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The offence has dried up once again but despite that, the Habs managed to pick up three of a possible six points to maintain their division lead.  In Hamilton, there was big news off the ice but the Bulldogs had success on the ice as well, winning two of three.  There has been a lot of angst surrounding decisions on who to play and sit; my Final Thought looks at why it’s best to not get worked up about that at this time of the year.

Cheers and Jeers

Cheers to…

1) Max Pacioretty’s shorthanded touch.  It was surprising to learn against Ottawa that he had yet to score shorthanded despite a multitude of opportunities.  Two games later, he has a SH goal streak with the second of those tallies standing up as a game winner.  Prior to this season, Pacioretty only had one 4-on-5 goal.  He picked a
good time (and a good way) to surpass that mark.

2) Lars Eller, for showing signs that he’s coming out of his slump.  He’s starting to look more comfortable on the wing on the new-look third line while showing some more confidence and consistency at the offensive end.  There’s a long way to go yet but his recent play has been a nice step in the right direction.

3) Greg Pateryn, who evidently made enough of an impression in his few games before the trade deadline for the Habs to burn one of their four recalls to give him another look now.  Who knows how long this stint will last but this is a sign that the team views him a lot more favourably than they did even a month ago.  Good on him to take advantage of his opportunity.

Jeers to…

1) The third blueline pairing of Nathan Beaulieu and Sergei Gonchar.  It wasn’t all that long ago that those two
were thought to be a reliable second line duo but lately, neither have played particularly well.  Either of them could realistically have been sat on Saturday (I wouldn’t be shocked if both sit here and there down the stretch). 
There’s still time but they need to find their confidence (they have been too passive lately) if they’re going to be counted on down the stretch.

2) The lack of offence from anyone not named Max Pacioretty.  The Habs’ winger outscored the rest of the team this past week (3-2) which really hammers home the Jekyll-and-Hyde status of Montreal’s attack.  When they’re on, they’re a pretty good offensive team.  When they’re off, most of the forwards seem to struggle at the same time which is what is happening again.  It would be nice to have everyone on a hot streak heading to the postseason.  Right now, I’d settle for having a second line that could score with some sort of regularity.  Given how Carey Price has played, that just might be enough to have a deep playoff run.

3) Continued power play struggles.  In the last nine games, Montreal is just 2/23 with the man advantage.  There isn’t a whole lot of creativity; it’s the same two or three plays getting attempted time and time again.  No one is expecting a PP that will be among the leagues’ best but even a few more goals or even good scoring chances to give
some players some confidence would be a positive step heading towards the postseason.

StatPack:

Skaters
#	Player	GP	G	A	+/-	PIM	SOG	TOI
8	Brandon Prust	3	0	0	E	2	2	35:58
11	Brendan Gallagher	3	0	1	E	0	8	47:27
14	Tomas Plekanec	3	1	0	-2	2	11	53:43
15	P-A Parenteau	2	0	1	E	0	0	30:29
17	Torrey Mitchell	3	0	0	E	0	1	23:24
20	Manny Malhotra	1	0	0	E	0	0	13:17
21	Devante Smith-Pelly	3	0	0	-2	0	3	35:38
22	Dale Weise	3	0	0	E	4	1	33:40
25	Jacob de la Rose	3	0	0	-1	2	5	43:41
26	Jeff Petry	3	0	0	+1	0	4	70:26
27	Alex Galchenyuk	3	0	1	-2	4	4	48:42
28	Nathan Beaulieu	3	0	0	-3	0	3	37:59
32	Brian Flynn	1	0	0	E	0	0	9:41
51	David Desharnais	3	0	0	-1	2	2	49:59
55	Sergei Gonchar	2	0	0	-2	0	1	26:44
64	Greg Pateryn	1	0	0	E	0	1	10:16
67	Max Pacioretty	3	3	0	+2	2	9	58:17
76	P.K. Subban	3	0	1	+1	0	3	79:49
77	Tom Gilbert	3	0	0	E	4	5	64:53
79	Andrei Markov	3	0	1	+1	2	7	72:22
81	Lars Eller	3	1	2	+2	0	8	48:16

Goalies

#	Player	Record	GAA	SV%
31	Carey Price	1-1-1	2.32	.930

Team Leaders:

Goals: Max Pacioretty (34) – 4th in NHL
Assists: P.K. Subban (38)
Points: Max Pacioretty (60)
+/-: Max Pacioretty (+39) – 1st in NHL
PIMS: Brandon Prust (116)
Shots: Max Pacioretty (267) – 2nd in NHL

The Dog Pound

While the Bulldogs had a successful week on the
ice, all of the headlines came away from the rink as the Canadiens will be
moving their farm team to St. John’s for the next two seasons.

