Canadiens Try To Beat The Odds Against Vegas + Hudon + Trade Galchenyuk? (pacioretty)

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Canadiens Try To Beat The Odds Against Vegas + Hudon + Trade Galchenyuk?

By Brandon Smillie

Nov 7, 2017 • 6:55 am

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Canadiens Working To Maintain Hot Streak Against Vegas

The Montreal Canadiens should feel pretty good about themselves today. They have consistently put together good efforts against most opponents this year and in the last 2 weeks have been able to find the goal scoring needed to offset below average goaltending. They have won 4 of their last 5 games despite playing in front of a (possibly) injured Carey Price, back up Al Montoya, and rookie Charlie Lindgren. They have done this by refusing to quit and sticking to the game plan knowing that their handwork will most likely be rewarded.

The Canadiens return home to Montreal for the next 6 games after going 3-1-0-0 on a 4 game, 7 day road trip. Victories over Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Chicago (for the first time in Chicago in 15 years) have Montreal playing with a new found confidence. If Charlie Lindgren’s compete level and quality play can continue it’s possible Montreal could string together a nice home stand to put themselves back in the playoff picture.

Tonight, Vegas comes into town the day after a hard fought game against the Toronto Maple Leafs that saw them claw back from a 3-1 deficit in the 1st period to tie the game at 3-3 in the 3rd. All the work couldn’t seal the victory though as Toronto came away with the shoot out victory, handing Vegas their first OT/SO loss of the season and “dropping… their record to 9-4-0-1 on the year and 3 points back of the LA Kings for 1st place in the Pacific Division.

The Golden Knights are a fantastic story this season. They have created a lot of buzz all offseason with their expansion draft, trades, and whoever controls their Twitter account. All this had a chance to be wiped away in the horrific attack in Vegas days before the season was set to open. But, the city of Las Vegas, the team, the NHL, and the NHL fanbase rallied around each other to show solidarity in the face evil and in together people have shown that the surviving community would grow stronger as a result. The VGK may have felt that extra motivation to start the year as they have achieved the best start for an NHL expansion team and if not for some ridiculously unfortunate injuries to their goaltenders, it could have been better.

That’s no slight to M Subban, O Dansk, D Ferguson, or M Lagace. But none of them are MA Fleury and that simply can’t be replaced without equal experience and success. The starter for VGK tonight could be the 6’1…,19 year old rookie, Dylan Ferguson as M Lagace was between the pipes last night. Ferguson hasn’t had any action at all this season so it will be interesting to see if he does get his first start or if the VGK turn to Lagace on back to back nights. Lagace is 1-3-1 on the season with a 4.03 GAA and .860 SP% on the season.

The Knights will be led by Jame Neal who has become a house hold name in Vegas with his early season play. Neal leads the Knights in goals (8) and points (12) this season so far but he’s far from the only dangerous Forward on the team. The Habs will have to contain Reilly Smith (5G, 6A), David Perron (4G, 7A), and Jon Marchessault (4G, 5A). Vegas is also getting solid contributions from two of their blue liners in Colin Miller, 2G 7A, and Nate Schmidt, 1G 7A. The Canadiens would be wise to not sleep on this fast, patch work team tonight.

Maintaining disciplined play and subsequently controlling the Vegas PP (20.7%, 11th overall) will be key to staying in this game. Neal (46.9), Perron (43.8) , and Smith (50) don’t have particularly sparkling CF% so while they may not put on a steady amount of pressure, they are making their opportunities count. This is shown in their shooting percentages. Neal is shooting at 21.6%, Perron at 12.1% , and Smith at 19.2%. These Knights will make you pay if you allow them into the zone, best way to stop that is with a good forecheck and tenacious back check.

CANADIENS PRACTICE LINES AT MORNING SKATE

The Habs appear ready to line up with virtually the same line up as last game with the only real unknown being the 4th line and 3rd D pair formations.

Galchenyuk - Drouin - Lehkonen Pacioretty - Danault - Shaw Byron - Plekanec - Gallagher De La Rose/Hudon - McCarron - Mitchell

Mete - Weber Alzner - Petry Morrow/Davidson - Benn

Montoya Lindgren

If this tweet by Eric Engels is any indication, we could see Lindgren return to the net tonight. I think that would be the right call. The Canadiens, as a team, should be riding the high of the two weekend wins and with that came a shut out by the call up. Give him the chance to let it ride against Vegas and possibly feed the confidence level of not only Lindgren, but the team.

The Canadiens are playing solid team hockey right now. Everyone appears to be pulling in the same direction and buying into the offensive plan set forth by the coaching staff. The Power Play (20th) is still very inconsistent in that sometimes it looks like one of the most dangerous in the league and sometimes the guy with the puck stands there, barely moving, looking to teammates who aren’t moving either before the puck is cleared. It has gotten better as the team has found its scoring touch, but still requires a bit of work.

Galchenyuk (16:15 TOI) saw most of his time with new line mate Drouin (17:22 TOI) against the Hawks and it paid off with the two of them connecting on Drouin’s fantastic drive to the net for sneaky chip in goal against Crawford and the Hawks. This looks to be the new norm at this point and the best part is that its working.

I made mention last blog that Claude Julien deserves full credit for helping Galchenyuk find that extra gear or that new edge to keep him at a consistent work ethic. That work ethic gets rewarded and thats exactly what an opportunity to flank Drouin is, a reward. While that is an individual goal for the staff (motivation of Galchenyuk) the bigger picture was to get him back to a level where he doesn’t hurt the top 6 F as much as he helps so that when the scoring well does dry up for a bit, he can still survive top level competition and create for the sake of the team.

IS BERGEVIN LOOKING TO TRADE GALCHENYUK?

I don’t think there is any scenario where Bergevin actually WANTED to trade Galchenyuk. Why would he? The only way that type of trade materializes is if the return is deemed a greater advantage to the Canadiens overall, not to simply rid themselves of a inconsistent (but very talented) winger. No one wants to make that Tyler Seguin trade again and if Bergevin did make a deal like that and crossed his fingers and toes hoping it would work out then he most certainly could be replaced by the end of the season.

I don’t think Molson wants to change the Habs management, I don’t think Bergevin wants to lose his pants in a trade, so I do think the Habs will stay the course and if any deal is made it could be for a puck moving, top 4, LD. Any deal like that will likely wait until the trade deadline as the Habs try to claw back into the mix and give Price a chance to heal up.

So bottom line, unless its a lights out D man coming back I wouldn’t move Galchenyuk. Any moves will have to be late in the season due to Montreal appearing to have to fight hard the rest of the way and see where they stand by mid February.

HUDON (LBI) MAY DRAW BACK IN

Hudon was spotted practising on the Canadiens secondary PP unit today so it’s possible his lower body ailment has recovered to the point where he can suit back up. I just hope that its not an injury that could be compounded by playing.

With that, I’m done writing today. Let’s look for Montreal to continue to rally around Price’s injury and see what Lindgren is made of. Montreal can be a dominate forechecking team when everyone is on the same page. Vegas isn’t an extremely dominant team by any means, but they can shoot so if the Habs can hem them in and score early, it could be enough to pace the game and support any subsequent PP goals against. Keep up the forecheck, drive the net, back check and take sticks away. Chopping legs or skates wont help tonight, they rarely do anyways. But laying on top of guys sticks and obstructing the VGK stick blades will. Control that and they may extend the win streak to 3.

Go Habs Go

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