If the Habs proved one thing this week, it’s
that they can be a scrappy bunch and claw their way back into games.
Unfortunately, that still only earned them 3 of a possible 6 points. The
injury and recall-riddled Bulldogs had a so-so set of games, winning and losing
a pair. With all of these injuries, efficiency is paramount; we go Inside
the Numbers to see who the most efficient Habs are. Keeping with the IR
talk, the Final Thought looks at the silver lining in this situation. Was
Tomas Plekanec able to hold on to top spot in the Power Rankings? Read on
to find out.
|
Power |
The PPR’s are on a cumulative basis with
some bias towards the current week. The prev. column represents the last
ranking for the player; players not on last week’s list will be slotted back
where they were when returning from injury/benching/recall (italicized numbers).
Thus, multiple players may have the same previous ranking.
Rk |
Player |
Prev. |
Comments |
1 |
Carey Price |
2 | Coughed up 3 each game but made numerous game-saving stops. |
| 2 | Tomas Plekanec | 1 | Not his best week, but 3 points in as many games isn’t too concerning. |
3 |
Mike Cammalleri | 3 | Became a little too predictable with his moves (always up the middle). |
| 4 | Roman Hamrlik | 4 | Brought the offensive game to the table against Washington. |
5 |
Andrei Kostitsyn | 8 | What an inopportune time to get hurt – just as he was finding his groove. |
| 6 | Glen Metropolit | 5 | Seems to be slowing down, but he keeps finding ways to produce. |
7 |
Josh Gorges | 6 | Steady and reliable, doesn’t seem as willing to join the rush now. |
| 8 | Jaroslav Spacek | 10 | Made a huge difference in his return to the lineup on Saturday night. |
9 |
Max Pacioretty | 12 | Now that’s the type of performances everyone’s been waiting to see. |
| 10 | Travis Moen | 7 | Managed to get a goal, but remains out of his element on a scoring unit. |
11 |
Ryan White | 15 | It’s hard to envision him returning to the Bulldogs anytime soon. |
| 12 | Ryan O’Byrne | 14 | Played with several different D and did reasonably well with all of them. |
13 |
Paul Mara | 13 | Second straight week with an extremely costly penalty. |
| 14 | Marc-Andre Bergeron | 18 | Defensive miscues notwithstanding, he did do his job in the offensive end. |
15 |
Maxim Lapierre | 17 | The Latendresse deal seemed to wake him up for now at least. |
| 16 | Tom Pyatt | 13 | Strong positionally, but is knocked off the puck way too easily. |
17 |
Sergei Kostitsyn | – | Had some up and down moments but was the best of this week’s callups. |
| 18 | Jay Leach | 16 | Made a couple of iffy decisions but was otherwise fine in his own end. |
| 19 | David Desharnais | – | A bit of a mistake on the Gonchar goal; showed his offensive potential. |
| 20 | Kyle Chipchura | 19 | He got some special teams time this week…strangely on the PP though. |
| 21 | J.T. Wyman | – | -2 in 13 minutes, doesn’t bode well for his future callup prospects. |
Dropped from the rankings: Scott Gomez (9 –
injured), Guillaume Latendresse (20-traded), Gregory Stewart (21-minors),
Georges Laraque (22-suspended).
|
The Dog |
A lack of offence came back to bite the
Bulldogs early on in the week before Cedrick Desjardins took over shutting down
Lake Erie for a pair of games.
|
Results: |
| November 24 | 1 |
2 | 3 | Tot |
PP |
SOG |
| Rochester | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0/3 | 30 |
| Hamilton | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1/6 | 30 |
Attendance: 2,715
3 Stars: 1) Mink – ROC 2) Glumac – HAM 3) Salak – ROC
| November 25 | 1 |
2 | 3 | Tot |
PP |
SOG |
| Houston | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1/4 | 25 |
| Hamilton | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/4 | 26 |
Attendance: 2,485
3 Stars: 1) Khudobin – HOU 2) Desjardins – HAM 3) Daoust –
HOU
| November 27 | 1 |
2 | 3 | Tot |
PP |
SOG |
| Hamilton | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1/3 | 28 |
| Lake Erie | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/2 | 24 |
Attendance: 9,066
3 Stars: 1) Carle – HAM 2) Trotter – HAM 3) Maxwell – HAM
| November 28 | 1 |
2 | 3 | Tot |
PP |
SOG |
| Hamilton | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0/3 | 22 |
| Lake Erie | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/5 | 32 |
Attendance: 4,756
3 Stars: 1) Desjardins – HAM 2) Trotter – HAM 3)
Desharnais – HAM
|
Stats: |
If you’re scrolling through the following list
of skaters wondering who on earth some of these players are, don’t feel bad –
you surely won’t be the only one. 3 players are on minor league contracts
(Anderson, Neilson, Stevenson) while 3 others are on tryouts with a 4th injured
(Curadeau, Kinasewich, Lacroix, Murphy).
