HabsWorld.net --
It was another offensive explosion for the Habs
this week, as the team potted an impressive 12 goals in 2 games.
Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, there was next to no offence, as the team scored
just twice in 3 contests. The stat of the week looks at who’s best at
protecting the puck, while the Final Thought discusses the only thing on most
people’s minds lately, trades. This, plus the weekly grades, in the Recap.
|
Player |
The ratings:
8.5 – 10: Player has exceeded
expectations for the week, very strong contributions.
6.5 – 8: Player has met expectations
for the week, play has helped or at worse, not hurt the lineup.
5 – 6: Player has performed below
expectations for the week, play has at best not hurt the team, but likely has
had a negative affect.
Under 4.5: Player has had a week to
forget, questions should soon be arising about his future with the organization.
|
Goalies: |
#39 – Cristobal Huet: 7.0
He didn’t really have to much vs Boston, and his game in New Jersey was nothing
to write home about. (Season Average:
7.77)
|
Defence: |
#8 – Mike Komisarek: 8.0
As always, another very physical game vs Boston, and even had an above average
week offensively. (Season Average:
7.56)
#32 – Mark Streit: 7.5
One of his better weeks from the back end; I don’t think too many people
expected the production he’s put up this year.
(Season Average: 7.03)
#79 – Andrei Markov: 7.5
A rock on the defensive side, but it’s not often you see the other player on his
pairing outscore him. (Season Average:
7.44)
#26 – Josh Gorges: 7.0 No
complaints with his play, but boy, a little bit of offensive production would go
a long way to holding down his roster spot.
(Season Average: 6.90)
#44 – Roman Hamrlik: 7.0 Had a nice
setup on the winner in Jersey, but something’s been lacking in his game lately,
I’ve yet to figure out what that is though.
(Season Average: 7.32)
#51 – Francis Bouillon: 7.0
Quiet week from him, but that’s generally not too bad when it comes to him.
(Season Average: 6.94)
|
Forwards: |
#46 – Andrei Kostitsyn: 8.5
As we head into the stretch, Kostitsyn can really start to make a name for
himself league-wide if he keeps this play up. (Season Average:
7.26)
#20 – Bryan Smolinski: 8.0
Like him or not, there’s no denying he brought his ‘A’ game to the table this
week and had a large part in the team’s success.
(Season Average: 6.96)
#14 – Tomas Plekanec: 8.0 Slowly
but surely, I’m running out of nice things to say about this guy, which is
something in itself I suppose..
(Season Average: 7.62)
#27 – Alexei Kovalev: 8.0 His
presence on the ice is opening things up for his linemates; even if the points
aren’t there for him, it all works in the end.
(Season Average: 7.71)
#11 – Saku Koivu: 7.5 He was due to
get a goal, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for him, here’s hoping
this gets him going again. (Season Average:
7.32)
#22 – Steve Begin: 7.5
A very strong return to the lineup for the gritty forward, now let’s see if the
shoulder can stay healthy now.
(Season Average: 7.27)
#21 – Chris Higgins: 7.5 He
may only have scored once, but boy was it a big goal, which counts a lot toward
this grade. (Season Average:
7.71)
#74 – Sergei Kostitsyn: 7.0
We saw a little bit of everything this week from the rookie, now these little
things have to occur more often. (Season Average:
7.07)
#6 – Tom Kostopoulos: 7.0
Boston seems to be a nice team to come out of the pressbox against – Dandenault
scores twice, and now Kostopoulos gets one.
(Season Average: 6.76)
#73 – Michael Ryder: 7.0
Good things happen when you go to the net, but way too many giveaways for
anyone’s liking. (Season
Average: 6.71)
#84 – Guillaume Latendresse: 7.0
It wasn’t the greatest of weeks for the sophomore, but nothing to complain about
in his overall game. (Season Average:
6.71)
#40 – Maxim Lapierre: 7.0 Glad to
see him get one, although overall, we didn’t really see a whole lot of Max this
week. (Season Average:
6.75)
|
Week’s Average: |
|
The Dog |
The well dried up and then some for the
Bulldogs, who gave Carey Price next to no goal support. Fortunately, the
team did get a win, and now find themselves back in a potential playoff spot at
the All-Star Break.
|
Results: |
Games 42-44 of the season.
| January 23 | 1 |
2 | 3 | OT | SO | Tot |
PP |
SOG |
| Lake Erie | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1/3 | 18 |
| Hamilton | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2/3 | 41 |
Attendance: 3,007
3 Stars: 1) Wall – LEM 2) Locke – HAM 3) Ferland
– HAM
| January 25 | 1 |
2 | 3 | Tot |
PP |
SOG |
| Quad City | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1/5 | 33 |
| Hamilton | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/4 | 26 |
Attendance: 5,646
3 Stars: 1) Germyn – QCY 2) Kolanos – QCY 3) McElhinney
– QCY
| January 26 | 1 |
2 | 3 | Tot |
PP |
SOG |
| Syracuse | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1/7 | 35 |
| Hamilton | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/8 | 16 |
Attendance: 4,448
3 Stars: 1) Wilson – SYR 2) Pineault – SYR 3) Munro
– SYR
|
Stats: |
The biggest note in the numbers below is that
one player, Greg Stewart, switched numbers from 76 to 16 (formerly Ryan
Russell’s.) Yes, it was that slow of a week.
