Canadiens vs. Panthers Notes; Remember Garrett Stafford?

Tonight, as Montreal is set to faceoff against the Panthers, the Canadiens should present a very different, more experienced lineup.

- Jaroslav Spacek is set to return from his injury. He will take Alexei Emelin's place in the lineup and will pair up with Yannick Weber. Josh Gorges will remain with P.K Subban and Hall Gill will form a duo with Rafael Diaz.

- Andreas Engqvist and Aaron Palushaj were sent down yesterday. Michael Blunden and new acquisition Peteri Nokelainen will take their spots on the fourth line.

- Peter Budaj will make his first start of the season. The Slovak netminder was 15-21-4 last year with a .895 save percentage.

Does Garrett Stafford ring a bell?

Yesterday, the Canadiens also made the acquisition of minor-league blueliner Garrett Stafford. Like many, his name rang a bell to me, but gave it no further thought. Then, my colleague over at HabsWorld.net, Brian La Rose, pointed out that it was Stafford who was involved in a pretty ugly incident a few years ago. 

On April 30, 2004, Stafford was playing for the Cleveland Barons against the Hamilton Bulldogs in the Calder Cup playoffs when he got into an altercation with former Hab Alexander Perezhogin. Stafford cross-checked Perezhogin in the face resulting in them both falling to the ice. As they were getting up Stafford took another swing with his stick, this time making contact with the back of Perezhogin's helmet. In retalitation, Perezhogin then swung his stick into Stafford's face, knocking him unconscious resulting and sending him into convulsions. Not the prettiest of hockey memories, but video of it can be found here.


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Louis is an Associate Editor at HabsAddict.com and an Editor at HabsWorld.net. Louis was born in Chicago but grew up in Quebec City where he earned Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from Université Laval. He currently lives in Ottawa and works for the Coaching Association of Canada. He can be reached at l.moustakas@habsworld.net.

Posted in: Florida Panthers,Garrett Stafford,habs,montreal canadiens