HabsWorld.net -- 

Faced with 4 games in 6 days, the Habs managed
to pull of a split, beating Philadelphia and Ottawa before losing to Pittsburgh
and Atlanta while the Bulldogs continue to be in the hunt for the division lead
after a pair of wins this week.  With the team’s struggles on the road,
let’s look at who actually produces more away from home, while the Final Thought
looks at why fans shouldn’t be too upset if not too many Habs make it to the
Olympics.  This, plus the weekly power rankings, in the Recap.

 Power
Rankings

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

Tomas Plekanec

 3 6 assists this week while
getting major minutes on the penalty kill.
2 Mike Cammalleri 2 Continues to
shoulder the scoring load while the walking wounded heal.

3		 Carey Price 1 Some sensational saves, but
allowed a few iffy goals unlike in weeks past.
4 Glen Metropolit 5 Every week,
he manages to find a way onto the scoresheet.

5		 Roman Hamrlik 4 Glad to see him score, but
he’s not winning any dancing contests soon.
6 Jaroslav Halak 11 Rebounded
from a brutal outing with a stellar one against the Senators.

7		 Andrei Kostitsyn 8 Tripled his goal totals which
shows how much he struggled before now.
8 Scott Gomez 6 Does he have
a no-shooting clause in his deal? Stop passing up good shots.

9		 Josh Gorges 7 Steady despite how much the
defence corps struggled at times.
10 Max Pacioretty 9 Didn’t play
poorly, but clearly took a step back from last week’s effort.

11		 Sergei Kostitsyn 14 Glad he’s playing well
defensively; 0 goals in 10 games isn’t good enough.
12 Jaroslav Spacek 10 He is
playing hurt and boy did it show this week.  A night off wouldn’t hurt.

13		 Travis Moen 12 The aggression we saw early on
isn’t there now.  Wonder if he’s injured?
14 Marc-Andre Bergeron 19 Say what you
will about his D, but he’s scoring at a 20-goal pace.

15		 Hal Gill 13 Showed this week why he’s most
effective with only limited ice time.
16 Maxim Lapierre 21 Did little
on the scoresheet but held his own playing with Gomez.

17		 Paul Mara 17 Hardly played before he went
down, so he stays at last week’s ranking.
18 Matt D’Agostini 20 Scored a key
goal but was virtually useless aside from that.
19 Ryan O’Byrne 15 Looking more
and more like the player who struggled constantly last year.
20 Tom Pyatt 16 Not getting
enough ice time to do much of anything productive really.
21 Georges Laraque 22 He picked up
an assist and frankly didn’t play that bad on the 4th line.

Dropped from the rankings: Ryan White (18 –
minors) and Kyle Chipchura (23 – traded)

 The Dog
Pound

Buoyed by the return of a couple of regulars,
the Bulldogs won both their games this past week, both against Abbotsford.

 Results:

December 9
1		 2 3
Tot
PP
SOG
Abbotsford 0 0 1 1 0/5 29
Hamilton 0 3 2 5 2/9 36

Attendance:  2,622
3 Stars:  1) Desharnais – HAM  2) Desjardins – HAM  3)
Maxwell – HAM

December 13
1		 2 3
Tot
PP
SOG
Abbotsford 0 0 0 0 0/7 20
Hamilton 0 1 2 3 1/8 34

Attendance:  3,415
3 Stars:  1) Desharnais – HAM  2) Stevenson – HAM  3)
Desjardins – HAM

Stats:

Far be it from me to try and start a
controversy, but it appears that Cedrick Desjardins has supplanted Curtis
Sanford as the #1 in Hamilton, at least for the time being.

