Tonight's game will be the 1000th NHL game for the Predators organization.
Here are a few random musings as we await tonight's 7 p.m. puck drop:
- Scott Gomez will make his triumphant (not so triumphant?) return to the line up tonight. He is penciled in on the fourth line wing with Petteri Nokelainen and Michael Blunden.
Most would like to see Gomez stay there—or in Hamilton or in Alaska—for the rest of the season, but you have to think his stay on the fourth line will be short lived.
Depending on how things play out tonight, he could be seeing top-six duty before the end of the match.
-The injury bug is once again taking the Habs down early in the season.
Among all the keys to Montreal's success this season, injuries and staying healthy have been cited as key factors by pretty much everyone.
Unfortunately for Montreal, the injury bug has not been kind to them so far.
Andrei Markov, who's return to the lineup is only a few weeks away at worst, is still out, Lars Eller has had time on the sidelines, Scott Gomez has missed games and Ryan White missed training camp, to name just a few.
In addition, Andrei Kostitsyn is out of the lineup with an unspecified lower-body injury and Michael Cammalleri is nursing a sore leg, suffered during the Oilers game.
With all of the injuries tonight's lineup is projected to look something like this:
Moen - Plekanec - Gionta
Pacioretty - Desharnais - Cole
Darche - Eller - Palushaj
Gomez - Nokelainen - Blunden
I can't say I despise these lines but I'm not a fan of Travis Moen on the top line.
I know that he, inexplicably, has five goals on the year—Moen is tied with AK46 for second on the team in that department—but he is not an offensive player.
His goal scoring prowess is sure to dry up sooner than later and I would rather see Max Pacioretty or Erik Cole alongside Plekanec.
That said, Pacioretty and Cole had tremendous success playing on David Desharnais' wing earlier in the season. As such, I'm expecting them to carry the load tonight.
-Peter Budaj gets his second start of the season tonight. Facing a Nashville team that is 6-3-1 in their last 10 games, Budaj needs to be in top form for Montreal.
-It looks like Yannick Weber will be back on defense tonight, pushing Alexei Emelin to the press box.
Emelin looked tentative early in the last few games, but seemed to settle down over the course of 60-minutes.
We have to remember that he is a stranger in a strange land and doesn't understand much English. He speaks even less than he understands so, on many levels, he probably feels like an island out there.
I fear that he will get tired of the press box yo-yo treatment and scurry back to the KHL. If he doesn't, however, Montreal must get him back in the lineup once Markov is back.
Moreover, I feel the two should be paired together.
Emelin needs someone to take him under their wing and show him the ropes, and Markov is the man to do that.
The D pairings for tonight are as follows:
Gorges - Subban
Gill - Diaz
Spacek - Weber
-Pekka Rinne will be getting his ninth start of the season tonight. Rinne signed the largest contract in team history earlier this month—a seven-year, $49 million deal.
Many are looking at the Rinne contract as a comparable for Habs impending RFA, Carey Price, this summer and I tend to agree.
Price's agent, Gerry Johannson, contacted Habs GM Pierre Gauthier this week to say he wants to negotiation the contract ASAP. He does not want to wait till the offseason and wants this put to bed during the season.
That would be a bit of a departure for Gauthier who, like Bob Gainey before him, likes to negotiate contracts at the end of the season.
So, will Gauthier's all-star goaltender be able to force his hand, inking him to a rich multi-year deal before the season ends?
You'd have to think so, but I don't see Price getting Rinne dollars. As an RFA, Price won't have a ton of leverage. I expect his contract to come in at roughly double his current $2.75 million per year.
The only way Price's salary will approach Rinne numbers is if Montreal wants to buy some of his free-agent years.
More than likely, however, Montreal will ink Price for three to five years at around $5.5 to $6 million per. Then again, with the CBA expiring this year you never know what Gauthier will do!
-The Habs currently sit 12th overall in the East with 14 points in the standings.
While Montreal has won five of their last seven games, they are still four points out of the eight and final playoff spot.
So despite their recent success, they are still on the outside looking in, and that is danger of a slow start.
With loser points for overtime and shootout losses it's that much more difficult to catch and pass teams ahead of you in the standings.
As such, Montreal needs teams in front of them to lose in addition to amassing wins themselves, to qualify for the postseason. And that's not necessarily the easiest thing to achieve.
-November is a huge month for Montreal, given their poor performance in October.
With games against Boston, Philadelphia, the Rangers, Buffalo and Pittsburgh, the Habs will have their work cut out for them.
That's why it is paramount that they pick up wins against teams like Nashville tonight. Despite Nashville's relative strength as a team, they are not in the elite echelon.
The "easy" games this month? Two games against Carolina, one against the Isles and one against the Ducks.
Montreal needs a win tonight and must keep the momentum going through the month.
If not, there is a very real chance they will simply not be able to recover, missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2006-2007 season.
-Don't forget to check out tonight's game thread.
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Kamal is a freelance writer, Senior Writer/Editor-in-Chief of HabsAddict.com and Montreal Canadiens Blogger on Hockeybuzz.com. Kamal is also a weekly contributor to the Sunday Shinny on TSN Radio 990 (AM 990) every Sunday from 9 - 10 AM. Listen live at http://www.tsn.ca/montreal/
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