Canadiens Look To Take Revenge On Wild + Playoffs?! + Injury Updates (Hudon)

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Canadiens Look To Take Revenge On Wild + Playoffs?! + Injury Updates

By Brandon Smillie

Nov 9, 2017 • 11:51 am

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The Montreal Canadiens look to make tonights game against the Wild more difficult than the last one on November 2nd, 2017 when the Wild thumped them 6-3 in Minnesota. That game was a difficult pill to swallow at the time as the Habs had won 2 in a row with the last being an 8-3 shpanking of the Ottawa Senators two days prior.

The Habs out shot the Wild that night 31 to 27 but Carey Price could only make 21 saves on 26 shots faced for a .808 SP% and a loss. The Wild scored twice in 10 seconds at the 4:46 and 4:56 mark of the first and added another one late in the period to give the Wild a lead they wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the game.

The Canadiens fought back, Gallagher in particular with his 2 goals, but it wasn’t enough and the Canadiens were blessed with only ONE PP that game so Minny, a team with E Staal and K Quincy, were saints that night.

That loss to Minny is the Canadiens only Loss over the last 6 games so tonight represents a chance to right a wrong, to prove they deserved better before, and to grab an extremely important 2 points. The Canadiens home stand has 4 more games after tonight against Buffalo, Columbus, Arizona, and Toronto. Despite some teams records in the group, this stretch has the potential to seriously mess with the Canadiens chances to stay in the playoff race.

PLAYOFFS?! DON’T TALK ABOUT PLAYOFFS!

Lots of pundits speculate that if you're not in the playoff picture by US Thanksgiving, you could be out (If you ain’t first, you're last Ricky Bobby). While I understand that they have produced stats saying that is likely 70-80% true, I would say that it’s a bit misleading. When you look at last years standings, Toronto made the Playoffs as the 8th place seed with 95 points and only winning 40 of their 82 games. The next closest competitors were Tampa Bay (94 pts, 42 wins) and New York Islanders (94 pts, 41 wins). The teams after them were Philly, Carolina, Florida, Detroit, Buffalo, and New Jersey. None of those teams were expected to qualify for playoffs except Florida and they bombed hard with their analytic heavy approach.

So, I would suggest that Playoffs are always in reach if you’re a competitive team, which the Canadiens should be, and you can remain in the hunt winning 50% of the time. Not exactly too difficult for a decent team. Of the actual competitively assembled teams, 8 of the 10 (11 if you want to include NYI, but I don’t think they are really a competitively assembled team) made the playoffs. If TBL had won one more game of 82 they push the Leafs out and moved into 3rd in the division. The Atlantic is a competitive, rivalry driven division that is going to come down to the wire.

Right now, the Canadiens are 2 points out of 3rd in the division, but giving up 2 games in hand to the Senators, and 5 points out of 2nd and home ice, with a game in hand on the Maple Leafs. I should also mention that while both the Senators and the Maple Leafs are competitively assembled teams, they aren’t Tampa Bay or Pittsburgh. Heck, the Maple Leafs have allowed more goals than Montreal and with Matthews having back issues (likely an unfortunate side effect from his terrible Hip injury/surgery a couple years ago) they are a definite possibility to fall out into a fight for 8th.

Ottawa can score and have the best all round defence man in the game. Stone is a two way beast, despite his achilles heal of being susceptible to micro fractures (bruises). Hoffman is a sniper and the addition of Duchene is a very slight upgrade over out going Kyle Turris. Duchene could have the added advantage of actually playing with some heart now that his pouting party is over. But, Anderson is 36 years old and in his twilight. Any faults in his game will be felt by Ottawa.

Basically, Toronto and Ottawa are catchable, Detroit (4th in Division) will fall out, and Boston (5th) are already struggling with injuries and consistency, but the return of Bergeron has kept them afloat. 2nd and 3rd in the Atlantic is as clear as mud and Montreal is definitely in the mix still, so I would say as long as they are close to 3rd in the division, the playoffs are a real possibility and right now that mark is 17 points, 2 more than they currently have. The Habs are very much in this race and likely should be all season as long.

Minnesota is coming off a tough loss last night to the Toronto Maple Leafs, losing 4-2 despite out shooting TO 37-19 and winning 58% of their draws. The Leafs were without Auston Matthews due to the aforementioned back injury so Minnesota fell right into the trap. The came out hard and played well but a couple break downs ended up in their net (especially the brutal coverage on Marleau for TO’s 2nd goal of the game in the first few minutes of the 2nd). Jason Zucker scored both of the Wild’s goals and Dubnyk stopped 15 of 18 shots for a .833 SP%. It was a hard luck loss so expect the Wild to come out hard tonight. Dubnyk could also see his second start in two nights.