Relocation:

Here are a few highlights from the relocation
announcement:

– The Canadiens are only committed to St.
John’s for the next two seasons.  After that time, it’s expected that they
will move to Laval although if the arena is delayed, they could stay in St.
John’s for an extra year.

– Michael Andlauer won’t be affiliated with
this new squad as Montreal purchased the AHL franchise rights from him. 
Andlauer still has a small ownership stake in the Canadiens though on the NHL
side.

– The Bulldogs name is staying with the OHL
franchise that is moving to Hamilton.  As a result, Montreal’s AHL team
will be named the IceCaps next season.

News and Notes:

– The Bulldogs were a bit shorthanded on Sunday against Toronto.  Michael Bournival and Davis Drewiske were both out with upper body injuries joining Mac Bennett and Magnus Nygren on the shelf, T.J. Hensick didn’t play due to the birth of his child, and Joe Finley served a one-game suspension.

– With the depletion on the blueline, both Bobby Shea and David Makowski were recalled from Wheeling.  Both were
re-assigned back to the Nailers following Sunday’s game.

– Eric Tangradi has had little issues scoring in recent games.  In his last nine appearances, he has a team-leading eight goals.

– Lines from the most recent game:

Forwards:

Carr – Hudon – Andrighetto
Bowman – Hensick – Tangradi
Sorkin – Macenauer – Thomas
Crisp – Dowell – Gill

Defence:

Allen – Dietz
Tinordi – Shea
Makowski – Ellis

Results:

March 10:

Hamilton 2, Adirondack 1 (OT)
March 13:

Hamilton 4, Rochester 2
March 15:

Toronto 2, Hamilton 0

StatPack:

Skaters
#	Player	GP	G	A	+/-	SOG	PIMS
2	Greg Pateryn	1	0	1	+1	3	0
3	Morgan Ellis	3	0	1	E	4	0
4	Davis Drewiske	2	0	2	E	4	2
5	Jarred Tinordi	3	0	0	-1	3	2
6	Bryan Allen	3	0	0	+1	5	2
7	Darren Dietz	3	0	0	E	1	0
10	Charles Hudon	3	1	0	-2	6	2
11	Daniel Carr	3	1	0	-2	5	2
12	Maxime Macenauer	1	0	0	-1	0	0
15	Drayson Bowman	3	0	0	-2	10	4
16	Bobby Shea	1	0	0	-1	1	0
17	T.J. Hensick	2	0	2	E	7	0
18	Jake Dowell	3	1	0	+1	6	7
19	Christian Thomas	3	1	0	+1	9	2
21	Nick Sorkin	3	0	1	+1	5	0
23	Connor Crisp	1	0	0	E	1	0
25	Eric Tangradi	3	2	0	E	7	8
26	Joe Finley	1	0	0	-1	1	19
27	Sven Andrighetto	3	0	3	-2	5	4
28	Michael Bournival	2	0	0	E	5	4
29	Sahir Gill	3	0	0	E	0	0
36	David Makowski	1	0	0	-1	2	0
40	Gabriel Dumont	3	0	1	+1	4	2

Goalies

#	Player	Record	GAA	SV%
1	Mike Condon	0-1-0	1.00	.941
39	Joey MacDonald	2-0-0	1.44	.956

Team Leaders:

Goals: Daniel Carr (21)
Assists: Charles Hudon (37)
Points: Charles Hudon (51)
+/-: Davis Drewiske (+15)
PIMS: Joe Finley (124)
Shots: T.J. Hensick (153)

Schedule:

March 21:
Hamilton vs San Antonio
March 22: Hamilton vs San Antonio

Final Thought

There has been a lot of frustration over some of the recent decisions on who to sit.  It came to a boiling point when it looked like Nathan Beaulieu was going to have a night off though that one hasn’t happened…yet.  As you get towards the final ten or so games of the season and have some depth, the prudent strategy would be to cycle players in and out
every so often to keep them fresh but still in game shape before the playoffs come.

The catch, of course, is that good players wind up sitting here and there to make this happen.  With the Habs carrying nine defencemen right now, there’s a good chance that there will be a lot of shuffling, especially on the third pairing.  As a result, it’s probably not worth getting too worked up about who plays and who sits on any given night.  If they do rotate players in and out, it’ll be worth the short-term frustration to have players in better shape for the postseason.