Pregame Preview: Canadiens vs Blue Jackets (Game #71)

 
Match Up:

The Canadiens (38-25-7) are home to host the Blue Jackets (35-27-6) Thursday night at the Bell Centre. The game starts at 7:30 and can be seen on RDS and TSN-Habs.

This is the third and final meeting between the Habs and Blue Jackets with the Canadiens aiming for the season sweep. The Habs have won a pair of close games. In their 5-3 win in Montreal, Plekanec's game winner came with just over a minute left in the game. When these teams played in Columbus, the Habs earned a 3-2 shootout win, David Desharnais had the only penalty shot goal.

What to Watch:

Thomas Vanek scored his first goal as a Canadien Tuesday night, and then his second, and then his third. The hat trick was the 8th of Vanek's career, he had 4 3-goal games in 2007-2008 alone. The fourth line of Travis Moen, Dale Weise and Brandon Prust have combined for 4 goals over the past 2 games for the Habs, they played an integral role in the 6-3 win over the Avalanche on Tuesday

Despite directing 47 shots at Anton Khudobin, the Blue Jackets lost 3-1 to the Hurricanes on Tuesday, scoring their first goal with less than a minute left in the game. Former Hab James Wisniewski had 6 shots on goal Tuesday, bringing him up to 140 on the year, 6 shy of his career high for a season. With 26 goals and 51 points, 21-year old Ryan Johansen leads the BJs in scoring.

What's at Stake:

The Lightning's 5-3 win over the Maple Leafs draws the Bolts even with the Habs at 83 points and leaves the Leafs a step behind at 80 points with two more games played than Tampa and one more than the Canadiens. The race in the Atlantic division is strictly for second place, the Bruins have a 16 point cushion with the season winding down.

After missing out on the playoffs last year by virtue of a lost tiebreaker to the Minnesota Wild (both teams finished with 55 points but the Wild had 3 more regulation or overtime wins), the Blue Jackets once again find themselves tied for the final playoff spot with the end of the season looming. The team is looking for just their second playoff berth in franchise history, as well as their first postseason victory, they were swept by the Red Wings in their first trip to the playoffs.

Who's Out:

Michael Bournival (concussion) is healthy enough to play but has been sent to Hamilton on a reconditioning assignment. Josh Gorges is still out with a broken hand.

The Blue Jackets are missing rookie defenseman Ryan Murray (lower body).

What Else:

For the second straight game, the Habs welcome a Vezina trophy winner to the Bell Centre, and this time, he'll actually be between the pipes. After the Patrick Roy show swept through town on Tuesday, the Habs play host to last year's top netminder, Sergei Bobrovsky. Bob the goalie has take a bit of a step back from last season when he posted a 2.00 GAA and a .932 save percentage, this year his goals against average is up to 2.49 and his save percentage has slipped to .919.

The Question Mark:

Let us know what you think, if the Canadiens played to their their full potential, how far could they go in this year's playoffs?

Make your voice heard by leaving a comment or sending us a tweet with the #MTLHockey hashtag on Twitter.

Be sure to tune into the Montreal Hockey Talk Pregame Show an hour before the puck drop and the Post Game Show 5 minutes after the final siren. Join the live conversation by using the #MTLHockey hashtag on Twitter.

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Habs/Blue Jackets Post Game October 17th, 2013

The west coast trip was a success for the Habs. Rather than rest on their laurels they came back on home ice and came out strong for the 21,000 plus in attendance.

 At times it looked like the Jackets would mount a comeback after they tied the game up at 3. But a late marker from Tomas Plekanec in the final 2 minutes paired with the eventual empty netter would seal the deal for the Bleu Blanc Rouge.

They opened up the scoring early on. A power-play goal by Bourque set up by a gorgeous cross ice pass from P.K. Subban. It's becoming a habit to mention Subban and the score-sheet, he now has 10 points in 7 games this season which is tied for 2nd in the league.

Along with P.K.,Andrei Markov managed to jump start the offense tonight. Markov scored a shorthanded goal when the Blue Jackets received a power-play on a questionable elbowing call issued to Subban. During this penalty-kill the fore-check made the Jackets cough up the puck in their zone and end up right on the stick of Markov who ripped a shot by Bobvroski.

Bobrovski, the current Vezina holder stopped 31 of the 35 shots he faced and was the reason that the game didn't get out of hand much earlier as the Habs did create many difficult chances early on.

In nets for the Canadiens was Carey Price. Coming off a shutout in his last outing he put together a respectable performance and stopped 30 of 33. He was saved early on by a great defensive play by Josh Gorges, the puck was free in front of the net while the Jackets were scrambling towards the goal he cleared it away with his stick. Gorges also contributed offensively with a helper.

The Blue Jackets managed to get a stand out performance from Boone Jenner, the youngster put up a pair of goals and led the team with 6 shots on goal.

