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Frédéric St-Denis Called Up


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It'll all depend on if Gill or Spacek can play...and according to JM last night, it doesn't look like they'll be ready to go tomorrow night. My guess is that St-Denis will play tomorrow!

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It'll all depend on if Gill or Spacek can play...and according to JM last night, it doesn't look like they'll be ready to go tomorrow night. My guess is that St-Denis will play tomorrow!

Spacek has been ruled out. Gill remains questionable, but did not practice today.

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Can there be one season, just one where the cap doesn't get all confusing with LTIR? (This puts the Habs into LTIR, White going on in all likelihood.) On the positive side, I feel vindicated as I was one of the few touting him as a callup in the offseason.

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i'm not looking forward to icing yet another AHL level defenseman.

He could prove to be an excellent addition, he has been doing great in the AHL and I believe does deserve a call up.

I am interested and am looking forward to seeing how it goes.

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Its not like the team has much choice here, unfortunately. 3 raw rookies, and 2 sophmores, good luck Price.

I think St-Denis was voted top d-man on Dogs last year and deserves a crack, defense is not the Habs weak point at all and Spacek has been doing OK, but St-Denis is probably better defensively i bet.

Great for young guys to get some NHL experiance early in year, just need Gionta, Plekanec and the other high paid forwards to score a bit more and all will be fine.

Pacioretty is doing much better than i thought he might and if they give Eller some PP time instead of Darche, the PP may connect a bit more (not that i dont admire Darch's effort, but Cole and Pacioretty are better in front of net).

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St. Denis has been very good in the AHL, but its asking an awful lot to say a raw rookie in his first ever NHL game will probably be better than Spacek defensively. I think that is crazy talk.

Spacek takes a lot of flak, but he's a legit NHL player and has a ton of experience in this league. His value defensively is very underrated among Habs fans. He might be overpaid, but he's still better than an AHLer in his first game.

Lets remember Nash also looked very good with the Dogs when he got called up last year and then was totally lost. Its tough for a rookie to come in, in a situation like this one, and play well in his very first game. Never mind playing better defensively than a vet like Spacek.

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Great another midget in the lineup

Why not henry or someone who might do some damage, does jacques martin enjoy being a soft easy team to play against

Cause a Left D is needed and Henry and Mitera are far, far, far worse players than Fredrick St. Denis. Alex Henry is a third pairing Dman in the AHL. I don't understand what the fascination is with people wanting to call him up to play D is. He is so slow, he makes Gill look like a long lost Bure brother. The only way Henry ever plays in the NHL again is as a 4th line fwd goon, playing under 4 minutes per game.

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This is just unfortunately the situation we're in. The Campoli injury has proven larger than one could've thought, to be honest.

As far as "another AHL dman", to be honest he's the first one in my books that is clearly at that level. Emelin and Diaz may be rookies, but they're season pros who have played at high levels in the past. Ideally they wouldn't be playing as much as they'll be forced to tomorrow, but that's just the situation we're in.

I still think we can win with that D and Carey Price in goal behind them. Especially with Cammalleri looking like he'll be back in the lineup. We've played quite well defensively in spite of all the previous injuries.

Anyways, he's basically the same size as Spacek, whom he's replacing from the last game.

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Cause a Left D is needed and Henry and Mitera are far, far, far worse players than Fredrick St. Denis. Alex Henry is a third pairing Dman in the AHL. I don't understand what the fascination is with people wanting to call him up to play D is. He is so slow, he makes Gill look like a long lost Bure brother. The only way Henry ever plays in the NHL again is as a 4th line fwd goon, playing under 4 minutes per game.

We are unidimensional. Throw our Weber, Spacek, Diaz, St-Denis on D. Same old story. Small, speedy, physically inept, unable to move bodies from in front of the net oh yes but they help on the PP now ranked 27th.

I find it funny how when he name Henry is mentioned people always knock the fact that he is slow. Gill is slow. Yet other teams in this league use these types of players on a nightly basis and seem to be fine. Not us though, we cannot go with slow big players because they will be exposed and ultimately hurt us out there.

It's an argument I am getting really tired of hearing.