SKATERS
# Player GP G A +/- SH PIMS
5 Alex Henry 2 0 0 E 2 2
6 Chad Anderson 1 0 0 E 0 0
7 Yannick Weber 1 0 0 E 2 2
10 J.T. Wyman 2 0 2 +2 3 0
12 Andrew Conboy 1 0 0 +1 0 0
15 Mike Glumac 2 0 0 E 5 0
16 Gregory Stewart 2 0 0 E 4 19
19 Brock Trotter 2 2 0 +2 5 0
20 Ryan Russell 2 1 1 +1 2 2
21 Mathieu Darche 1 0 0 E 2 0
25 Ryan White 2 0 1 +1 0 4
26 Grant Stevenson 2 2 1 +1 7 0
29 Eric Neilson 2 0 0 E 1 4
32 Frederic St. Denis 2 0 0 +3 2 0
44 Shawn Belle 2 0 1 +2 4 10
51 David Desharnais 2 2 1 E 5 0
72 Mathieu Carle 2 0 2 E 9 0
76 P.K. Subban 2 0 1 +3 7 6
85 Mikael Johansson 2 1 0 +1 5 0
91 Ben Maxwell 2 0 3 +1 5 2

GOALIES
# Player Record SV% GAA
30 Cedrick Desjardins 2-0-0 .980 0.50

Leaders:

Goals: 3 tied with (8)
Assists: Brock Trotter (15)
Points: Brock Trotter (23)
+/-: P.K. Subban (+12)
PIMS: Eric Neilson (74)
Shots: Mike Glumac (84)

This Week:

December 15:
Milwaukee vs Hamilton
December 18: Hamilton vs Adirondack
December 19: Hamilton vs Hartford
December 20: Hamilton vs Rochester

 Inside
the Numbers

With Mike Cammalleri scoring so many goals at
home lately, it got me to thinking.  We all know he produces more at home,
but are there any players who hit the scoresheet more often on the road? 
The final column in the chart below shows the point differential between home
and away; anyone who has a negative number is that column is a "road warrior"
when it comes to scoring.  Perhaps that’s a bit of a stretch, but you get
the point.

Player         Home Pts. Away Pts. Home-Away
Paul Mara  2 5 -3
Travis Moen  4 5 -1
Josh Gorges  2 3 -1
Sergei Kostitsyn  1 2 -1
Georges Laraque  1 1 0
Ryan White  1 1 0
Brian Gionta  7 6 1
Glen Metropolit  9 7 2
Andrei Kostitsyn  9 7 2
Matt D’Agostini  3 1 2
Scott Gomez  9 7 2
Hal Gill  2 0 2
Marc-Andre Bergeron  9 6 3
Max Pacioretty  7 4 3
Roman Hamrlik  9 5 4
Tomas Plekanec  18 14 4
Maxim Lapierre  6 2 4
Jaroslav Spacek  8 3 5
Mike Cammalleri  18 10 8

Final
Thought

With the announcements of each
nation’s Olympic hockey teams coming in the next couple of weeks or so, I’m
starting to see some people expressing disappointment that several core Habs
will most likely not be participating.  My question is, why?  Sure,
it’s nice to be able to cheer on players from your team, but there is a benefit
to having players not go, especially in the case of Montreal.  Mike
Cammalleri is doubtful to make Team Canada while Brian Gionta isn’t likely to
crack Team USA.  Heck, even Scott Gomez isn’t a lock anymore. 

These are all players who have, quite frankly, seen more ice time than they
probably should have in an ideal scenario, so what’s wrong with a little
midseason rest?  Let’s face it, even with Andrei Markov set to return in
the next couple of weeks (I’m not sure I believe the reports that he’s ready to
go in the next few days), the Habs are going to be in a dogfight for a playoff
spot.  If most teams have their top players in the Olympics but Montreal
doesn’t, this should serve as an opportunity for the Habs to get a small
advantage down the stretch.  As much as I’d like to see the Hab players
succeed in the Olympics, I want them to succeed with Montreal first and
foremost.  A little rest can go a long way, we’ll likely see just how far
soon enough.

I was able to update
capsheet on
Saturday, however, this will likely be the only update until at least the middle
of the week; my apologies in advance
for the inconvenience.  In the meantime, if you have a question regarding this article,
please feel free to
drop me a line at
[email protected].