Friday, November 18, 2011

Peepin' Foes: Montreal Canadiens

The Rangers will put their seven game streak on the line Saturday night when they head into the Bell Centre for a match against Montreal. The game is at 7 pm and is on HNIC for those lucky enough to get CBC, NHL Net for those in the US outside of NY and MSG for the poor bastards in NY.

Where We Are: Finding ways to win games. As per Brooksie, the Rangers are 9-1-2 against bottom 13 clubs - including a 5-3 win over these very same Canadiens.

Where They Are: The Habs have just 19 points in 19 games so far. They are last in their division and 12th in the East but have just one regulation loss in their five games - 3-1-1. That loss came against the Islanders of all teams though so things are certainly not going too well for the Habs.

Who To Watch For: Tomas Plekanec leads Montreal with 18 points in their 19 games. Hank's old buddy Max Pacioretty is the team leader with nine goals. Carey Price, who is coming off of a shutout against Carolina, has allowed two or less goals in eight of his last nine games (the exception being the four he gave up to the Rangers). No U.S.S. Hal Gill as the lumbering oaf was suffering from "a virus" and just got out of the hospital. Andrei Kostitsyn and Andrei Markov are both out. Scott Gomez has missed time due to injury this season but has gotten in 10 games. The Mexican't is goalless with just two assists. Hahahahahaha. I laugh and yet that likely means he will score against us unless our incredible luck of late holds.

What To Watch For: Not sure if the Rangers went up today or not but if so, see how they start after having Friday night fun in old Montreal. The Ranger forecheck on the many injury fill-ins on the Canadiens' blue line. Old foes Michael Cammalleri, Erik Cole and Brian Gionta to pop up and play hard. Gomez and Plekanec to win faceoff after faceoff. How many minutes Girardi and McDonagh play against Pacioretty.

What We'll (Hopefully) See: The GAS line to snap their two game drought and finally convert on some of their chances. Had Prust not had to step in for Eminger, I would say a fight in the first two minutes but it might not be for the best for him to test his shoulder two games in a row. So perhaps Andre Deveaux getting more than three minutes, considering he is twice the size of Gionta and Desharnais. Cally and Dubi not getting suckered into doing anything stupid by P.K. Subban. Actually, Avery vs. Subban would be quite entertaining. Avery to keep his goal scoring streak going.

Also Check Out: Sadly the fun Four Habs Fans called it quits but there are still a few good blogs out there - All Habs, SBN's Eyes on the Prize and a thorough MSM blog from the Gazette called Habs Inside/Out.

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