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IRISH EYES ARE SMILING

Babcock rocked a green tie on St. Patrick’s Day, in honour of his Irish grandfather John McCarthy.

“It was a big day in our family, my mother’s maiden name was McCarthy,” Babcock said. “I’m sure my kids will be entertaining themselves somewhere tonight.”

Connor Brown and Morgan Rielly have talked about their Irish roots before (Rielly theorized someone at immigration decades ago must have transposed the ‘i’ and ‘e’ in his surname) and there’s some new green blood with Connor Carrick.

“Irish on my Dad’s side, way back,” the defenceman said. “I’ve been curious, but not enough to really check into it.”

Travis Dermott said his father has Irish background, confirmed through a 23 and Me DNA test.

“My Mom and sister got that for his birthday a few years ago. I’m not sure from where in Ireland, but we’re a little Irish, Scottish and German.”

Dominic Moore’s father Jack is half Irish and the former had an aunt who traced the clan back to a town somewhere near Killarney.

“I’m proud Irish for sure,” Moore said.

TIP OF THE KAP

Kasperi Kapanen says he’s all the better for veteran Tomas Plekanec’s arrival on his line.

“He’s a pretty quiet guy, but there’s some kind of wisdom there,” Kapanen said. “He tries to help me out, he’s a smart player who loves to pass the puck. We’ve been playing well, so there is not a lot to talk about, but we can always do better.”

Canadiens owner Geoff Molson told the RDS network that embattled GM Marc Bergevin will be back next year. The team will miss the playoffs for the second time in three seasons.

“We all know it’s a very difficult season for us in all areas,” Molson said. “Marc and I are talking about it all the time. He knows that team performance at all levels is unacceptable and we have a plan to fix it.

“I’m talking about all areas: leadership, development, recruitment, players on the team. We need to improve, we must become better. We have not been able to do that this year. We will succeed, I trust Marc to manage this transition, but he is aware that it needs to improve.”

LHornby@postmedia.com