Depth of talent is a Canadiens issue on both left and to a lesser extent on right wing. It is not a glaring problem at centre ice. where Desharnais, Plekanec and Eller hold the top three spots and there is large group of centremen who are in the wings waiting for their chance.
In late November Max Pacioretty admitted he was confused about the criteria the league was using to adjudicate ‘head shots’. He had just been hit with a three game ban for elbowing Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang. Five months later and the rest of the hockey world is still trying to figure out how Shanahan makes his decisions.
Max Pacioretty has been named the Canadiens Player of the Month for January ahead of linemates David Desharnais and Erik Cole. The team practiced at Brossard Wednesday before catching their flight to New Jersey. Andreas Engqvist was returned to Hamilton after another one game stint and Louis Leblanc has recalled and will be in uniform in Newark. In practice Wednesday, Ryan White again centred the fourth line with Mathieu Darche and Yannick Weber but is still needs conditioning before he makes his first start of the season. Andrei Markov skated solo for 20 minutes.
Canadiens forward Ryan White has been missing-in-action since the beginning of training camp. Wednesday he underwent surgery to repair a sports hernia. A sports hernia occurs when there is a weakening of the muscles or tendons of the lower abdominal wall.
And now there is one. The Canadiens announced the signing of Ryan White to a one year contract today leaving only defenceman Josh Gorges to be signed before the opening of training camp. Gorges has filed for arbitration , a case that will be heard July 28th if he does not come to terms beforehand.
The Canadiens already have 26.12 million dollars committed in contracts to their forwards. If general manager Pierre Gauthier sticks to his past budget plan of around 23 million dollars reserved for defense and goaltending, that leaves something in the neighbourhood of 13 million dollars in cap space to fill seven remaining roster spots. Gauthier has a big puzzle to solve, with myriad options.
Everybody seems to have an opinion about what Canadiens GM Pierre Gauthier should do in order to upgrade his team’s offense. It runs the gamut from sending the unproductive Scott Gomez and the remaining three years of his contract to the Hamilton Bulldogs to signing, and then trading Andrei Kostitsyn.
Gauthier doesn’t telegraph his punches a la Brian Burke, so like everyone else, we can only guess the direction he’ll take. .
The Hamilton Bulldogs begin the AHL North Division final series against the Manitoba Moose tonight in Hamilton. They’ll have centre Ryan White in their lineup. White was assigned to the Bulldogs today and will be in their lineup for tonight’s game. White has been with the Canadiens since February 10th and was in their lineup for all seven games of their series against Boston
He played in three games during his current stay with the Canadiens without a point. He had one shot on goal and five penalty minutes, while maintaining a +1 plus/minus differential. His average ice time was 7:35.
Centre Andreas Engqvist logged 6:21 ice time Saturday night against Anaheim, including almost three minutes of penalty killing time, an indication of Jacques Martin’s confidence in his ability. Unfortunately, with Jeff Halpern due to return to the lineup, Engqvist is caught up in the numbers game. Today Engqvist was returned the Hamilton Bulldogs. Ryan White remains with the team for now.
