kinot-2 Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 TONITE, THE HABS VISIT THE OILERS (they're in Alberta). 9:00 PM ET Montreal @ Edmonton SNW, TSN2, RDS, TSN Radio. STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW OR MAYBE DON'T WANT TO KNOW. Re Edmonton: They've had 4 losses in a row. It’s been four straight games now that the Oilers have fallen behind 2-0. Whoever gets the start will have to be at his best against a high-scoring, hard-working opponent. The Canadiens can roll out a second line that features Max Domi and Jonathan Drouin, who’ve combined for 43 points this season. Nugent-Hopkins, Rieder and Chiasson have all been cold as of late, but if they lose this match-up it could be the difference in the game. Re Habs: Coach Claude Julien wouldn’t say who will start against the Oilers after the Canadiens practised Monday afternoon at Rogers Place. Antti Niemi has a 4-1-0 record with a 3.30 goals-against average and a .894 save percentage, while Carey Price is 5-4-3 with a 3.07 GAA and a .892 save percentage. Max Domi leads the Canadiens in scoring with 9-12-21 totals and is on a six-game point streak with 4-6-10 totals during that span. Domi has been held off the scoresheet in only three of 17 games this season and only once in the last 13. OILERS LINES Drake Caggiula Connor McDavid Leon Draisaitl Tobias Rieder Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Alex Chiasson Milan Lucic Ryan Strome Ty Rattie Jujhar Khaira Kyle Brodziak Zack Kassian Oscar Klefbom Adam Larsson Darnell Nurse Kris Russell Jason Garrison Matt Benning Cam Talbot Mikko Koskinen CANADIENS Tomas Tater Phillip Danault Brendan Gallagher Jonathan Drouin Max Domi Andrew Shaw Kenny Agostino Jesperi Kotkaniemi Artturi Lehkonen Nicolas Deslauriers Matthew Peca Charles Hudon Jordie Benn Jeff Petry Karl Alzner Mike Reilly Xavier Ouellet Victor Mete Carey Price Antti Niemi SPECIAL TEAMS EDMONTON: Power play: 14th (20.0%) Penalty kill: 27th (72.2%) CANADIENS: Power play: 29th (13.6%) Penalty kill: 12th (81.7%) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennifer_rocket Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 I wonder if Niemi starts again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinot-2 Posted November 13, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 10 minutes ago, jennifer_rocket said: I wonder if Niemi starts again? IMO, the OIlers are the weakest team of the B2Bs in AB, and Carey should start. Calgary and Van will be tough to win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
campabee82 Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 Interesting to see how this one will play out as our PK and their PP are mid pack and both our PP and their PK are near the bottom of the league Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maas_art Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 1 hour ago, jennifer_rocket said: I wonder if Niemi starts again? 54 minutes ago, kinot-2 said: IMO, the OIlers are the weakest team of the B2Bs in AB, and Carey should start. Calgary and Van will be tough to win. At this point I think its less about who is weaker & more about who will respond. I assume they wont start Carey until they feel like his head is right. Also he has a history of bad games in Edmonton. I could see us starting Niemi for all of the games to be honest. I dont know if its the right move but trying to "fix" Carey long-term should be the goal here and if that means a few games off, so be it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maas_art Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 13 minutes ago, campabee82 said: Interesting to see how this one will play out as our PK and their PP are mid pack and both our PP and their PK are near the bottom of the league True, but it also has to do with it being early in the season. Our PK was ranked 5th in the league before the game on saturday and after allowing to PPG we dropped to 12th by the end of the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habs=stanleycup Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 49 minutes ago, maas_art said: At this point I think its less about who is weaker & more about who will respond. I assume they wont start Carey until they feel like his head is right. Also he has a history of bad games in Edmonton. I could see us starting Niemi for all of the games to be honest. I dont know if its the right move but trying to "fix" Carey long-term should be the goal here and if that means a few games off, so be it. Not only does Price take up a huge portion of our salary cap, he's seems to be high maintenance and injury prone. Let's trade and modernize our team. We have enough depth and talent goaltending wise IMO. All we need is to shore up our defense and get a couple more high end centers. Whether it be through trades or prospects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
