09/10/11: Montreal 5, Winnipeg 1; stay classy, Jets fans

So it was still far from a perfect game for your Montreal Canadiens, but it certainly was a relief to score some goals and get in the win column before hitting the Bell Centre ice this coming Thursday for the team's home opener. Sorry for spoiling your party, Winnipeg, but a huge round of applause to the fans that packed the noisy stadium for sticking around to the end of this one-sided affair (though just on the scoreboard) and then giving your boys an ovation to welcome them home at game's end.

Despite the score, the Habs owe this one to Carey Price who was simply sensational. With the exception of one banged in rebound, he kept buzzing Jets forwards at bay all night, including a number of ten bell saves.

Unlike the game against the Leafs, however, Price got run support this time. The Canadiens were opportunistic, cashing in on their chances with a number of pretty markers as Tomas Plekanec paced the offense with a goal and 2 helpers. Yannick Weber broke the team's powerplay goose egg on a 4-on-3 advantage and also added an assist, taking on a bigger role after Jaroslav Spacek was forced to leave due to an upper body injury early on in the game.

Mike Cammalleri scored the Canadiens first goal of the 2011-12 campaign early on, making him the answer to the trivia question of who scored the first marker in the first game back in Winnipeg. Habs fans will care more, however, about the fact that he was forced out of the game after having his left leg accidentally cut open by the blade of Weber's skate. The report is a leg laceration will keep him out about 2 weeks.

A lot of Habs had pretty good nights. Yannick Weber looked much better than his training camp self after moving back to the point. Raphael Diaz's maturation continues. Alexei Emelin was rather sound for his NHL debut despite a poor penalty.

Others not so much. Erik Cole looks out of synch right now, something obviously not lost on Jacques Martin seen in his greatly reduced ice time. Brian Gionta fanned on a number of in-close scoring chances. P.K. Subban still looks awkward leading the top powerplay and is often caught out of position defensively.

But it was a win. And it felt good. It will be interesting to see how the Canadiens manage to replace Cammalleri and Spacek in the short term, likely by shifting Weber back to D and calling up Aaron Palushaj, while hoping Lars Eller is ready to face the Calgary Flames on Thursday. But perhaps Pierre Gauthier opts to test the trade market or sign a remaining free agent (Bryan McCabe, Paul Mara, and John Madden are some of the more intriguing - and I use that word loosely - names out there).

One thing I am sincerely hoping for is an end to the Plekanec on the powerplay point experiment. Last season, the PP struggles ended when Montreal put two shooters on the blueline (Subban and James Wisniewski), so it would be natural to try Weber with Subban to again give the team two shot options. Until Andrei Markov can re-join the group, this looks like the best choice for the top unit.

With the Canadiens having the day off for Thanksgiving today, don't expect any real updates on Spacek or Cammalleri until tomorrow's practice. The team says the injuries are minor, and Cammalleri said he's "fine," but then again, so was Blair Betts.

In any case, there remains lots of work to do and possible chances to come in the three days off until the next game. But when Thursday does come, I am excited to join in as we Hab fans raise the Bell Centre roof just as Jets fans got to do last night.

Hockey Day in Winnipeg! (Reminder: 5:00 PM EST Start!)

Today marks a historic moment that many old Winnipeg Jets fans have been dreaming about for years. Yes, Winnipeg, NHL hockey returns to your city this afternoon as the Montreal Canadiens visit your Jets for their season and home opener.

To properly set this up, here's a look at the last meaningful NHL game played in the city, some 15 years ago:

Expect a rocking building this evening and a Jets team that will come out all fired up. From a Habs' fan perspective, we can at least hope for a better effort/performance than we saw in the season opener in Toronto.

