1) The Canadian Juniors put on a show last night against the Czech Republic.
Brendan Gallagher's been showcased on one of the top lines, and though he didn't manage to bury the game's best scoring chance, he was on the ice for all five goals Canada scored in the game.
Michael Bournival registered an assist, and Nathan Beaulieu displayed his spectacular skating game and powerplay savvy once again.
On the other side of the ice, Daniel Prybyl, returning from an injury that nearly ended his tournament prematurely showed some nice offensive ability on the Czech powerplay. Given the nature of how the game unfolded, he was forced to spend too much time in his own zone to really show what he's capable of.
Jarred Tinordi escaped USA's 4-1 loss to Finland without a minus next to his name.
Tonight, Canada will face Denmark, and Lars Eller's baby brother--16-year old Mads.
2) While baby brother wets his feet at the World Juniors, Lars is finally getting his chance at playing on what's considered to be Montreal's top line.
Can he continue to take advantage of the opportunity?
If he can, he's
helping the Canadiens spread the offense over three lines.
3) I want to give credit to Louis Leblanc for being a bit ahead of where I expected him to be when he was called up to the Canadiens a short while ago.
Leblanc's managed five points in 13 games, and he's a +3. Those are pretty good numbers for a guy who's averaging roughly 10:00 of ice-time/game, not to mention playing most of it at wing, despite his natural ability at centre.
Good story on him
here.
4) Tomas Plekanec was a +5 last year, a +8 the year before that, and this season he's a team-worst -8!
If that isn't indicative of the kind of struggles this team has had in its own zone, I don't know what is.
5) Superintendent Niklas Hjarlmarsson has five more blocked shots than Josh Gorges' 94.
6) While we're getting into important stats, two years ago, Pavel Datsyuk led the league with 132.
The Canadiens forwards have combined for 155 so far this season.
Lars Eller leads with 20 (ranked 78th in the league), and Tomas Plekanec's just behind with 19.
7) Andrei Kostitsyn has three goals in his last ten games, and he's a -6 over that period as well.
You always take the bad with the good with this player.
He's certainly been more consistently engaged this season, and it's not easy bouncing from line to line. But he's being given a good chance to get Plekanec going, and when Gionta returns, this could make a pretty solid line for a team that needs more of them going.
8) Larry Carriere addressed the media yesterday, and given his ability to speak francais, I think we'll be seeing a bit more of that.
Which is great news for Randy Cunneyworth, who can use the time to figure out how to get the powerplay to produce more regularly.
9) Habs have killed off 92.4% of the penalties they've taken on the road. That's outrageous.
To give you an idea of how good that is, the Habs led the NHL with a road-penalty kill that operated at 85.7% last season.
10) Good thing the Habs are good on the PK on the road, because they're facing the league's 3rd best powerplay at home tonight.
The 28th best powerplay on the road will need to make the difference.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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