In case you haven’t heard by now, P.K. Subban was taken off of the ice on a stretcher during last night’s victory against the Buffalo Sabres after Alexei Emelin accidentally made contact with his head. Subban had fallen in the corner and Emelin was trying to recover the puck, slamming the brakes and unfortunately was unable to avoid hitting his teammate. As a precautionary measure, Subban was taken to the hospital to be further evaluated.
Thankfully, he was discharged and diagnosed with a minor neck injury that is not considered “serious”. Either way, we wish him a speedy recovery and a quick insertion back into the lineup.
In case you missed it, Alex Galchenyuk has come alive. He scored two goals in a third straight match and now boasts 25 to his name, 11 of which have come over the course of the last 8 games. As I’ve mentioned previously, he can easily hit the 30-goal mark should he continue on this hot streak. His confidence is exactly where it needs to be and instead of dangling the puck and deking defensemen all by himself, he opts to use his powerful and heavy shot more often. He’s firing pucks at the net a lot more frequently and reaping the benefits as he now leads the team in scoring.
We all knew just how capable he was of becoming a superstar- most of us did, anyways. However, Galchenyuk is the type of player who needs to be offered the right opportunities at the right time with the right support staff. This may sound obvious, but I don’t think head coach Michel Therrien acknowledged just how much of an X-factor #27 could be if he was placed on the top line with Max Pacioretty. I doubt the organization in its entirety could’ve predicted how effective he would be with extended ice-time as a center, and how much of a difference this player would make on the first wave of the power play.
Nowadays, Andrei Markov mans the blue line during the man advantage while Subban sinks a little to the left, with Pacioretty in the middle and Galchenyuk to the right. All of a sudden, teams are going to have a really hard time shutting this wave down as there are three shooting options available. Seemingly, the Habs’ power play has become unpredictable, and it’s a shame that it’s consistently clicking this late into the season. The good news is that fans can look forward to a very dynamic special teams unit next season that will provide offense on a team that severely lacks it.
In other news, the Montreal Canadiens’ Children Foundation held their 7th annual Radio Telethon last night in which numerous personalities and Habs’ alumni worked the phones to accept donations that will go towards programs benefitting disadvantaged youth across the province of Quebec.
The numbers from yesterday’s efforts have yet to be released, but you can
learn more about the Foundation by clicking here .
As always, your generosity would be of great help and you can
donate by clicking here. 
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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