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Pregame: Canadiens vs Sharks |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
Tonight’s game against the Sharks is the last between the two teams this season and it will be Denis Gurianov’s first game in the Sainte-Flanelle. The pressure will be on for the 25-year-old forward as Evgenii Dadonov scored yesterday in his first game with the Stars.
Gurianov will truly get an opportunity to shine though as Martin St-Louis has decided to assign him to the top line on the right side of Suzuki and Hoffman. Considering he’s on an expiring deal, the Canadiens do need to assess what they have on their hands here and giving him winning conditions is the right course of action, after all, he did have 17 points in 27 playoffs game year when the Stars reached the Cup final (including 9 goals) so there is offensive potential there. Can St-Louis find a way to that untapped potential? We’ll see…
This means that Harvey-Pinard and Anderson who have both been hot lately drop to the second line, where they’ll be centered by Jonathan Drouin, if that’s not giving Drouin an opportunity to shine, I don’t know what it is. After moving Dadonov, Kent Hughes is probably hoping to be able to ship out the Quebecer on an expiring deal prior to Friday and saddling him with productive players is a shrewd move. Hopefully, his wingers can still deliver without Suzuki’s presence in the middle. Meanwhile, Dvorak will find himself in the middle of Pitlick and Ylonen while Chris Tierney will remain between Pezzetta and Belzile.
On the blue line, the pairings at yesterday’s practice were as follows: Matheson/Savard, Edmundson/Guhle and Harris/Kovacevic with Barron skating as the extra. Both Edmundson and Guhle were wearing regular jerseys and coach St-Louis said there was a chance both could step into the line-up, but they hadn’t received the green-light just yet. We’ll see if that happens prior to tonight’s game. I think it would be a shame if Barron was a healthy scratch though, he’s looked very good of late.
With the league issuing a memo that they’ll be scrutinizing teams who acquire injured players to stash them on cap until the playoffs, chances are GMs will want to acquire healthy players, so the odds of trading Monahan have just gone from very slim to none. It’s incredibly funny that the league would address that situation but not a word about teams who acquire players while a star is injured and then reactivate that star once the salary cap is no longer an issue and end up with a stacked team (hello Tampa Bay).
Don’t tell me the Lightning found a loophole and they’re allowed to use it, I know that, but loopholes once identified, must be shut. How hard would it be to tell teams that come playoffs time, you must pick which of the 2 players you want to use; your original guy who spent months on LTIR or the plan B guy you acquired. It’s simple isn’t it? It ensures a level playing field, of course it wouldn’t be great for the player who’s told sorry we don’t need you for the playoffs, but that’s better than allowing a team to go with an unfair advantage… they way I see it anyways.
As I write this, a trade has been announced between Edmonton and Carolina, Puljujarvi is headed to the Canes while Patrik Puistola goes the other way. This clears $3 M in cap space for the Oilers and there are rumblings that Edmonton is in the market for a defenseman, Chychrun and Ekholm have been mentionned, but if that falls through could a now healthy (hopefully) Edmundson be an option?
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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