Perhaps off the rush a guy like Henry will have difficulty but the way the Habs play our bigger concern should be containment in the defensive zone and right now our little PEE WEE d-men cannot clear the front of the net and cannot contain 90% of NHL forwards along the boards without us having to double team. Funny how that's never mentioned though.....all we hear is that he is slow.

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Gill is good positionally, an NHL defencemen with over 1000 games, a premier Penalty Killer, and shot blocker. He's made it in this league despite his speed by effectively using his reach and being a smart player.

Alex Henry does not compare to that.

He's a third pairing guy fo the Bulldogs. He's a veteran journeyman with nice leadership for the young kids, but he quite simply is not an NHL player. Its not just the speed, its his entire game. There is a reason why Guy Boucher, Randy Cunneyworth, and now Clement Jodoin have all limited his ice time and used him as a bottom pairing defenceman in the AHL. You really need to watch this guy play in the AHL before saying he's a real solution, because even in a lesser league, his overall game is just not that good.

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Gill is good positionally, an NHL defencemen with over 1000 games, a premier Penalty Killer, and shot blocker. He's made it in this league despite his speed by effectively using his reach and being a smart player.

Alex Henry does not compare to that.

He's a third pairing guy fo the Bulldogs. He's a veteran journeyman with nice leadership for the young kids, but he quite simply is not an NHL player. Its not just the speed, its his entire game. There is a reason why Guy Boucher, Randy Cunneyworth, and now Clement Jodoin have all limited his ice time and used him as a bottom pairing defenceman in the AHL. You really need to watch this guy play in the AHL before saying he's a real solution, because even in a lesser league, his overall game is just not that good.

Gill is in the league for a reason. If nothing else, he gets into the proper spots, and that's 90% of the game for a defender in his own zone. Henry is a big guy who can move bodies, but if he's moving someone else's man and his is alone with Price, it doesn't matter how effective he is. Commandant is 100% correct here, Henry's history shows no realistic future with the Habs. (Unless injuries keep piling up, but if that happens, I'm happy to play Henry to improve our draft chances.)

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I'm not saying he is the solution I am saying he provides something different and an element that we need. The fact he is a 3rd pairing guy is think is irrelevant because that's his game. He has limited mobility but provides leadership and toughness.

A guy like John Scott for instance who's been in the NHL for the past couple of years would not be a top pairing guy in the AHL either. Woywitka might be a #4 with the Bulldogs (except for this year with the injuries). Guys like Staubitz in Minny, Shane O'brien...i mean we are not talking about guys who although NHL d-men all of a sudden translates into top pairing players in the AHL.

Simply players who provide an element we are lacking.

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Henry paired with one of the speedy midgets would be fine. He has more NHL games than half our D combined

Point is, is that the team is small and easy to play against, the bantam A team I coach is bigger could out muscle half the habs players

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If it was up to me then you'd see Subban and Gorges in and around 30 minutes but on different pairings. I would have ahead Henry and would have gone with something like:

Gorges-Weber

Emelin-Subban

Henry-Diaz

Even though those are the units I would mix and match the lines to prevent Henry from playing more than about 11-12 minutes and play Diaz in the 15-17 range.

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Henry paired with one of the speedy midgets would be fine. He has more NHL games than half our D combined

Point is, is that the team is small and easy to play against, the bantam A team I coach is bigger could out muscle half the habs players

How many of Henry's NHL games are post lockout? And how many of those post lockout games were on defence, as opposed to being used as a fourth line forward there to play a few minutes and fight? The answer of course is 0. He's had 0 NHL games on defence since the lockout. There is a reason for that, despite his experience on a very poor expansion team pre-lockout.

As for size, yes we lack it and yes we need it... there is no disputing that in the current defence configuration... but I don't think putting in a guy who quite simply is not an NHL player is the answer to this question.

Alex Henry quite simply doesn't compare to Shane O'Brien, Woywitka, Staubitz, etc.... His game is at a level far below those guys. He's quite simply a liability on defence in the AHL... How we expect him to play 12 minutes in the NHL, I have no idea.

Never mind the fact that you are advocating for going huge minutes to Gorges and Subban, on a night where we face a back to back (with travel)... where we play 3 games in 4 nights... and 4 games in 6 nights this week, and they already played huge minutes on Monday due to being down to 5 D, and having an OT game.

This quite simply just doesn't make sense.

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