Montreal Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien may be having his issues with his Norris D-man, PK Subban, however, he reunited the Montreal 'EGG' line and it provided ommediate offense of Sunday night vs. NY Islanders.
Lars Eller, Alex Galchenyuk, and Brendan Gallagher combined to land ten shots on goal and eight points in Sunday night's 4-2 win over the New York Islanders. The power trio abused the NY Islanders D, as the Habs ended their four game losing streak.
“Lars and Gally and I talked before the game about going out there, not thinking too much out there and not trying to do too much,” said Alex Galchenyuk to Canadiens.nhl.com, who had one goal and two assists against the Islanders.
“We made sure to make simple plays and keep our feet moving all the time and good things happened.”
Brendan Gallagher opened the scoring with his eighth goal of the season at the start of the second period.
On Monday afternoon, Pat Kaleta and his Rochester Amerk teammates will host teh Lake Erie Monsters in a special Veteran's Day matinee. When the puck drops at 3:05 pm EDT, Kaleta will have played 3 games in four nights. He's more than okay with the grind. Kaleta is all about taking the road less traveled. He'd rather follow it then take the path of least resistance. So far so good for Kaleta in his back to the future tour of the AHL. The Amerks hosted the Binghampton Senators on Friday night then played there on Saturday night. It'll be good for Kaleta and the Amerks to face a new opponent on Monday afternoon.
Kaleta has been averaging 18 minutes TOI in his first two games in his Amerks sweater. On Saturday night, he landed two shots on goal and earned an assist on linemate Tim Schaller's goal. Kaleta has been getting chirped and he likes it. He figures if the opponent cares enough about him to engage him in smack talk then he's already gotten into their heads. He's right. Kaleta's game is equal parts physicality and psychological warfare.
Those who judge Kaleta from a distance without knowing his true character, should prepare to be silenced. There are many who judge Kaleta's book by its cover. Boy, are those ignorant critics going to look stupid when Kaleta passes this AHL boot camp test with flying colors.
Kaleta is doing the work and by all accounts is listening intently to General Cassidy and his drill seargent Cunneyworth during his Rochester boot camp.
"He has to get used to playing more minutes and playing with the puck," Cassidy told The D and C
Thanks, Rochester D and C
Kaleta is respecting the game and is doing the work. He's seeing results.
When he continues to excel during his basic training period, the Sabres will have no other choice then to promote him back to Buffalo. That is of course if another team doesn't come calling on Darcy Regier to work out a trade for the dedicated foot soldier.
Has there been a more disappointing free agent signing in Buffalo Sabres team history than Ville Leino?
Seriously. The guy should change his name to to "Casper", as in "the friendly ghost". Leino has been invisible ever since he signed his ginormous 6 year, $27 million guaranteed contract with the Sabres. What were Darcy Regier and the owner thinking? They couldn't land big fish UFA center Brad Richards, so they threw #1 center money at Leino, a winger.The Sabres tried to convert Leino to center, however, he resisted the idea.
Injuries and terrible slumps have prevented the Finn from ever being able to live up to the enormous demands and expectations that come along with a king-sized UFA contract. The Sabres were not able to invest one of their two amnesty buyouts in Leino last summer because the new CBA prohibits teams from buying out injured players. Leino suffered a serious lung injury which caused him to miss a huge chunk of games during the lockout shortened season. Leino also underwent successful hip surgery last summer, too. The glass half full prognosis was that Leino would live up to high expectations with his clean bill of health finally intact. No such luck. The 30 year old winger (not center) suffered a broken rib in the first game of this season and was seated in the press box until the fourth week of the Buffalo Sabres season.Since his return, Leino has only mustered one shot on goal. He only has one assist to show for all of his time spent playing hockey.
To nobody's surprise, Leino was a healthy scratch in Anaheim on Friday night. After the game, Ron Rolston
“We expect our veterans to be a big part of our team, and to this point he hasn’t been,”
Not exactly a thumbs up approval for Leino. Rolston did say that he's aare of leino's injuries and that he knows what kind of talent that Leino has.
Its too bad Sabres fans will never get to see the real Ville Leino. We'll be left with memories of the busted, broken down, frustrated Leino.
Here's a thumbnail sketch of Leino's largely unimpressive body of work in Buffalo: ealthy
* Leino has scored only 10 goals and created 32 points in 86 games played. Darcy Regier is paying Leino $2.7 million per goal?
* Leino has played in only 17 of the last 66 games.
If he stays healthy and injury free, Leino will likely be an amnesty buyout recipient.
The Florida Panthers are a hurtin' unit right now. The NHL vultures are circling overhead the rink in south Florida as the team has fallen into the depths of mediocrity and can't get up.
The team fired its head coach Kevin Dineen late this week. Also fired were assistant coaches Craig Ramsay and Gord Murphy. Rookie head coach Peter Horachek will make his NHL head coaching debut tonight vs. NY Rangers.
After he fired Dineen, Cats VP/General Manager Dale Tallon proclaimed announced that thyere will be big changes in personnel in Sunrise. His leading scorer, Brad Boyes, was a professional tryout contract signee. Tim Thomas is the starter in goal Tallon is trying to trade his under achieving, over paid veterans like Tomas Kopecky, Kris Versteeg, Marcel Goc, Shawn Matthias, Scottie Upshall and Scott Gomez. Tallon can't find any takers yet for his vets. That will change as the trade deadline draws closer. Rival GMs feel his pain however, they are trying to work trades for the skilled kids like Huberdeau, Gudbranson, Bjugstad, Barkov, Shore, Howden, Kulikov.
On Sunday, the Panthers loaned G Jacob Markstrom to the AHL San Antonio Rampage.
Tim Thomas is recovered from his most recent injury, and Tallon was forced to have to demoted either Markstro mor Clemmensen to the minors. Personally, I would have kept Markstrom in Florida. I'd commit to developing Markstrom by playing him in a rotation with Thomas. You know that the 40 year old Thomas will break down again this season. Its not like the Panthers are a playoff team this year. They are a pathetic hockey club that will soon be gutted. I'd play Markstrom a ton and get him accustomed to the NHL grind by playing him a ton this season.
This move has the appearance of a mercy demotion to get the kid out of a toxic, negative situation so that he can work on his fundamentals in a more positive, productive environment in San Antonio.
Markstrom has been an adequate puck stopper for the Panthers this season, He has a 1-5-3 record, 3.35 GAA and an .877 save percentage,
A change of scenery in the minors will do him some good.
The Cats have a new, hands-on owner who is very interested in winning.
Tallon has $12.7 million in cap space right now, and will have even more in the near future when he dumps dead weight vets for high draft choices.
I'm wondering if the Florida Panthers are on Ryan Miller's list of eight teams.
Miller for Huberdau, Barkov or Bjugstad has a nice ring to it.
The Cats would solidify their net for the next 4-5 years and the Sabres would get a big, skilled #1 center who would add immediate offensive and defensive value to the re-building Sabres.
I get the sense that Dale Tallon will be managing his team with extra pizzazz and urgency between how and the NHL trade deadline. Having a new owner has a way of doing that to NHL GMs. Tallon wants to keep his job and see his re-build through to its eventual successful conclusion. He can do a lot to help himself by solidifying his starting goaltending and improving his overall team defense.
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