campabee82 Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 9 minutes ago, Habs=stanleycup said: Not only does Price take up a huge portion of our salary cap, he's seems to be high maintenance and injury prone. Let's trade and modernize our team. We have enough depth and talent goaltending wise IMO. All we need is to shore up our defense and get a couple more high end centers. Whether it be through trades or prospects. Your kidding right our depth at goalie is weak until Primeau is ready. Also we are really deep at centre already. We have Danault, Domi, Kotkaniemi, Peca, Evans, Suzuki, Peoling, Vejdemo, Freose, Verbeek, McCarron, Teasdale, Chaput and Shinkaruk we don't really need centres anymore. If we are lacking depth anywhere it's a top 2 LHD, RW and goaltending beyond Price's era (which I believe to be 4-6 years down the road which hopefully will be filled by Primeau). If you look at the right side we really only have Gallagher, Scerbak and Armia who are true RW. So those are the holes we need to fill those holes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maas_art Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 26 minutes ago, Habs=stanleycup said: Not only does Price take up a huge portion of our salary cap, he's seems to be high maintenance and injury prone. Let's trade and modernize our team. We have enough depth and talent goaltending wise IMO. All we need is to shore up our defense and get a couple more high end centers. Whether it be through trades or prospects. I get what you're saying - and im a guy who thinks anyone is tradeable for the right price - but the thing is, is he even tradable at this point? If yes, what is the return? probably not much. If a team felt they could turn him around & offered us great prospects/picks then absolutely 100% would i be on board, but if a team is going to offer us what i think we'd get for Price (not much) then it doesnt make sense to me to try to move him right now. I think that spending the time to help him find his game is worth doing right now & if that means we keep him or trade him once he does, so be it, but you should trade from a position of strength, not weakness - and his value is weaker now than ever before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptWelly Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 8 minutes ago, maas_art said: I get what you're saying - and im a guy who thinks anyone is tradeable for the right price - but the thing is, is he even tradable at this point? If yes, what is the return? probably not much. If a team felt they could turn him around & offered us great prospects/picks then absolutely 100% would i be on board, but if a team is going to offer us what i think we'd get for Price (not much) then it doesnt make sense to me to try to move him right now. I think that spending the time to help him find his game is worth doing right now & if that means we keep him or trade him once he does, so be it, but you should trade from a position of strength, not weakness - and his value is weaker now than ever before. I actually like Lingren and thought this would of been a good year for him to be back up. Now he would of got a lot of starts which would of been good. That said Price is going to have to "play" through this. We won't be trading him at this point so we need him to get his game together. This season he has been better it just hasn't been every night or sometimes the whole game. We aren't going to get anything for him if he's not playing better and everyone wants the contract dumped , I understand, but at this point the only way we trade him is we eat a big portion of the contract which doesn't really help. Or trade with someone with an equally bad contract. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maas_art Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 Just now, CaptWelly said: I actually like Lingren and thought this would of been a good year for him to be back up. Now he would of got a lot of starts which would of been good. That said Price is going to have to "play" through this. We won't be trading him at this point so we need him to get his game together. This season he has been better it just hasn't been every night or sometimes the whole game. We aren't going to get anything for him if he's not playing better and everyone wants the contract dumped , I understand, but at this point the only way we trade him is we eat a big portion of the contract which doesn't really help. Or trade with someone with an equally bad contract. Totally agree, especially with the bolded part. We've seen some flashes of "vintage Carey" we've also seen some very ill timed soft goals. I do think Chris Nilan was right when he said that Julien's new system is not doing price any favours. I think the team (defense especially) needs to learn it a bit better to avoid all the odd man rushes. I personally think Price can - and will - turn it around. I just hope it doesnt take too long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennifer_rocket Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 23 minutes ago, maas_art said: Totally agree, especially with the bolded part. We've seen some flashes of "vintage Carey" we've also seen some very ill timed soft goals. I do think Chris Nilan was right when he said that Julien's new system is not doing price any favours. I think the team (defense especially) needs to learn it a bit better to avoid all the odd man rushes. I personally think Price can - and will - turn it around. I just hope it doesnt take too long. At this point I'm just crossing my fingers that the return of Weber will actually make a huge difference to our defensive competency. I mean, it probably won't be a monumental change, but... I'm hoping for a positive impact. Perhaps Weber's "leadership" (that's what we got him for, no?) will take some pressure off of Carey and Carey can get back to playing solid hockey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptWelly Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 