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Canadiens Game Day: Tomas Tatar returns home with upper-body injury – Montreal Gazette

Published

5 years ago

March 5, 2020

Brendan Gallagher battling the flu, so Karl Alzner lines up as a forward for morning skate before game against Lightning in Tampa.

TAMPA, Fla. — Tomas Tatar won’t be in the lineup when the Canadiens play the Tampa Bay Lightning Thursday night at Amalie Arena (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).

Tatar suffered an upper-body injury early in the first period of Tuesday night’s 6-2 win over the Islanders in New York and didn’t return to the game. After the game, coach Claude Julien said he didn’t think it was a long-term injury and that Tatar was taken out for precautionary reasons.

Julien announced after the Canadiens’ morning skate Thursday at Amalie Arena that Tatar was on his way back to Montreal to be evaluated by the team’s medical staff.

“Since the injury it hasn’t changed,” Julien explained. “He hasn’t improved at all. So they just want to send him there, get to see our doctors, do I guess some investigating into the injury and at least have some clarity on it.”

Tatar didn’t take part in the morning skate and neither did Brendan Gallagher, who is battling the flu. As a result, defenceman Karl Alzner skated as a forward on a line with Phillip Danault and Artturi Lehkonen.

Julien said he’s hoping Gallagher will be OK to play against the Lightning, but if he can’t the coach will have to go with seven defenceman and 11 forwards. The Canadiens called up forward Lukas Vejdemo from the AHL’s Laval Rocket on Wednesday on an emergency basis because of the injury to Tatar.

Tatar leads the Canadiens in scoring with 22-39-61 totals and is one of only five players on the team who hadn’t missed a game up to this point in the season, along with Max Domi, Nick Suzuki, Phillip Danault and Jeff Petry.

Alzner as a forward?

After the morning skate, there was a large group of reporters waiting to speak with Alzner in the locker room.

“I’m sure you guys want to ask about my forward skills,” Alzner said with a big smile. “I’ll get a couple of points out there tonight.”

Alzner said the last time he played forward he was 8 or 9 years old.

“Some guys, we talked about it yesterday, played a couple of games (at forward) in college or junior or whatever,” the 31-year-old Alzner said about the team’s other defencemen. “I was never one of those guys. It’s been a long time. Some parts of it feel good, other parts of it feel weird. The PK, I was so dizzy after the first rep because I’m looking around trying to find guys, spinning around like a top. You get a little bit of a new respect for what forwards do sometimes.”

What was Alzner’s reaction when he saw he was skating on a forward line?

“I thought it was pretty funny, honestly,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting it. It’s funny, but it’s fun at the same time. I’ll be a utility player if that’s what my role is. I’d love to be a utility player.”

It’s seems unlikely Julien will use Alzner as a forward during the game.

“I don’t know, honestly,” Alzner said when asked if he might get some shifts at forward. “I’m not positive. It could happen, but there’s other options, too, with seven Ds or whatever, 11 forwards. I’m not sure, but I’ll prepare like I’m playing either position.”

Domi a big Alzner fan

Domi got a kick out of seeing Alzner as a forward at the morning skate.

“He looked good, eh?” Domi said with a big smile. “He was buzzing around.

“He’s such a good guy and he’s so positive, he so fun to be around,” Domi added. “I think we can all learn so much from a guy like Karl. He’s honestly like the nicest human being you could ever meet. I love him to death. I think we don’t realize how lucky we are to have a guy like that in our locker room because you get so used to having a guy like Karl. You don’t see those guys every day.”

The Canadiens skated Thursday morning after enjoying a day off Wednesday when Julien cancelled a practice that had been scheduled for 2 p.m. at Amalie Arena. The weather has been gorgeous in Tampa the last two days, with temperatures around 28C and sunshine.

“I think at this time of the year you expect that kind of thing,” Domi said about the day off. “It’s nice to get a little bit of a rest day. Definitely needed it, for sure. We’ve practised a lot, played a lot lately. So I think it was much needed.”

