Saturday, March 8, 2008

Next Up ----> Anze and the Kings


The Habs (37-22-9) play their 3rd game of their 4 game west coast road swing against the last place Kings(27-37-5). The game can be seen on RDS at 4:00 PM ET and you can listen live on CJAD 800. Jaroslav Halak will get his first start of the 07-08 season while Price takes a breather. Halak, who went 10-6 last year, will get to prove to his coaches and critics that he deserves to play more often.

The Habs however, have some minor locker room problems to attend while on their road trip. I dont like this and hope that its not true, but Mikhail Grabovski is in some hot water these days. According to RDS, Grabs wasn't happy about his benching last game and took the news a step to far. He supposedly flew to meet with his agent Gary Greenstin without the team and then met with Guy and Bob Friday morning. I can't figure out why Grabs would do this. Grabs should understand that we have a lot of depth and that sometimes you got to sit a game or two out. I agree that he shouldntve sat out vs Phoenix, but i dont agree with complaining about it and causing a stir in the tabloids. Montreal is in a great position to finish first in the East and go deep in the playoffs and off ice drama is really not needed at this point.

Anyways back to tonights game. The Los Angeles Kings will try to win their 2nd game in a row after shutting out the Sens 2-0. The Kings, who have used 10 goalies since the beginning of last season, now have a new Rookie playing in nets by the name of Erik Ersberg. Erik made 40 saves for his first career win and shutout. However, it may look as though the Habs will be facing Dan Cloutier. Clouts has a 6-3 record and a 2.04 GAA vs Montreal and has won the past six games against the Habs.

Montreal will look to get back to first place in the East after the Devils, who beat the Lightning 2-1 on Friday night, who lead by one point. The Habs have been on a tear in their last 11 games going 8-3. They have scored 3.5 goals a game in that span and have moved up to first, in front of the Sens, in the Northeast Division.

This is the first meeting between the Canadiens and the Kings since Montreal won 3-2 at home on Dec. 3, 2005. The Canadiens, who have won eight of the last 11 in the series, haven't visited Los Angeles since a 4-2 victory on March 6, 2004.


Go Habs Go!!

TEAM COMPARISON

2007-2008 Team Stats
83 Points: 59
37 Wins: 27
3 Shutouts: 2
1 Power Play Rank: 13
25 Penalty Kill Rank: 27
.821 Win % When Leading After 1: .571
.828 Win % When Leading After 2: .905
.211 Win % When Trailing After 1: .259
.115 Win % When Trailing After 2: .108



TEAM LEADERS


GOALS: A. Kovalev 29
D. Brown 29
ASSISTS: A. Kovalev 43
A. Kopitar 38
POINTS: A. Kovalev 72
A. Kopitar 66
+/-: A. Kovalev 11
B. Boyle 4
OT GOALS: A. Kovalev 1
A. Kopitar 1

Stats from NHL.com

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Taking a look at the +/- leaders and losers of the team, It’s fascinating to see how each player is actually playing. While the top two lines are the ones who play on the power play and therefore their +/- isn’t changed from the pp.

It is amazing that they are leading the team in the +/- category. In fact, the players who are supposed to be the shutdown guys are actually the ones who allow the most goals against.

The players that have the highest +/- are:

Thomas Plekanec
Alex Kovalev
Roman Hamrlik
Mike Komisarek

While our shutdown guys are the lowest on the +/-:

Brian Smolinski
Mathieu Dandenault
Guillaume Latendresse
Tom Kostopoulos

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