dlbalr

The magic number is three points over Calgary and even if Calgary loses, Vancouver can mathematically catch the Habs still. It'd take a Montreal win tomorrow along with a Vancouver loss tomorrow and a Calgary loss tonight to do it.

Neither player has scored in the last 19 games and Evans has more assists than Kotkaniemi does in that span. Right now, neither of them are ideal scoring options but lately, Evans has done a lot more than Kotkaniemi in terms of driving the play.

I wouldn't pick on Evans right now - he has been one of Montreal's better players lately, even in terms of offensive chances. A bit of both. In hindsight, Merrill would have been better off eating it in the corner rather than trying to chip it out but he didn't have an outlet like he seemed to be expecting to see.

They've shown some decent ability to do it in recent weeks but they don't seem to want to go to that. The exception is the fourth line as that's all they're able to do...but they've been good at it. It was a lot longer than normal, probably to celebrate Pinto's first NHL goal.

So, how about that rematch between the Rangers and Caps... 6 fights and 100 PIMS in the 1st.

Such a rule exists in terms of player for player trades but not for expansion purposes. Teams can make a trade to get their guy back.

A random note on that one - Gostisbehere and Friedman had been teammates until earlier this season when Pittsburgh claimed Friedman off waivers in the middle of them having most of their back end injured.

60 shots wasn't enough for the win as Toronto wins 4-3 in OT. Laval did earn the Frank Mathers Trophy for the best record in the division with the single point.

I think it'll be a lot higher than that.

Laval has a chance to officially clinch the Canadian Division title tonight as they host Toronto. (Lines are from last game) Agostino - Petan - McKenna Robertson - Kossila - Suomela Gogolev - Chartier - Gaudet McMann - Elynuik - Green Kokkonen - Marincin Rosen - Kapcheck Kral - Duzsak Vehvilainen Veilleux - Dauphin - Lucchini Harvey-Pinard - Weal - Ylonen Baddock - Vejdemo - Mysak Khisamutdinov - Hillis - Hawel Schueneman - Brook Bisson - Leskinen Ouelle

You just noticed that now? He is pretty good about jabbering on about nothing of importance and filling in time but in terms of saying something meaningful, I can't remember seeing that happen. I think he has pretty much exclusively been on the right.

That wasn't much of a period from the Habs who were basically shut down offensively. Nice to see the power play get another one though.

It was Evans. It worked, killed half of the remaining time so that Toronto didn't have enough to do much with it. A little distance would have been better but the idea made sense.

Interestingly enough, Montreal wound up with someone from Vancouver's scouting core not that long ago but it was on the professional side, not amateur. The Habs scooped up their former pro scouting director in Eric Crawford who has held that same title with the Canadiens since 2016.

Poehling and Belzile are back to Laval. That might just be to allow them to practice with the team this afternoon but we'll see if Tatar is ready to come back tomorrow (he skated yesterday).