The Wild have cobbled together a pretty mediocre season as well, going 5-7-2 and good enough for last place in the Central. This homestand is littered with trap games and this is no exception. Montreal has to come out with the foot on the gas, like they typically have, drive the net and get a greasy goal or two before the period is up. Playing with the high intensity forecheck could lead to some giveaways/takeaways and some overreacting Wild players to take penalties.

LINDGREN EARNS 3RD STRAIGHT START

Charlie Lindgren makes his 3rd straight start against the team he rooted for as a child so expect an intense performance from the net minder. Lindgren is 2-0-0 with a .971 Sp% and 1.00 GAA. Small sample size indeed, but so far Lindgren has battled hard to track pucks and uses his great athletic ability to stop the puck. The Canadiens are playing great hockey with the newfound confidence, and timely saves, that have stemmed from their crease. It’s given us a chance to see what kind of team this actually is and to me, they look just like I predicted in the preseason: 2nd or 3rd in the division behind the TBL.

SPEAKING OF GOALTENDERS….. AND INJURIES…..

Carey Price has been practicing, in full gear, and was out there today with goaltending coach S Waite. No timetable has been provided for his return, but there was an interesting observation…

Price has switched back to the skate style he wore last season. I had thought his skates this year seemed higher, almost like a regular F/D skate. I dismissed it as I actually don’t know much about goaltending skates and who am I to question what Carey Price decides is right for his game.

But, Price is good. This year Price has been bad. He has also been uncharacteristically out of position and sliding around far to much. Could the skate change have been part of the issue? Could the skate have been a mitigating factor in his injury? Could the skate be a part of Price’s solution, not only from a techincal/performance standpoint but a mental one as well? Time will tell, but if you want my gut feeling: Yes to all the questions I just posed.

J Drouin and A Shaw both missed practice yesterday and are said to be a “50/50… chance to play tonight against the Wild. Losing one, or both, would be devastating to the Canadiens as both have been very impactful, positive players for the Habs so for. Today’s skate was of the “Optional… variety… and of the “Thank goodness… variety…

Not sure if this means that they are in but gearing up for the optional skate should be considered a good sign so let’s see what happens at the game time warm up.

***UPDATE: SHAW CONFIRMED IN, DROUIN GAME TIME DECISION, FROESE SUITING UP FOR FIRST GAME AS A HAB***

FUTURE CAPTAIN GALLAGHER BEING THE BEST HUMAN HE CAN BE

Brendan Gallagher has been making the most of his spare time on this home stand by giving back to the community and providing inspiration on and off the ice.

He helped unveil the SKATE FOR KIDS program with the Shriner’s Hospital for Children by visiting and being personal with the kids and staff there. In the attached video he explains how you can donate and help his cause. It isn’t the first time he’s been there either, this is a place he tries to visit when possible and hang out with the kids. Good on you Brendan.

He wasn’t finished either, the next time he could get out and help he did by visiting the Canadian Cancer Society Lodge in Montreal where people can stay while receiving cancer treatment. Gallagher took pictures, signed autographs, and enjoyed some cake too.

The following Gallagher quote is from the Montreal Canadiens official website.

"I think it's important. We're in a position where we're very fortunate to be able to do what we do. I can't really understand what these people are going through, but I know it's probably not easy. To take an hour out of my day to come in here and spend some time with them is really nothing. To hear that they get a lot out of it and that they enjoyed it makes you feel good inside and makes you want to do it again.

"When we're away from the rink, we have an opportunity to do a lot more and impact a lot more people than we would just playing the game. This is just a small example of that. It's easy for me to do, put smiles on people's faces. It put a lot of smiles on my face and I just enjoyed the day."

I hope I get to see the day when Gallagher is named Captain of the Montreal Canadiens. If that day never arrives, then you can bet he will be Captain for wherever he ends up playing.

Go Habs Go

COLLECT THE BEST! COLLECT UPPER DECK!

UPPER DECK SERIES 1 IS OUT NOW AND IT’S LOADED!

CHECK IT OUT AT YOUR LOCAL RETAILER OR THROUGH UPPER DECK’S E-PACK STOREFRONT ON THEIR OFFICIAL WEBSITE!

Don't forget to check out Upper Deck products at your local hobby shops and online! UD Series 1 has just released and Series 2 preorders are already happening so if you’re a big collector, or a new one, make sure you stop by your local shop and see if you can get yourself a box (or case). The Young Guns rookie set are one of the most collected rookie sets all year and the Exclusives (#’d to 100) and High Gloss (#’ to 10) are always worth good money on the secondary market (depending on the rookie of course). You can find Auto’s, jersey, and patch cards in these boxes as well! Check it out!

Follow me on Twitter @BrandonSmillie where I mostly stick to hockey stuff.

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