|
SKATERS |
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | SH | PIMS |
| 4 | Marvin Degon | 3 | 0 | 1 | E | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | Jon Gleed | 3 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 2 | 8 |
| 6 | Conrad Martin | 3 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 | Eric Manlow | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 5 | 2 |
| 12 | Jean-Phillipe Cote | 3 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 7 | 4 |
| 15 | Daniel Corso | 2 | 0 | 0 | E | 2 | 0 |
| 16 | Greg Stewart | 3 | 0 | 0 | -4 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | Kyle Chipchura | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 7 | 0 |
| 19 | Duncan Milroy | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 3 | 2 |
| 21 | Jonathan Ferland | 3 | 1 | 0 | -2 | 4 | 2 |
| 22 | Matt D’Agostini | 3 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 10 | 4 |
| 24 | Francis Lemieux | 1 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 1 | 0 |
| 25 | Pavel Valentenko | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 4 | 0 |
| 27 | Janne Lahti | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 7 | 0 |
| 32 | Ajay Baines | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 6 | 0 |
| 41 | Mathieu Aubin | 2 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 6 | 0 |
| 44 | Jimmy Bonneau | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 0 |
| 72 | Mathieu Carle | 3 | 0 | 1 | -3 | 5 | 2 |
| 84 | Corey Locke | 3 | 1 | 0 | -2 | 10 | 2 |
|
GOALIES |
| # | Player | MINS | SF | SVS | GA |
| 29 | Carey Price | 184 | 86 | 78 | 8 |
|
|
| # | Player | G/ATT |
| 17 | Kyle Chipchura | 0/1 |
| 21 | Jonathan Ferland | 0/1 |
| 22 | Matt D’Agostini | 2/2 |
| 27 | Janne Lahti | 0/1 |
| 84 | Corey Locke | 0/1 |
|
|
| # | Player | SVS/ATT |
| 29 | Carey Price | 5/6 |
Season Leaders:
Goals: Locke (16)
Assists: Locke (20)
Points: Locke (36)
+/-: Milroy/ (+10)
PIMS: Stewart (85)
|
|
February
1: Hamilton vs Manitoba
February 2: Hamilton vs Manitoba
|
Stats |
Puck possession is one of the most important
aspects of the game for any coach. A couple of weeks ago, we looked at the
faceoff department. Today, we visit another part of the possession stat,
giveaways vs takeaways. The stats below show the total number of giveaways
and takeaways per player, as well as the ratio (# of giveaways per takeaway.)
The lower the ratio number, the better.
| Forwards | Defencemen | |||||||
| Player | Give | Take | Ratio | Player | Give | Take | Ratio | |
| Alexei Kovalev | 42 | 21 | 2.00 | Ryan O’Byrne | 9 | 2 | 4.50 | |
| Steve Begin | 7 | 4 | 1.75 | Patrice Brisebois | 30 | 11 | 2.73 | |
| Maxim Lapierre | 12 | 7 | 1.71 | Francis Bouillon | 23 | 10 | 2.30 | |
| Guillaume Latendresse | 14 | 9 | 1.56 | Roman Hamrlik | 46 | 23 | 2.00 | |
| Tom Kostopoulos | 11 | 9 | 1.22 | Andrei Markov | 50 | 28 | 1.79 | |
| Mathieu Dandenault | 17 | 14 | 1.21 | Mike Komisarek | 46 | 26 | 1.77 | |
| Andrei Kostitsyn | 12 | 12 | 1.00 | Josh Gorges | 14 | 8 | 1.75 | |
| Saku Koivu | 29 | 30 | 0.97 | Mark Streit | 19 | 27 | 0.70 | |
| Sergei Kostitsyn | 7 | 8 | 0.88 | |||||
| Tomas Plekanec | 30 | 38 | 0.79 | |||||
| Mikhail Grabovski | 4 | 6 | 0.67 | |||||
| Kyle Chipchura | 13 | 24 | 0.54 | |||||
| Bryan Smolinski | 10 | 20 | 0.50 | |||||
| Chris Higgins | 11 | 31 | 0.35 | |||||
| Michael Ryder | 5 | 16 | 0.31 | |||||
|
Final |
With now less than a month until the trade
deadline, anticipation seems to be at a season high when it comes to trades.
And as I read the various message boards to see what’s on people’s mind with
regards to this, I find myself trying to restrain myself from laughing at the
apparent trade at all costs mentality that some people seem to have when it
comes to certain players.
Take Michael Ryder for example – fans wanted him gone while he was struggling
("He’s not producing, let’s get rid of him"), and now that the odd goal is
finally going in for him, we still see ("Get rid of him while he’s producing.")
The same can be said for a few other players on this team, and it almost screams
complete and utter desperation for a trade to me. Teams scout players
several times a season, and are not going to make any rash decision based on a
few game stretch. As much as we as fans may not like it at times, patience
is something that any successful GM must have, so that they can make sound
decisions. It may not be the most popular way to do things, but consider
this, aside from Brian Burke, how many of the recent Stanley Cup winning GM’s
made a significant number of trades during a single season?
Edit: By the way, I’m aware of the irony in my somewhat contradicting
statements with regards to Ryder and giveaways. All I can say is that I
heavily disagree with the people who tracked the stats for the games this past
week, as the numbers I have certainly do not match those of the official
scoresheet; this is what I base my opinion on, not the league numbers.
