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McCarron Centers Galchenyuk & Eller, Team Canada Price In Subban Not Yet |
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*********** EDIT ***************
Carey Price was part of the initial 16 players named to the Canadian World Cup Hockey Team while P.K. Subban will have to wait and see. Price's spot was thought to be precarious by some due to his injury and limited action this year. It seemed that this was Hockey Canada's way of saying this is Price's team as long as he is healthy and ready to go. I'm sure that Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin, part of Hockey Canada's brain trust for the World Cup had input on Price and if he is confident that Price will make a full recovery in time than Price will be there. Tomorrow, Carey Price will meet the media at 1:30pm in Brossard for only the second since his he re-injured himself in November.
P.K. Subban did not make the initial roster for Team Canada and while many are disappointed, this isn't entirely surprising. Team Canada only named 4 defencemen to the initial roster: Drew Doughty, Duncan Keith, Shea Weber & Marc-Edouard Vlasic. It was well-know that Canada wanted two left and two righties to be named immediately. Subban is still behind Doughty & Weber on the depth chart but he should be # 3 on the right come September. The advantage that Subban has is that not only does he have the ability to change the game on his stick, should something happen to Doughty or Weber, he is able to step right into those roles and perform. Yes there is great competition for the remaining three spots on defence. I won't bemoan Subban not being on Canada's initial roster. However that will change if he is excluded from the final roster.
Subban was not the only Canadiens exclusion today. Alex Galchenyuk was not named to the North America Under 23 initial squad. I still believe he will be on the final roster but am surprised that T.J. Miller made it over him so far.
***** Back to the original blog ************************
The Montreal Canadiens will attempt to rebound from their blowout loss to the San Jose Sharks as they prepare to face the Anaheim Ducks in the second game of their west coast swing. This will be no easy feat as Anaheim is the hottest team in the NHL right now, sporting a record of 9-0-1 in their last 10 games and on a winning streak of 8 games. The Canadiens has their points streak stop at four games as they collapsed in the 3rd period against the Sharks on Monday night, losing 6-2. It is astonishing to think back to October when the Canadiens were leading the league and Anaheim could not score or win a game and Bruce Boudreau’s job was in question. How the mighty have fallen. The biggest difference is that Anaheim was able to crawl out of the basement as Boudreau changed the Ducks game plan. Since the team was not scoring, Boudreau had the Ducks playing a conservative, defensive game. The Canadiens and Michel Therrien on the other hand, never made any adjustments to their game plan. Instead they kept hoping that the bleeding would eventually stop on its own.
John Gibson will get the start in goal for Anaheim tonight and Cayton Stoner replaces Simon Despres who has the flu. The Ducks held an optional practice and so linemates for the newly acquired Jamie McGinn and Brandon Pirri will only be known at game time.
Despite giving up 6 goals against the Sharks on Monday, Mike Condon will get the start tonight in Anaheim:
Lucas Lessio, Mike Brown and Victor Bartley will be healthy scratches tonight for the Canadiens while newcomer Stefan Matteau will make his debut with the Bleu-Blanc-Rouge. Morgan Ellis gets to play his first NHL game tonight, a nice reward for his play in the AHL this year. However, the biggest news out of practice is Michael McCarron’s promotion to play center in between Alex Galchenyuk and Lars Eller on the Habs second line:
This is a big opportunity for McCarron and perhaps a look ahead at what the Canadiens are possibly planning for 2016-2017. Bergevin alluded to the next 20 games being important in terms of evaluating the roster and moving forward. Are they hoping that McCarron can turn into that big top 6 center? Are they hoping that McCarron and Galchenyuk can develop some chemistry in advance of the next season? It will also be interesting to see how Lars Eller reacts to playing right wing tonight. Meanwhile Jacob De La Rose, a minus 4 on Monday night gets demoted to the 4th line but will play center with Sven Andrighetto and Matteau. Chances are this line will see limited minutes against Anaheim tonight.
With the World Cup of Hockey initial 16 man rosters are being announced today, the biggest focus will be on Team Canada. Will they name Carey Price to the team regardless of his injury or wait and see how he heals? Will P.K. Subban be named today? Will he even make the team? Doubt was cast when TSN announced their projected team which did not include Subban, even as the 7th defenceman. It is hard to believe that Subban is not a lock for the team. Yes, Canada is blessed with a wealth of talent on the blue line. TSN’s projected roster did not include Mark Giordano, Kris Letang or Brent Burns either. It is time though to put aside the notion that Subban cannot play defence. He has proven to be a true #1 defenceman since Sochi and also makes his teammates better. Hopefully Subban gets names this evening so that this will not turn into a will he/won’t he throughout the rest of the Spring and Summer. With Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin as part of Team Canada, would there be irreparable damage between Bergevin and Subban if does not get named at all?
Andrei Markov and Tomas Plekanec have already been named to Team Russia and Czech Republic respectively. Max Pacioretty should also be a shoo-in for Team USA’s initial roster. It will be interesting to see if Lars Eller can get a spot on Team Europe, his play as of late should certainly help increase his chances. There is also a good chance for Alex Galchenyuk to make Team North America U23 tonight as well. Most projected lineups have him on the 3rd line as a left winger.
5 Questions For Tonight:
1) Will Price and/or Subban make Team Canada’s initial roster?
2) Will Mike Condon rebound from Monday’s game and keep the Canadiens in the game?
3) How will Galchenyuk-McCarron-Eller perform in their first match together?
4) Perhaps the better question is how long Therrien’s leash will be this new line?
5) Will Charles Hudon or Nikita Scherbak get an opportunity during the next 20 games to prove that they might be part of the Canadiens plans next season?
Puck drops at 10pm tonight.
Cheers & enjoy the game!
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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