Missing Thompson on faceoffs

Heading into the game, the Canadiens were tied for eighth in the NHL in faceoffs, winning 50.7 per cent of them this season. However, you can expect them to drop in those rankings since the departure of Nate Thompson, who was dealt to the Philadelphia Flyers at the NHL trade deadline.

Thompson was the Canadiens’ No. 1 faceoff man, winning 55.1 per cent. Phillip Danault is now the Canadiens’ No. 1 faceoff guy, winning 54.6 per cent heading into the game against the Lightning.

“We knew that before we traded him,” Julien said when asked about the Canadiens trading Thompson and the effect it would have on team faceoffs. “But at the same time, you still got guys that can still do the job. We rely on Phil Danault. It’s given opportunities to (Nick) Suzuki to be put in some tougher situations so he can get some experience and improve.”

Suzuki had won 46.6 per cent of his faceoffs heading into Thursday’s game, while fellow rookie Jake Evans had won 57.6 per cent since being called up from the Rocket. They are both right-hand shots.

“Right now we have two righties and Jake Evans has been put in those positions, too,” Julien said. “I’m keeping an eye on faceoffs as we go along so that when we have faceoffs in our own end it doesn’t mean it’s always going to be Phil Danault. Sometimes I got to go and trust that some of the other guys — whether it’s Suzy or Jake Evans on the right — take it in our own end against top players. That’s part of development. I remember one game when Suzy lost a clean draw and it ended up in our net. My first thought was: You know what, he’s going to learn from that. Instead of being mad, he’s going to learn from that and he’s a smart player. He’s not going to let that happen again. So those are the kind of things that you have to think of as a coach and if you want to develop players sometimes it comes with a little bit of pain.”

The lines

Here’s how the Canadiens’ forward lines and defence pairings looked at the morning skate:

Lehkonen – Danault – Alzner
Hudon – Suzuki – Armia
Byron – Domi – Weal
Vejdemo – Evans – Weise

Chiarot – Weber
Kulak – Petry
Ouellet – Folin

Where the teams stand

The Canadiens (31-28-9) head into the game in fifth place in the Atlantic Division, seven points behind third-place Toronto for the final playoff spot with the Maple Leafs holding one game in hand. The Canadiens are two points behind fourth-place Florida with the Panthers holding two games in hand.

The Leafs visit the Los Angeles Kings Thursday night (10:30 p.m., SNO), while the Panthers are home to the Boston Bruins (7 p.m., SN1, SNE, SNO, SNP). The Canadiens are also seven points behind the Islanders for the final wild-card spot with the Islanders holding three games in hand.

The Lightning (41-20-5) are in second place in the Atlantic Division but have been struggling recently, going 1-5-0 in their last six games.

This will be the fourth and final meeting this season between these two teams and the Lightning won the first three games and will be looking to sweep the season series with the Canadiens for the second time in franchise history. The Lightning went 5-0-0 against the Canadiens in 2014-15.

The Lightning have won eight of their last nine games against the Canadiens and are 11-2-2 against them since the the start of the 2016-17 season. The Lightning have won the last five games against the Canadiens at Amalie Arena.

Where the Canadiens rank

Heading into the game, the Canadiens rank 17th in the NHL in offence, scoring an average of 3.01 goals per game, and rank 16th in defence, allowing an average of 3.06. They rank 21st on the power play (18.5 per cent), 19th in penalty-killing (78.6 per cent) and eighth in faceoffs (50.7 per cent).

Tatar is leading the Canadiens in scoring with 22-39-61 totals, followed by Danault (13-34-47), Domi (17-27-44), Gallagher (22-21-43) and Suzuki (13-27-40).

Where the Lightning rank

The Lightning rank second in the NHL in offence, scoring an average of 3.47 goals per game, and rank ninth in defence, allowing an average of 2.80. They rank seventh on the power play (23.1 per cent), 10th in penalty-killing (81.9 per cent) and 11th in faceoffs (50.6 per cent).

Nikita Kucherov is leading the Lightning in scoring with 31-49-80 totals, followed by Steven Stamkos (29-37-66), Brayden Point (23-37-60), Victor Hedman (9-44-53) and Beaconsfield native Alex Killorn (24-23-47). Stamkos had surgery on Monday to repair a core muscle injury and is expected to be sidelined for six to eight weeks.

