wisely decided to keep the kid in Buffalo for the during of the 48 game NHL seaosn so that he can help the Sabres to win games, while serving his NHL apprenticeship.

Habs GM Marc Bergevin had a similar feeling about Galchenyuk, who was tearing up the OHL while with the Sarnia Sting.

Today will be the first of many exciting head-to-head performances for the two young guns.




_______________________________________________________________________


Ask Michele Therrien is PK Subban is playing today and you'll be told "no decision has been made yet".Suffice to say, Subban will be playing because the Habs need him.

The Habs play the Sabres today, then play the Senators tomorrow. Subban will be a welcomed addition to the blue line. Where he seemingly will help them the most is on the rush. Therrien has employed a hard fore check system for years, which invites his D to pinch. Subban knows a thing or two about supporting the rush and playing below the faceoff circles in the offensive zone. The two top scorers for Montreal at present are D Andrei Markov(4G, 4A) and D Rafael Diaz (8 assists). Five of the seven D who have played in
the first six games have earned their way onto the Montreal score sheet.

Subban's first pass is as good as any D in the NHL. His above average wheels and vision make him a threat to take off and go every shift. The Sabres forwards will have to contain him by playing their position, and reducing his time and space.


Subban missed the first six games of the Montreal season as he and his agent were fine tuning the details of his recently signed, two year contract.

Subban practiced Friday with Francis Bouillon in Montreal's third pair.


Thanks, Canadiens.nhl.com
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