- Habs' expected lines:

Mike Cammalleri - Tomas Plekanec - Erik Cole

Max Pacioretty - Scott Gomez - Brian Gionta

Mathieu Darche - David Desharnais - Andrei Kostitsyn

Travis Moen - Andreas Engqvist - Yannick Weber

Hal Gill - P.K. Subban

Alexei Emelin - Josh Gorges

Jaroslav Spacek - Raphael Diaz

Carey Price

Peter Budaj

- Lines this afternoon for the Winnipeg Jets:

Andrew Ladd - Bryan Little - Blake Wheeler

Evander Kane - Mark Scheifele - Kyle Wellwood

Brett MacLean - Alexander Burmistrov - Nik Antropov

Tanner Glass - Jim Slater - Chris Thorburn

Ron Hainsey - Tobias Enstrom

Dustin Byfuglien - Johnny Oduya

Mark Stuart - Zach Bogosian

Ondrej Pavelec

Chris Mason

- As per Amanda Stein of TSN Radio 990, there is a rumour out there that Blair Betts will officially be returned to the Philadelphia Flyers due to his undisclosed injury at the time he was waived and his failing to pass a physical as a result. A number of sources have since reported the same, so it seems official, but stay tuned for confirmation from the league or either team.

- Jacques Martin has said that the injury to defenseman Chris Campoli may take months to fully heal from a torn hamstring. This is certainly not good news for Montreal's blueline, and it will be interesting if Pierre Gauthier decides to be active now to replace both him and Betts.

- Alexei Emelin will make his NHL regular season debut tonight. It will be interesting to see if he plays as the physical player Habs fans expected or the toned-down version of himself we saw in preseason.

- Some prospect news of last night:

Michael Bournival did not score for once, but still had an assist in Shawinigan's 4-2 victory. He now has 10 goals and 13 points in 6 games.

Nathan Beaulieu had 2 assists in Saint John's 8-2 victory, giving him a goal and 3 assists in 6 games.

In the WHL, defenseman Darren Dietz scored his second of the season in a 5-1 win. He has 6 points in 6 games.

Brendan Gallagher added 2 goals for the Vancouver Giants but was stopped both on a penalty shot and in the shootout in his team's shootout loss. Since being cut from Habs' camp, Gallagher has 4 goals in 3 games played.

The Hamilton Bulldogs opened their regular season last night with a big 5-2 win. Nathan Lawson allowed 2 goals on 32 shots, while Brock Trotter led the way offensively with 2 goals and 2 assists. Frederic St. Denis also had 2 goals, while Ian Schultz had the 5th from the fourth line. Aaron Palushaj, completing the top line with Trotter and Brian Willsie, had 2 assists.

Over in the NCAA, North Dakota lost 6-2, but both Canadiens prospects, Danny Kristo and Mark MacMillan, finished with an assist (and Kristo was even a +1 on the night).

Here's some video from that game thanks to HFBoards prospect expert Whitesnake:

Yesterday, 09:39 PM	#579
Whitesnake The perfect match Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Montreal Country: Posts: 29,058 vCash: 500	North Dakota Highlights: 1- Big hit by Kristo at 0:06 2 -Great feed by Kristo shorthanded at 0:32 3- MacMilan wins a faceoff that results in a goal at 1:08 http://www.fightingsioux.com/mediaPo...b_oem_id=13500

21/09/11: Buffalo 3, Montreal 1; but a good building block

It may have been the second loss in as many preseason nights for your Montreal Canadiens, but it was hard not to walk away with at least a little smile from last night's game at the Bell Centre.

Perhaps it was because Peter Budaj delivered a solid half game performance, seeming like he will be a perfectly acceptable back-up to Carey Price.

But that wouldn't be enough. Was it that P.K. Subban showed no signs of his training camp injury in being by far the team's best player and scoring a goal (followed by a celebration that delighted fans in the building but is sure to draw ire from people around the league given that it's just a preseason game)? Likely not, as Subban was just being Subban, though it does seem at this point that he may end up being the team's most important player not named Carey Price.

If it wasn't either of them, perhaps it was merely the fact that a team composed mostly of young players hung in there against a near-full Buffalo Sabres roster who, admittedly, weren't playing particularly passioned hockey? While this is true, it is still exhibition play, and so the outcomes are of little importance.

