dlbalr

Antoine Corbin was recalled from San Francisco to take Merth's place on the roster.

Presuming the 4 recall rule is the same in this CBA (I've read otherwise but have heard some of the TV guys saying it's pretty much the same), the Habs have two non-emergency recalls left until after the AHL season ends. So technically they could but it would eliminate any prospect of calling anyone else up between now and the end of the weekend. Also, I'm not sure Kristo is as ready as we hoped. He has been pretty quiet in Hamilton so far.

Some semi-positive stats: - The Habs are winning the faceoff battle (59%). - Montreal has attempted nearly double the shots that Pittsburgh has (47 to 24). Every d-man has at least one shot on goal.

I'm going to reiterate my question of Galchenyuk's demotion. He actually played less in the 2nd than in the 1st. He's one of the scoring regularly right now and thus needs to play more. That said, Dumont's playing well so I wouldn't want him benched right now. But they need to find a way to give Galchenyuk some more ice time in the 3rd.

Thanks. Spelling errors will make me want to fix them all though.

I'll mention this well in advance tonight...someone else needs to do tomorrow's GDT. This will be 3 straight losses for me (barring a comeback of course). Volunteers?

I'm not sure I agree with the decision to demote Galchenyuk (Dumont was on the 3rd line with Prust/Eller for most of the period). He's one of the few who has produced lately, it would make more sense to promote him instead of cutting his ice time.

It looks like it will be a game time decision between who plays on the 4th line RW, Dumont or Blunden.

I was hoping for six just so he could get penalized another days' pay. That's the only real punishment he'll get from this as there was no way he'd have been playing in these upcoming games anyway. As it is, he loses a little over $18,500.

For the sake of my pool team (I'm in 2nd, only a few points out of first), he needs to come back ASAP...as long as it's not a surprise appearance tonight.

Just imagine how rough the lineup would look had they not acquired Iginla, Morrow, and Jokinen. That's still a pretty good top six, Kunitz and Dupuis aren't big names but they're the snipers on that team.

Pittsburgh Penguins Montreal Canadiens LINEUPS Forwards Chris Kunitz - Jussi Jokinen - Jarome Iginla Brendan Morrow - Pascal Dupuis - Beau Bennett Matt Cooke - Brandon Sutter - Tyler Kennedy Tanner Glass - Joe Vitale - Craig Adams Defense Brooks Orpik - Kris Letang Douglas Murray - Matt Niskanen Mark Eaton - Simon Despres Goaltenders Fleury Vokoun Forwards Rene Bourque - Tomas Plekanec - Brian Gionta Max Pacioretty - David Desharnais - Brendan Gallagher Alex Galchenyuk - Lars Eller - Brandon Prust Travis Moen - Jeff Halpern - Michael Blunden Defense Josh Gorges - P.K. Subban Andrei Markov - Francis Bouillon Davis Drewiske - Yannick Weber Goaltenders Budaj Price Team/Player Stats Record: 32-10-0 Scratches: Jeffrey, Engelland, Bortuzzo, Hartzell Injuries: Malkin, Crosby, Neal, Martin Goals: Kunitz (21) Assists: Crosby (41) Points: Crosby (56) +/-: Kunitz (+29) Record: 26-11-5 Scratches: Dumont, Kaberle, White, Beaulieu Injuries: Ryder, Armstrong, Emelin, Diaz Goals: Ryder (16) Assists: Subban (25) Points: Subban (36) +/-: Prust (+13) GAME NOTES Puck Drop: 7:00 PM EST TV: RDS, TSN

Anyone doing a GDT for tonight's game?

Diaz was in practice again today although he was wearing a non-contact jersey. Ryder had the day off while Prust returned.

Laganiere signs with Anaheim. They weren't a team thought to be in the mix.

http://nhrcollegehockey.blogspot.ca/2013/04/kenny-agostino-staying-andrew-miller.html Let the waiting/anticipation begin?

Sure it has an impact. If Lawrie were to play 2nd and Bautista 3rd, that would move Izturis into the starting SS role. If that were to be the case, there wouldn't be much room for Kawasaki (Bonifacio would be the backup in a pinch). With Lawrie at 3rd and Bautista in right, Izturis is the starting 2B and there's a regular spot for Kawasaki. I think they'd be willing to make a trade off to a degree if they could find someone that could hit a little better. Instead of a .200 hitter with Gold Glove-ish defence, get a .230 guy with average D. Those players should become available in a month or so once teams get a better read on their AAA guys and how ready they might be. I'm reading an article about some of the SS options out there and noted the following line that backs up my point on his hitting: On a contending team in the AL, I don't think the ideal plan is to have a hitter who has two career extra base hits (one of those was last night) that can barely out-OPS a pitcher in the lineup regularly for the next 10-12 weeks. If Kawasaki can hit better than he did last year, even get to that .230 level I mentioned above, then he's a good stop gap but if he returns to last years' form, I think they'll have to try and look elsewhere. For now though, here's hoping he keeps up his strong play.

I'd say the odds are pretty good that will happen. The only way Nashville can move their pick into the 40's is by running the table and having a whole lot of non playoff teams lose. With all the games in hand teams around them have (and the ugly lineup they're trotting out), it looks like there's a pretty good chance that pick will be top 5 in the round. Calgary's is harder to project with the extra games remaining but I think it could stay top 5 in the round as well.

It's really time to start scoreboard watching in the West. As it stands, Calgary sits 28th overall and Nashville 25th. (The Habs have both of their second round picks, presently numbers 33 and 36.) Before the season, I was hoping Calgary was capable of flopping but I didn't see the Preds crashing like this. Nashville has the fewest games remaining of any NHL team so there's a decent chance they could drop another spot.

I deleted the blank posts. It looks like the Lawrie at 2nd experiment may be over already, he'll likely be playing 3rd and Bautista will go back to RF. That frees up the spot for Kawasaki (who is playing well for sure but I expect him to regress to last years' ability at the plate where he struggled to hit the ball out of the infield) to stick around until a better solution can be found.

That's a wise way to approach it.

The league has requested an in-person hearing for White. They don't do that unless they believe the suspension should be for more than 5 games. Here's hoping he gets the book thrown at him.

That's fair. He's not at his best, I was more saying that it's nice that he's not solely getting blamed. A quick scan on other boards and Twitter and you see an awful lot of vitriol whereas here, the criticism for tonight's performance is rightfully more balanced and not just thrown on his shoulders.

Luke Schenn has played just over 22 minutes. In other words, he's on pace for over 33 tonight. Wow.

I'm glad to see no one on here piling on Price. The defensive positioning has been porous and he has been hung out to dry on quite a few of these.