Habs Daily Recap: March 1st

The Hamilton Bulldogs announced Friday morning their new three-year extension at Copps Coliseum and their affiliation with the Montreal Canadiens. It has a two-year option after the deal is done. This is great news if you are someone like myself who lives in Hamilton or near it to see the Habs prospects in action. Those $3.00 beer nights do not hurt either! Go Bulldogs. Also, the organization has some awesome incentives for current season ticket holders and people that are considering becoming season ticket holders this upcoming season. Details will be provided in the upcoming Bulldogs Weekly Release, stay tuned.

The Montreal Canadiens announced that Carey Price is February’s Molson Cup winner. He beat out rookie Alex Galchenyuk and Max Pacioretty for the award this time.

At practice, a face we have not seen too often was back with the team. Petteri Nokelainen hit the ice with his teammates for the first time this season and even led the stretch at centre ice. However, he is not ready just yet to return to action. It was his first team practice in 11 months and he has not played a game since March 31st, 2012. Rene Bourque and Raphael Diaz were missing due to their concussions that are said to not have progressed. This is not good news but hopefully something positive will come soon for both players.

Here are the lines from Friday’s training session:

Pacioretty – Desharnais – Gallagher

Prust – Plekanec – Gionta

Galchenyuk – Eller – Ryder

Moen – White – Armstrong

Nokelainen (alternated with White)

Markov – Emelin

Bouillon – Gorges

Kaberle – Subban

Weber

Quite a number of Habs fans were rattled yet again with the use of P.K Subban. Is he a third pairing player? Hell no, but Michel Therrien continues to use him this way since he was signed.

Ex-Habs Mathieu Schneider and Jaroslav Spacek are now IIHF committee members. They have joined to develop hockey and make it safer. You can read more about that here.

Owner Geoff Molson tweeted out that he saw the final cut of the next episode of 24CH and claims it is the best one yet. Make sure you tune into that at 6pm ET this Saturday on RDS. For those who are waiting for the English version on TSN, I believe that airs on Monday.

The Vancouver Canucks claimed Tom Sestito on waivers but that is not the interesting part. According to Seravalli, Chicago and Montreal both put in a claim for the player. Is Montreal trying to get tougher? Not impressed with someone who should be bringing that edge? Who knows.

It looks like former Hab Alex Kovalev’s days with the Florida Panthers have ended. He has been scratched multiple times this season but that is not the problem. The Russian forward is not traveling with the team so a number of speculations have surfaced. The most agreed upon one seems to be that he will retire. As Heather Engel pointed out, “Kovalev was slated to be part of Habs ‘2013 All-Star Classic’ event at the Bell Centre on March 24 before signing with Panthers.” We will see if he still attends that.

Per Emrith, the Canadiens will have their morning skate at the Bell Centre at 10:30am ET but it is closed to the public. The Penguins will hit the ice after at 11:30am. However, First Line members will have access to both. Their Saturday events begin at 9:30am all the way until around 1:50pm. Not only will they get to watch both practices but they will have a Q&A session with GM Marc Bergevin and Chris “Knuckles” Nilan.

Before the Bulldogs game, DLCoulisses on Twitter stated that Gabriel Dumont had a plane ticket to go to Montreal Saturday morning. The belief was that he would be called up by the Canadiens after Hamilton played their match against Binghamton. Well, not too long after it ended, the Habs announced that Dumont was recalled. Twitter went in a bit of a frenzy between those questioning why he was and others quite happy that he may be getting a chance. The Habs do not have a healthy forward to insert into the line up if something were to occur this weekend since Nokelainen isn’t ready and Bourque is out, therefore, they needed insurance. Dumont is a hard worker who can play the penalty kill and drop the gloves if need be. It will be interesting to see if he does get a shot in one of the back-to-back games.

The Bulldogs fell short in their comeback against the Senators as they lost the game 3-2. Unfortunately they seemed to of lost the game early when they went down 2-0. Tenute put the Bulldogs on the board before the first frame was over. However, Binghamton would re-establish their two-goal lead not long after the second period began. All of their goals came on a rebound. Leblanc would then find the back of the net for his 8th of the year as the Bulldogs started to find their game. In the third period, they continued to get chances and push for the equalizer but it never came. They are back in action Saturday against Lake Erie and I would imagine that Tokarski will get the start in goal for this one.

WWE wrestler CM Punk made fun of the Leafs Friday night at Ricoh Coliseum. Not much else has to be said about this besides the fact that it is awesome.

Prospect Update:

Archambault did not register a point against the Remparts

Bozon posted a +2 rating and had an assist

Dietz had 2PIM and was a +4

Hudon stayed even in Chicoutimi’s 4-0 victory

Thrower had 5PIM against Brandon Wheat Kings

Schultz was a -1 and racked up 12PIM

Bennett was a +3 in the plus/minus column

Cichy notched an assist and was a +1

Didier had a +1 rating in his team’s 2-0 win

Kristo tallied one assist in North Dakota’s victory

MacMillan had two goals, one assist and a +2 rating

Sullivan remained even against Providence College

Walsh was a -1 and had 2PIM