No, I think the biggest reason for Habs fans to have been happy last night was a first exposure to the stud that will be Nathan Beaulieu. Now Beaulieu didn't have a perfect game. He had a couple of giveaways, a few poorly executed passes, and some failed powerplay set-ups. But on the whole, the fact that he didn't look out of place is perhaps the biggest compliment you can pay the 18-year old kid. Beaulieu showed great skating and stickhandling ability, and set up teammates with a few very slick breakout passes. Ladies and gentlemen, we've got ourselves a top notch prospect. Expect Beaulieu to require a few seasons of development before he is a full-time Hab, but he appears to have a bright future ahead of him.

As for the rest of the team, fans who came to see Brendan Gallagher and Alexander Avtsin may have left disappointed, as Gallagher was basically quiet except for one very strong offensive zone shift, and Avtsin did little to be noticed aside from being pasted into the boards on a few occasions. Andreas Engqvist further extended his lead for a roster spot with sound defensive play over Aaron Palushaj who continues to float through camp with little impact.

Gabriel Dumont had a nice debut, showing his willingness to hit anything that moves and lots of combativeness for such a small player.

As far as the veterans go, Max Pacioretty had a solid outing with a number of chances / shots on goal, and doesn't appear to have lost any speed since his injury. His center for the night, David Desharnais, did a fine Scott Gomez impersonation through the neutral zone at times, but was of little influence on the game's result. The same could be said for Brian Gionta who had a quiet night and wasn't particularly noticeable, with the entire trio finishing a -3.

Next up for the Habs is a duel in Ottawa on Friday, the first of 4 games in 4 nights, meaning few cuts should be expected between now and then. The chemistry experiments continue as all players try to round themselves into shape.

Preaseason Game 2: 21/09/11 Buffalo Sabres at Montreal Canadiens

Following last night's 6-3 loss to Dallas, the Habs are right back in action with a (most) different group of players.

Here is your line-up / roster for tonight (with lines to come):

MONTREAL CANADIENS

Goaltenders: Peter Budaj, Robert Mayer

Max Pacioretty - David Desharnais - Brian Gionta

Mathieu Darche - Gabriel Dumont - Alexander Avtsin

Travis Moen - Andreas Engqvist - Brendan Gallagher

Aaron Palushaj - Hunter Bishop - Philip DeSimone

Alex Henry - P.K. Subban

Nathan Beaulieu - Josh Gorges

Jaroslav Spacek - Frederic St. Denis

As expected, David Desharnais moves up into the injured Scott Gomez's spot between Max Pacioretty and Brian Gionta. Gomez is expected to return to action this weekend.

For Aaron Palushaj and Andreas Engqvist, this represents a second game in as many nights. The two were considered potential favourites to battle for a roster spot, but neither ran away with it yesterday (though Engqvist was the better of the two). For a guy who is slowly moving out of young prospect territory, I'd have expected more intensity out of Palushaj who has coasted through rookie and training camps thus far. The fact that Palushaj was slotted on to a "fourth line" with a borderline AHL/ECHL'er and a try-out may be indicative that management is unhappy with his play.

The Canadiens are dealing with a large number of (minor) injuries at center right now (Gomez, Eller, Leblanc, Nattinen, Fortier...), so tonight is a big opportunity for try-out Philip DeSimone to show he's worth a contract.

Habs fans should be excited to see Brendan Gallagher and Alexander Avtsin in the line-up this evening, both having strong camps (particularly the former). Neither is in the equation to be battling for a job out of camp, but both have shown positive signs for their longer-term future in the organization.

BUFFALO SABRES

Goaltenders: Ryan Miller, Jhonas Enroth

Defensemen: Tyler Myers, Marc-Andre Gragnani, Robyn Regehr, Dennis Persson, Drew Schiestel, Christian Ehrhoff

Forwards:

Thomas Vanek - Derek Roy - Jason Pominville

Tyler Ennis - Ville Leino - Drew Stafford

Nathan Gerbe - Luke Adam - Brad Boyes

Marucs Foligno - Matt Ellis - Zack Kassian

So for a second night in a row, the Habs will face a relatively complete team - even more complete, in fact, than the roster the Stars put on ice.