32 minutes ago, jennifer_rocket said: At this point I'm just crossing my fingers that the return of Weber will actually make a huge difference to our defensive competency. I mean, it probably won't be a monumental change, but... I'm hoping for a positive impact. Perhaps Weber's "leadership" (that's what we got him for, no?) will take some pressure off of Carey and Carey can get back to playing solid hockey. Hopefully Weber coming back also will help the PP. There have been a couple games recently (Rangers) where at the point we had a 5 on 3 if we had buried at least one more the game probably would of been different. Having our PP get that extra needed goal also takes weight off your goaltender , gives a little breathing room. I know Weber isn't the total answer to the PP. I do think though that with his shot we would a much better chance of a goal on those 5 on 3's. He's one of a few in the league that can blow one by a goalie even if unscreened. I think he will also settle down our defense also which should help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinot-2 Posted November 13, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 Niemi gets the call. Confirmed. Niemi is 12-3-3 vs Oilers Price is 2-7-1 vs Oilers... Tatar - Danault - Gallagher Drouin - Domi - Shaw Agostino - Kotkaniemi - Lehkonen Deslauriers - Peca - Hudon Schlemko - Petry Reilly - Juulsen Benn - Mete Alzner Ouellet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H_T_L Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 Hate these late games. Hope the Habs make it tough to go to bed. Also happy to see that sanity prevails and Alzner sits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennifer_rocket Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 33 minutes ago, kinot-2 said: Niemi gets the call. Confirmed. Niemi is 12-3-3 vs Oilers Price is 2-7-1 vs Oilers... Tatar - Danault - Gallagher Drouin - Domi - Shaw Agostino - Kotkaniemi - Lehkonen Deslauriers - Peca - Hudon Schlemko - Petry Reilly - Juulsen Benn - Mete Alzner Ouellet Cool. No Alzner. Niemi in. Forward lines looking good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HabsAlways Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 I'm at this game tonight! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinot-2 Posted November 13, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 21 minutes ago, HabsAlways said: I'm at this game tonight! WTG!!! Make sure you wear your jersey, so we'll be able to spot you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habs=stanleycup Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 2 hours ago, campabee82 said: Your kidding right our depth at goalie is weak until Primeau is ready. Also we are really deep at centre already. We have Danault, Domi, Kotkaniemi, Peca, Evans, Suzuki, Peoling, Vejdemo, Freose, Verbeek, McCarron, Teasdale, Chaput and Shinkaruk we don't really need centres anymore. If we are lacking depth anywhere it's a top 2 LHD, RW and goaltending beyond Price's era (which I believe to be 4-6 years down the road which hopefully will be filled by Primeau). If you look at the right side we really only have Gallagher, Scerbak and Armia who are true RW. So those are the holes we need to fill those holes. I really and honestly don't think we're weak or lacking goaltending wise if we took away Price. Niemi more has proven himself to be a bargain for us, along with Lindgren if given a fair chance. (Goaltending is not the main strength of a team in today's NHL though IMO. It is the speed and the strength up front.) As for center depth, I think we need more proven top 3 centers, (it would seem that the kid is well on his way toward this goal) and no harm done in having too many quality centers in today's NHL. As for RW I agree that we could use a little more strength there. Of course we can all agree to disagree on the specific details but hopefully the end results will bring Lord Stanley home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MALMACIAN_CRUNCH Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 1 hour ago, kinot-2 said: Niemi gets the call. Confirmed. Niemi is 12-3-3 vs Oilers Price is 2-7-1 vs Oilers... Tatar - Danault - Gallagher Drouin - Domi - Shaw Agostino - Kotkaniemi - Lehkonen Deslauriers - Peca - Hudon Schlemko - Petry Reilly - Juulsen Benn - Mete Alzner Ouellet Personally, I'd scratch Mete over Ouellet. Nothing at all against Mete, I just think Ouellet has been quietly superb. Rarely makes a mistake, and seems to have a knack for getting his shots on net. Other than that I think it's looking pretty good. I missed the last game, so I'm looking forward to seeing Schlemko in action! On a side note, my fingers are crossed that at some point during the evening Bergevin and Chiarelli have a little chat about swapping Scherbak for Puljujarvi. I think there could be a trade there that could work for both involved. I know that on the surface it seems like an unreasonable deal, but we are talking about Chiarelli. LOL we've seen him make some pretty crazy moves in the past! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinot-2 Posted November 13, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 Edmonton has scored only six goals during their four-game losing streak, and they’ve allowed 17. The Canadiens lead the NHL in 5×5 goals with 42. Brendan Gallagher has seven, Tomas Tatar and Max Domi have six, Paul Byron and Jonathon Drouin have four while Andrew Shaw, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Charles Hudon have three. The Oilers only have four forwards with three 5×5 goals as McDavid and Drake Caggiula have three, Alex Chiasson has five and Leon Draisaitl has six. