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It's the final game for Laval for more than a week as they host Manitoba for the fourth game of this set. Cale Fleury and Alex Belzile have been sent down from Montreal's taxi squad and will suit up for the Rocket. Jan Mysak is also expected to play. (Lines are from last game) Malott - Graovac - Todd Suess - Perfetti - Reichel McKenzie- Jones - Egle Michaud - Maier - Lynch Heinola - Samberg Chisholm - Kovacevic Oligny - Gawanke Berdin Blandisi - Weal - Ylonen Lucchini - Poehling - Harvey-Pinard Dauphin - Vejdemo - Belzile Pezzetta - Mysak - Lynch Olofsson - Fleury Ouellet - Leskinen Schueneman - Brook Lindgren Puck drop is at 4 PM on RDS.

Tuned in at teh end of the first, and I was happy to hear Vejdemo had scored I hope he plays his way into a contract. It would be a nice surprise from a prospect I thought was a bust

Dude. It's one game.

Any ideas on how to convince him to waive his NMC? Think the best bet is his wife wanting to be closer to her parents near Seattle.

I agree While that happens with Price we can ride Allen and if he does crap out then we give Price another shot - competition. Regardless we need both playing well. I still believe we will turn this around and crush in the playoffs and I really want the dialed in, not dopey, invincible Price in the playoffs Next year I want him gone to save 10.5 million and we’ll figure goal out through trade, UFA, internal.

No one will argue that Price is currently playing well. However, I don't think this team is going anywhere with Allen as a number 1 goalie. I don't think he can handle that workload and I think this has been proven in the past. This team still will go as far as Price is able to take it. Which means you need Price to play better. The goal has to be not to replace Price, but how do you get him back to being Carey Price.

It would be interesting to have the AHL, or CHL, experiment with the international crease rule (step in the blue and play is stopped and the face-off is outside the zone, unless the puck is there) ... IMO it would greatly reduce controversy ... to offset the advantage to the goaltender get harsher with cross-checks on players legally standing in front of the goaltender

I'd be very fine with treating over the boards just like icings. Faceoff in your zone, no change up, no timeout allowed for your team. The penalty is, IMO, unnecessery.

When refs had discretion players almost had to pick up the puck and throw it into the stands to get a penalty ... and the calls were even more inconsistent than current goalie interference ... but the rule may need a tweak ... maybe the first in a game is treated like an icing ... no change and mandate that the face-off be done ASAP (maximum penalty for the transgressing team) ... maybe the first two ... but IMO it can't go back to the default "dump it over the boards" choice of olden times

That rule is typical of the NHL. Refs used to have discretion to determine whether it was a deliberate delay of game. But NHL refs are often bungling dummies and discretionary calls are often controversial. So the NHL geniuses implement a foolproof “automatic” penalty. And the result is that a completely accidental play, like Weber whacking the puck in the air last night, leads to a penalty. If they could trust their refs to use intelligent levels of discretion, none of this stupidity would be required.

Hopefully we get the new coach bump. Julien had us playing a good even strength possession game, but our special teams are a disaster. I don't quite see where the fix will come from in that regard, but it can't get much worse. Every time we have a change in management we're reminded of the paucity of our choices due to our language requirement. People bringing up Carbo and Hartley, names that haven't been considered elsewhere in the NHL for years. Vigneault seems to be doing well in Philly, but if things turn south and he gets canned I wouldn't be surprised to see Bergy snap him up immediately much like the recent Julien hire.