dlbalr

Good old Tim Peel, consistently blowing calls. Anyone pining for Chris Lee right about now?

If memory serves me right, there was a Toronto connection on the Habs' 10,000th home goal (I believe it was Berezin from Perreault and Gilmour). That would be something if Armstrong and/or Kaberle figure in on this milestone.

At this point, it's all about trying to make a positive impression as I think there's a pretty good chance Schultz will be looking to sign full-time with an ECHL team next year.

Yes, Price is confirmed as the starter.

I don't see him being claimed, a trade with retained salary is probably more likely.

Stephen Weiss is out for the year. Is it sad that my first thought was "At least I don't have to hear Pierre Houde constantly butcher his first name when they play the Habs on Sunday?" In all seriousness, if this doesn't put Florida into selling mode, I don't know what will. Unfortunately for them, he was the Panthers' biggest trade chip.

Only 1 d-man was drafted last year (although Vail is pretty much a full time defenceman in Windsor right now). With 9 picks, I'd be stunned (and disappointed) if at least 2 blueliners aren't picked. Even though there is a good level of depth in the system, that depth will be considerably different by the time any draftees from 2013 are ready to play in the AHL. They will need to re-stock soon and with extra picks, it's not a bad year to do so. I'm not advocating two early picks necessarily but more bodies will be needed sooner than later.

The Habs are just 3 goals away from hitting the milestone of 20,000 goals scored as a team. Two questions - do they reach it tonight, and who gets the goal? Oh, and be advised Tim Peel is one of tonight's referees. (Edit: Darcy Burchell is the other, this could be a long night...) More news, no Visnovsky (personal) tonight.

Projected Abbotsford Lines: (based on +/- data from last game) Aliu- Kolanos - Nemisz Laing - Street - Olson Testwuide - Horak - Jones Bancks - Ruegsegger - Bohmback Callahan - Tuzzolino Carson - Matczak Lamb - Breen Irving Projected Hamilton Lines: Bournival - Tenute - Holland Quailer - Chaput - Blunden Leblanc - Leveille - Stortini Hagel - Fortier - Lefebvre Tinordi - Pateryn St. Denis - Ellis Corbin - Stejskal Tokarski Puck drop is at 7:30 PM, Funny820 as always will have the play-by-play; click the banner below to listen.

BPA is never a bad way to go but I'd be looking for a forward with the first couple of picks if I had my way. There is quality defence depth in the pipeline but the forward situation is a little murkier. Specifically, a centre is always most ideal (they can always be converted to the wing as we've seen many times). I'd also like to see a goalie taken by the end of the 3rd round (with 6 picks, there should be an opportunity to take a decent one without reaching).

Montreal Canadiens (14-4-4) Forwards Defence & Goalies Prust - Plekanec - Ryder Pacioretty - Desharnais - Gallagher Galchenyuk - Eller - Gionta Moen - White - Armstrong Markov - Emelin Gorges - Subban Kaberle - Bouillon Price/Budaj Not Expected to Play Scratches: Dumont, Weber Injured: Nokelainen, Bourque, Diaz New York Islanders (9-11-2) Forwards Defence & Goalies Moulson - Tavares- Boyes Bailey - Nielsen - Okposo Grabner - Reasoner - Ullstrom Martin - Cizikas - McDonald Streit - Finley MacDonald - Hamonic Hickey - Martinek Nabokov/Poulin Not Expected to Play Scratches: Aucoin, Boulton Injured: Strait, Carkner, Joensuu, Visnovsky (personal) Scoring Leaders Montreal NY Islanders Goals Tomas Plekanec (9) John Tavares (13) Assists Diaz/Pacioretty (12) Matt Moulson (14) Points Max Pacioretty (20) John Tavares (25) +/- Brendan Gallagher (+12) Brian Strait (+3) PIMS Brandon Prust (81) Matt Martin (40) Puck Drop: 7:00 PM EST TV: RDS, MSG+2 Radio: TSN 690 FM 98.5

I think some here may enjoy this...

The official draft date has been set, all rounds will be on June 30th beginning at 3 PM EST. The lottery will be next month on the 29th...typing that sentence made me realize the regular season ends next month, wow. http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=658503&navid=nhl:topheads

Um...whoops? Guess I was wrong there... http://theahl.com/marlies-macintyre-takes-weekly-honor-p182315

He's on quite the run at the moment, not just limited to this past week either. He has 14 points in his last 9 games (7 in the last 4 to earn him 1st Star honours). All of a sudden, he has cracked the top-25 in league scoring (5 points out of the top-10).

I believe (although I'm not 100% sure) that no player can wear a full cage permanently as you see at the NCAA level. It is permissible for facial injuries sustained but that's it to the best of my knowledge. In Emelin's case, he didn't need one last season nor did he need one in the KHL so now that whatever happened before the lockout has healed, he had to get rid of it (provided I'm interpreting it correctly). The league rules on this are rather vague though (Sec. 9.6): http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=26285 Oh, and fresh off of yesterday's odd combination of lines, the Habs have new lines today that make more sense: Pacioretty-Desharnais-Gallagher Prust-Plekanec-Ryder Galchenyuk-Eller-Gionta Moen-White-Armstrong

Saskatoon's winning streak came to end with on OT loss. Thrower had zeroes across the board, Dietz had an assist and 7 PIMS. The assist equalled his career high in that category (set last season). Vail had an assist and was -3 in a 9-4 loss and yes, he was playing defence again. In fact, I expect him to play there for the rest of the year given their situation so his scoring and +/- numbers are really going to get ugly. Archambault is really making a case to get a contract by the June 1 deadline, he had a 3 point game (19 points in his last 12 GP).

It all comes down to what the primary motive for the trade was. I think it was more financial than anything, regardless of what's being said publicly. If that's the case, then the impact on the current roster was secondary.

To be honest, I'd be thrilled if he could live up to that expectation. Tinordi isn't a player suited to be a top pairing guy, but rather a bottom half physical player who can anchor a penalty kill. If he could provide what Adam Foote did in his prime, the Habs should be very happy. I'm not trying to denigrate Tinordi but he was a safe pick, one with less upside than others picked around him. He still is a very strong prospect though and is exactly the type of player this team needs.

Had they waited until the summer, they probably would have had to take money back beyond this season. If the motives for the trade were primarily financial as many have speculated, waiting would have failed to accomplish that objective.

Cam Ward is out 6-8 weeks with an MCL sprain - the Habs play Carolina on Thursday.

More from Julien that I suspect many here will get a kick out of: More Julien quotes can be found here: http://bigbadblog.weei.com/sports/boston/hockey/bruins/2013/03/03/claude-julien-calls-out-p-k-subban-canadiens-for-embarrassing-the-game-with-embellishing/ Brad Marchand also called the Habs out (I sense a theme here...) https://twitter.com/GlobeFluto/status/308421770111766528

Hint - you can find out how many on our Twitter page where I posted that very stat this morning. Speaking of Twitter, courtesy of the feed on the front page comes this from Claude Julien: https://twitter.com/CraigCustance/status/308426945983574016

I'm not as tough on Snow, he has a budget of below the cap floor to work with every year. They've kept prospects up when they weren't ready solely to use the bonus cushion as an excuse to keep payroll down, that's not on him. I wouldn't call him a great GM but I wouldn't say he's terrible either. It's hard to compete with what he has to work with, Edmonton doesn't have that same excuse.

That wasn't too good of a 2nd period, that's for sure. The defence looks sloppy again while the powerplay execution...well, it's about on par with what it has been lately (not too good). Winning the odd faceoff might help the cause too.