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramcharger440 Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 I just hope we don't falter and help Edmonton out of their slump! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maas_art Posted November 13, 2018 Report Share Posted November 13, 2018 3 hours ago, jennifer_rocket said: Cool. No Alzner. Niemi in. Forward lines looking good. Yeah. I also like that Benn is back on the 3rd pairing where he belongs. Benn on the 3rd = good. Benn anywhere else = train wreck. This should be obvious by now. Im interested to see Schlemko on the 1st pair... hopefully he can handle it... 2 hours ago, Habs=stanleycup said: I really and honestly don't think we're weak or lacking goaltending wise if we took away Price. Niemi more has proven himself to be a bargain for us, along with Lindgren if given a fair chance. (Goaltending is not the main strength of a team in today's NHL though IMO. It is the speed and the strength up front.) As for center depth, I think we need more proven top 3 centers, (it would seem that the kid is well on his way toward this goal) and no harm done in having too many quality centers in today's NHL. As for RW I agree that we could use a little more strength there. Of course we can all agree to disagree on the specific details but hopefully the end results will bring Lord Stanley home. Re: goaltending, I agree. If you could flip Price 1 for 1 for Oliver Ekman Larrson for example, I think we'd be a better team, even though I think Price (assuming he comes out of his slump) is worth considerably more than OEL because our need for a #1LD is far greater than our need for an elite goalie (if Price is even that any more). Re: centres, I think between Domi, JK and Danault, we have a nice balance. Is it Malkin-Crosby or Tavares-Matthews? Of course not but we have 3 very capable guys so I think it balances out. 1 more elite RW would be great. Gallagher, Lehkonen, Shaw - those are 3 solid wingers but whoever plays that 4th spot is a converted LW. Maybe they've been working with Scherbak and he'll be ready to take the next step. Clearly they havent given up on him if they are afraid to expose him to waivers. 2 hours ago, MALMACIAN_CRUNCH said: Personally, I'd scratch Mete over Ouellet. Nothing at all against Mete, I just think Ouellet has been quietly superb. Rarely makes a mistake, and seems to have a knack for getting his shots on net. Other than that I think it's looking pretty good. I missed the last game, so I'm looking forward to seeing Schlemko in action! On a side note, my fingers are crossed that at some point during the evening Bergevin and Chiarelli have a little chat about swapping Scherbak for Puljujarvi. I think there could be a trade there that could work for both involved. I know that on the surface it seems like an unreasonable deal, but we are talking about Chiarelli. LOL we've seen him make some pretty crazy moves in the past! Ouellet has been excellent, i'll agree, but i think his ceiling is still 3rd pair. Mete can still grow in to something more so id like him to see ice time. I too would like to see MB / Chiarelli team up for a deal. I believe they would have interest in some players we have and they have so many great young players id love to snag one for a vet. They need to turn things around in a hurry - talk about a team with a fragile psyche. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habberwacky Posted November 14, 2018 Report Share Posted November 14, 2018 4 hours ago, HabsAlways said: I'm at this game tonight! Yeah I've gone for the last 5 or 6 years or so but this year didn't want to pay the extra as the seats were pretty much gone. Hope fully you don't have to take too much grief from the Oiler fans. I remember a couple of years ago we were up a few early and enjoying ourselves before the Oil figured it out and their fans had a lot of fun at our expense. Always a great atmosphere in Edmonton. Enjoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigTed3 Posted November 14, 2018 Report Share Posted November 14, 2018 6 hours ago, jennifer_rocket said: At this point I'm just crossing my fingers that the return of Weber will actually make a huge difference to our defensive competency. I mean, it probably won't be a monumental change, but... I'm hoping for a positive impact. Perhaps Weber's "leadership" (that's what we got him for, no?) will take some pressure off of Carey and Carey can get back to playing solid hockey. Reports today that Weber is 2 weeks ahead of schedule (whatever that was, since the original prognosis was maybe sometime in December) and could be back the last week of November or first week of December (not sure if this is different than originally predicted, but reporters seem to think so). He practiced again today, so that's good news. 5 hours ago, kinot-2 said: Niemi gets the call. Confirmed. Niemi is 12-3-3 vs Oilers Price is 2-7-1 vs Oilers... Remembering that Niemi got most of those starts playing in the West, either with Chicago or Dallas, not with the Habs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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