Scoring his first goal as a Canadien was Michael Bournival. He ripped a one timer fed to him from Markov. The moment,scored on home ice, will forever be remembered by the youngster who is solidifying his place on the roster as the games go by. His mix of grinding play combined with some offensive punch are quickly making him a viable option to fill in for the injuries that are quickly piling up.

On the injury front it was announced that Pacioretty would be missing at least the next 3 weeks. His natural ability to find the back of the net will be missed, this will force the team to pull together with scoring from other sources. It was a good time for Bourque to make his presence felt, as well as Plekanec.

One observation this evening, was the distribution of ice-time between the top 2 defense pairings. While Diaz led all defencemen with 23:41, Markov was a close second 23:35 and Gorges and Subban came in with 22 minutes each. The ability to provide some time to rest his stars is a not just a testament to the performance of his third and forth defenders but also help prevent any further injuries to the already decimated blue-line.

Tthe Canadiens will have much to prove being on home ice for the next few games. They are making a statement: They intend to compete for top spot in their division rather than simply fight for a playoff spot this season.

(Photo: Courtesy of SB Nation)

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Game Day: Canadiens and Flyers Renew Rivalry in Montreal

by Kamal Panesar

All of the talk surrounding the Montreal Canadiens the last few days has focused on the potentially long-term loss of star defenseman Andrei Markov, to injury.

There is currently no official word on the status of Markov after he collided with Carolina's Eric Staal on Saturday night, and went down in a heap. That doesn't stop people from talking however, as rumours have been swirling of an absence of anywhere from three weeks to one year.

The Team 990's Tony Marinaro even announced that he has learned that Markov has a torn ACL and will be out of action for three months. This despite the fact that many close to the situation are saying that no official word will come out until the swelling has gone down in his knee and they can do the proper tests.

Personally, when I saw the way Markov went down, my feeling was that the Habs had lost him for the season. While that may still come to pass, what is as important as the actually severity of his injury, is the manner in which is teammates respond to the loss on the ice.

Tonight, at the Bell Centre, the Markov-less Habs get their first chance to show what they can do against one of the best teams in the league.

The Flyers, who have been perennial thorns in the Habs' sides, are absolutely rolling with a 12-4-2 record in 18 games, for 26 points and second place overall in the league. The Flyers are currently on a three-game winning streak.

The Habs too have been playing well, and boast an 11-5-1 record for 23 points in the standings and are on a three-game winning streak of their own.

Last week's games against the Canucks and Bruins were considered by most to be the first "real" tests for Habs this season. The Flyers represent another, even bigger test for the Canadiens on several levels, none being more pertinent than the fact that this will be the first truly bruising team they have played.

While the Habs have a ton of speed and skill they tended to whither a little last season against the more physical teams in the league, and Philly is certainly at the top of that list.

Add to the mix the third round playoff loss to the Flyers this past off-season, and the fact that the Habs just lost their best defenseman, and you have the makings of a highly anticipated matchup.

The Canadiens cannot afford to sit back on their heels and must use their speed to get behind the Flyers' defense and try to cause them to take penalties. While the Flyers' defenseman are talented, they are not the most mobile bunch in the league and the Habs need to keep them backing up in order to have success tonight.

If the Habs sit back and let the Flyers come at them, I fear that their gritty cycle and physicality will become that much more of a factor in the game.

Watch for the Flyers to target the Canadiens' defenseman for physical punishment tonight, starting with P.K. Subban. Subban, who as my Hockeybuzz.com colleague Eric Engels pointed out, was not ready be the No.1 defenseman 16 games, is now able to handle that responsibility. It is amazing how quickly he has adapted to the speed and skill level of the NHL and he looks more and more like a veteran every game.

Tonight, Subban will have to keep his head up as the likes of Jeff Carter and Mike Richards will be in his face every time he touches the puck.

The real question mark for me will be to see how many minutes Jacques Martin chooses to give Roman Hamrlik and Jaroslav Spacek. You'll remember how they didn't look very good at the beginning of the season playing over 20 minutes per game, while Markov was out.

With Alexandre Picard rejoining the lineup, you'd have to hope that Martin gives the extra minutes to Subban, Josh Gorges, and maybe even Picard, before looking to the old Czech duo.

Finally, I'll be watching Carey Price who surely remembers getting roasted by the Flyers in the playoffs a few seasons ago, to see how he responds. Playing the best hockey of his career right now, Price looks ready for the challenge. That's a good thing too, because his counterpart tonight, Sergei Bobrovsky, is also playing out of his mind so this one could come down to which team can disrupt which goaltender the most.

Look for lots of crease crashing by Philly and one heck of an entertaining spectacle.

The puck drops around 7:08 pm.

(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images North America)

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