|
SKATERS |
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | SH | PIMS |
| 5 | Alex Henry | 4 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 3 | 2 |
| 6 | Chad Anderson | 4 | 0 | 1 | E | 2 | 0 |
| 7 | Yannick Weber | 3 | 0 | 0 | +2 | 2 | 0 |
| 12 | Andrew Conboy | 4 | 0 | 0 | E | 6 | 2 |
| 15 | Mike Glumac | 4 | 2 | 1 | +2 | 14 | 2 |
| 16 | Gregory Stewart | 4 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 5 | 0 |
| 19 | Brock Trotter | 4 | 1 | 3 | +2 | 4 | 2 |
| 20 | Ryan Russell | 4 | 1 | 0 | +2 | 12 | 0 |
| 26 | Grant Stevenson | 2 | 0 | 1 | +2 | 4 | 0 |
| 28 | Ryan Kinasewich | 2 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 5 | 0 |
| 29 | Eric Neilson | 4 | 0 | 1 | E | 1 | 0 |
| 32 | Frederic St. Denis | 2 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 2 | 0 |
| 42 | Mathieu Curadeau | 3 | 0 | 1 | E | 4 | 0 |
| 44 | Shawn Belle | 4 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 4 | 0 |
| 51 | David Desharnais | 3 | 1 | 2 | E | 8 | 6 |
| 54 | Ryan Murphy | 3 | 0 | 1 | +2 | 4 | 2 |
| 61 | Andre Benoit | 4 | 0 | 1 | E | 5 | 4 |
| 72 | Mathieu Carle | 4 | 1 | 1 | +1 | 4 | 0 |
| 76 | P.K. Subban | 4 | 1 | 2 | +2 | 7 | 2 |
| 91 | Ben Maxwell | 4 | 1 | 0 | -2 | 10 | 6 |
|
GOALIES |
| # | Player | Record | SV% | GAA |
| 1 | Curtis Sanford | 1-1-0 | .911 | 2.42 |
| 30 | Cedrick Desjardins | 1-1-0 | .985 | 0.43 |
|
Leaders: |
Goals: Mathieu Darche (7)
Assists: Brock Trotter (14)
Points: Brock Trotter (19)
+/-: Tom Pyatt/Brock Trotter (+8)
PIMS: Eric Neilson (63)
Shots: Mike Glumac (74)
|
This Week: |
December 4:
Toronto vs Hamilton
December 5: Hamilton vs Toronto
|
Inside |
With all of the talk surrounding ice time over the
last few weeks, it’s worth looking to see who is actually most efficient when it
comes to producing points. A player’s total time on ice is divided by
their total season points to generate the time on ice it takes on average for
them to produce a point (in minutes).
| Player | Pts | TOI | TOI/Pt |
| Tomas Plekanec | 25 | 518.80 | 20.75 |
| Sergei Kostitsyn | 2 | 44.93 | 22.47 |
| Michael Cammalleri | 22 | 513.70 | 23.35 |
| Glen Metropolit | 12 | 307.57 | 25.63 |
| Brian Gionta | 13 | 396.88 | 30.53 |
| Marc-Andre Bergeron | 10 | 320.33 | 32.03 |
| Max Pacioretty | 9 | 316.03 | 35.11 |
| Andrei Kostitsyn | 10 | 356.92 | 35.69 |
| Scott Gomez | 11 | 453.68 | 41.24 |
| Travis Moen | 9 | 390.20 | 43.36 |
| Maxim Lapierre | 6 | 336.28 | 56.05 |
| Roman Hamrlik | 10 | 623.15 | 62.32 |
| Jaroslav Spacek | 9 | 568.75 | 63.19 |
| Ryan White | 2 | 129.08 | 64.54 |
| Georges Laraque | 1 | 70.68 | 70.68 |
| Paul Mara | 7 | 546.42 | 78.06 |
| Guillaume Latendresse | 3 | 261.07 | 87.02 |
| Matt D’Agostini | 1 | 110.77 | 110.77 |
| Josh Gorges | 4 | 553.17 | 138.29 |
| Hal Gill | 1 | 265.28 | 265.28 |
|
Final |
There always seems to be one commonality that
comes out of each draft over the past few years for the Habs – they lack the
high-end talent but they’ve got a few steals in the later rounds. Rather
than dwell on the perpetual negative that comes from this, let’s actually praise
the fact that the team has added some decent depth over the years.
Seemingly long gone are the days of the Johan Witehall’s and Juha Lind’s of the
world; when injuries strike, there’s actually players with some talent (or at
least potential) available to be called up. This is the one silver lining
of an otherwise frustrating season on so many levels – we’re getting a chance to
see if some of the kids can hack it. No, not as a scorer, but every team
needs its fair share of cheap pluggers as well. If the White’s and Pyatt’s
of the world can play well, this in theory will allow for more cap space to
acquire a scorer. Just goes to show you, there can be more than one way to
draft a scorer after all.
If you have a question regarding my
capsheet or this article,
please feel free to
drop me a line at
b.larose@habsworld.net.