Canadiens’ Price Seeking to Tie 89-Year-Old Record
Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price has the chance to tie an 89-year-old team record in front of the home crowd when the Habs host the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.
Price set an NHL record by winning his first 10 straight starts to the season, after a 25-save shutout performance in a 5-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday. The 29-year-old netminder has the chance to tie Canadiens great George Hainsworth’s team record of 11-straight wins — a mark that has stood for nearly nine full decades.
Price is 10-0-0 in 2016-17 and has posted a 1.40 goals against average and a .957 save percentage after missing the first three games of the season with a flu virus that kept him out of the lineup. The Canadian netminder has long been considered one of, if not the best, goaltender in the world and the Canadiens have seen the effects of playing games with and without him.
After the Canadiens began the 2015-16 season with nine straight wins, Price was lost for the remainder of the season due to injury during his 12th start of the season and the team’s downward spiral ended with them missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2011-12 season.
Price’s start to 2016-17 has even drawn the admiration of one of the best goaltender’s of all-time, Dominik Hasek.
“He (Price) is amazing right now,” said Hasek, according to Sportsnet’s Eric Engels. “I watched him at the World Cup and recently saw him in a game with the Canadiens; he seems to me like everything is so easy for him. The way he makes saves, even when he’s out of position, it seems like everything is so smooth.”
The Canadiens are sitting atop the Atlantic Division with a 13-2-1 record and the team’s 27 points are seven more than the Boston Bruins, who are second in the division.
Devils’ Hall Out vs. Stars
The New Jersey Devils will be without forward Taylor Hall against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday, the team announced.
Hall will be out with what the team has identified as a lower-body injury, but further details are not known at this time. Hall practiced with the team on Monday, but something bothered him when he showed up to the rink on Tuesday.
“We’ll hold him out for precautionary reasons,” Devils head coach John Hynes said, according to NHL.com correspondent Sean Shapiro.
Hall is leading the Devils in scoring with five goals and 12 points and is on pace to set a career-high in goals just 14 games into 2016-17. Hall’s personal best was when he tallied 27 goals in two seasons with the Edmonton Oilers in 2011-12 and 2013-14, respectively.
The 25-year-old left winger arrived in New Jersey this offseason in a blockbuster trade on June 29, in which the Devils sent defenseman Adam Larsson to the Oilers for the young star. Hall, who was drafted by the Oilers first overall in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, did not hide his frustrations with being moved by the organization where he spent the first seven years of his career.
The Devils have gotten off to an 8-3-3 start and are currently third in the Metropolitan Division and have benefited from the acquisition of Hall and strong goaltending from starter Cory Schneider early this season.
The Devils will be playing a Stars team who welcomes back Jason Spezza to the lineup for the first time since Nov. 5 as he dealt with a lower-body injury.
Predators’ Rinne Day-to-Day
The Nashville Predators’ Pekka Rinne is day-to-day with a lower-body injury and will not play against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Predators head coach Peter Laviolette announced on Tuesday morning.
The Finnish netminder sat out Monday’s practice for what the team called a “maintenance day” at the time.
Rinne was named the NHL’s Third Star of the Week after beginning the month of November by going 4-0-2 with a 1.14 goals against average and a .958 save percentage. In 12 games this season, the 34-year-old netminder has posted a 5-4-3 record with a 2.13 goals against average and a .930 save percentage.
Marek Mazanec will get the start against the Maple Leafs after being called up from the American Hockey League’s Milwaukee Admirals on Monday. Mazanec, 25, started two games with the Admirals and was 1-0-1. He has also seen action in two games with the Predators in 2016-17, with one start and one relief appearance, while registering an 0-1-0 record.
The Predators have overcome an October where they won just two games in eight outings and are currently in sixth place in the Central Division with a 6-5-3 record.
Odds and Ends
— The Hockey Hall of Fame inducted its Class of 2016 on Monday — a group that included former Philadelphia Flyers superstar Eric Lindros, Russian legend Sergei Makarov and goaltending great Rogie Vachon. The late Pat Quinn was also enshrined as part of this historic class. Congratulations to all inductees on joining the game’s best in Toronto!
A fantastic shot of the Hockey Hall of Fame Class of 2016 – #Lindros #Vachon #Quinn #Makarov pic.twitter.com/yTIDRS6rhw
— Hockey Hall of Fame (@HockeyHallFame) November 15, 2016
— The Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs announced their rosters for the 2017 Rogers Centennial NHL Alumni Game, set to take place at Exhibition Stadium on Dec. 31, 2016, to celebrate the 100th season of the Maple Leafs.
Roster announced! Leafs/Red Wings Alumni taking part in the 2017 Rogers NHL Centennial Classic Alumni Game: https://t.co/TuBr3fIBlz#TMLtalk pic.twitter.com/xtfqT5oAiz
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) November 15, 2016
Red Wings roster for Centennial Classic Alumni Game. To be played Dec. 31 at 12 p.m. ET at Exhibition Stadium. pic.twitter.com/M0aNKiTOJy
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) November 15, 2016