What’s next?

The Canadiens will fly to Fort Lauderdale after the game and have a day off scheduled there on Friday before facing the Florida Panthers on Saturday (7 p.m., CBC, SN, SN360, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).

The Canadiens will fly home on Sunday and have two home games next week at the Bell Centre against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio) and the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM) before flying to California on Friday to start a four-game road trip with games against the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and Colorado Avalanche.

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NHL roundup: Hurricanes beat Flyers 6-4 for seventh straight win

Published

11 hours ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Martin Necas scored a go-ahead goal with 29 seconds left and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-4 on Tuesday night.

It was the seventh straight win for the Hurricanes, who also got goals from Jack Roslovic, Jordan Martinook, Eric Robinson and Jackson Blake. Seth Jarvis added an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

Necas typically saves his game-winners for overtime, with nine in his career, but he was able to take care of business in regulation with his team-best seventh goal of the season.

Travis Konecny scored two goals and had two assists for the Flyers. Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett also scored for Philadelphia.

Aleksei Kolosov made 28 saves for the Flyers, who trailed 2-1, 3-1 and 4-3 but kept coming back. Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov struggled in net allowing four goals on just 16 shots.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Tuesday:

—

SABRES 5 SENATORS 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Bowen Byram and Tage Thompson scored 16 seconds apart to open the third period, and Buffalo snapped a three-game skid with a win over Ottawa.

Byram scored twice, JJ Peterka had two goals and an assist and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 37 saves.

Ridly Greig converted his own rebound in cutting Buffalo’s lead to 2-1 with 7:31 left in the second period. Linus Ullmark made 29 saves in dropping to 1-4 in his past five starts.

Buffalo went up 3-1 on Byram’s second goal 21 seconds into the third period. The defenceman’s shot from inside the blue line sneaked through Ullmark, with the puck rolling down the goalie’s pad, dropping into the crease and trickling across the line. Thompson scored when he crashed the net, was knocked over by defender Jake Sanderson and was lying in the crease when Alex Tuch’s shot went in off his shoulder.

—

MAPLE LEAFS 4 BRUINS 0

TORONTO (AP) — Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves for his first shutout of the season in Toronto’s 4-0 victory over Boston.

Morgan Rielly had a goal and two assists as Toronto connected three times on the power play. William Nylander and Matthew Knies added a goal and an assist each. Mitch Marner had two assists of his own. Steven Lorentz rounded out the scoring into the empty net.

The Leafs played without captain Auston Matthews, who is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Jeremy Swayman made 23 stops for Boston, which was coming off consecutive weekend shutouts of the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken.

Toronto’s porous 31st-ranked power play scored for the second time in as many games at 8:44 of the second period when Rielly fired through a screen. Nylander banked in his team-leading 10th goal of the season on another man advantage 1:14 later for a 2-0 lead.

The Bruins entered the game 8-0-0 in the regular season against their Atlantic Division rival dating back to Jan. 14, 2023.

—

FLAMES 3 CANADIENS 2 (OT)

MONTREAL (AP) — Matt Coronato scored twice as Calgary came back to defeat Montreal in overtime.

Coronato tied the game with 2:46 remaining in regulation when he cruised into the slot and went off the post and in. He then buried the winning goal seven seconds into the extra period.

Connor Zary also scored for Calgary, which won its second game in seven outings. Dustin Wolf stopped 21 shots.

Joel Armia — with a short-handed goal — and Brendan Gallagher scored for Montreal (4-7-2). Armia also provided an assist, while Sam Montembeault made 32 saves as the Canadiens’ losing streak extended to four games.

Zary opened the scoring with his third 4:20 into the second period when he pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot past Montembeault.

Gallagher then slipped the puck between Wolf’s pads at 16:23 to level the score with his fifth of the season.

—

BLUES 3 LIGHTNING 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordan Kyrou, Alexey Toropchenko and Oskar Sundqvist scored to help St. Louis beat Tampa Bay 3-2.

Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington made 21 saves for his 149th career win moving him past Jake Allen for second place in franchise history, just two wins behind Mike Liut’s 151.

Nick Perbix and Victor Hedman scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for the Lightning who have lost three straight games.

Kyrou scored his fourth goal of the season 8:51 into the third period to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead.

Toropchenko scored his first goal of the season with 1:35 remaining in the second period to put St. Louis ahead 2-1 after Sundqvist tied the game with his first of the season 7:47 into the period.

—

ISLANDERS 4 PENGUINS 3 (SO)

NEW YORK (AP) — Bo Horvat scored the only goal in a shootout and New York rallied past Pittsburgh 4-3.

New York goalie Ilya Sorokin denied Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang in the shootout and finished with 32 saves. Kyle Palmieri had a goal and an assist for the Islanders, who trailed 3-1 midway through the third period.

Simon Holmstrom and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored in the third for New York. Horvat had two assists.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist to lead Pittsburgh. Crosby got his 598th career goal, and Michael Bunting also scored. Rakell added two assists.

Alex Nedeljkovich stopped 23 shots for the Penguins, who have lost seven of nine. They won their previous two following a six-game skid.

—

KINGS 5 WILD 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Trevor Lewis scored twice, Kevin Fiala added another on the power play and Los Angeles beat Minnesota 5-1.

Warren Foegele and Quinton Byfield also scored for Los Angeles, which was playing the second night of a back-to-back after a 3-0 win in Nashville a night earlier. David Rittich made 23 saves for the Kings.

Fiala, who was traded to Los Angeles in 2022 by Minnesota for a first-round pick draft pick and defenceman Brock Faber, scored his seventh goal of the season. He now has three goals and six assists in his last seven games against the Wild.

Minnesota, which had won three in a row, opened the scoring in the second period on Zach Bogosian’s first goal of the season. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 shots for the Wild.

—

JETS 3 UTAH 0

WINNIPEG, Man. (AP) — Nino Niederreiter scored twice in his 900th NHL career game and Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves to help Winnipeg defeat Utah 3-0.

It was Hellebuyck’s second shutout of the season and 39th of this career.

Gabriel Vilardi also scored for the Jets. Adam Lowry assisted on both goals by Niederreiter.

Utah ended a run of picking up points in three consecutive games (1-0-2).

Karel Vejmelka stopped 25 shots for Utah in its second stop on a four-game road trip.

Jets winger Kyle Connor had his franchise-record, season-opening points streak end at 12 games.

—

AVALANCHE 6 KRAKEN 3

DENVER (AP) — Arturri Lehkonen scored the go-ahead goal on a power play in his season debut and Nathan MacKinnon had five assists as Colorado beat Seattle 6-3.

Mikko Rantanen added two goals for the Avalanche, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Ivan Ivan, Nikolai Kovalenko and Chris Wagner also scored for Colorado.

Cale Makar had two assists but the star defenceman barely played in the second half of the game and appeared to be slowed by an apparent injury during a brief shift.

MacKinnon and Makar extended their season-opening point streaks to 13 games.

Lehkonen played for the first time since off-season shoulder surgery.

Jared McCann, Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Montour scored for the Kraken.

—

CANUCKS 5 DUCKS 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Brock Boeser, Danton Heinen and Kiefer Sherwood had a goal and an assist apiece, and Quinn Hughes recorded his 300th career assist in Vancouver’s victory over Anaheim.

Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson also scored and Hughes had three assists for the Canucks, who have won six of eight. Kevin Lankinen made 21 saves in Vancouver’s sixth consecutive win over the Ducks.

Olen Zellweger scored a power-play goal early in the first period for Anaheim, which has lost seven of nine. Lukas Dostal stopped 31 shots.

Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko took shots from teammates again after the morning skate, and he could return to practice this week. The Southern California native and 2023-24 Vezina Trophy finalist hasn’t played this season due to a knee injury incurred late last season.

—

SHARKS 2 BLUE JACKETS 1 (OT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Alex Wennberg scored 3:11 into overtime and San Jose celebrated the return of No. 1 overall draft pick Macklin Celebrini with a win over Columbus.

Defenceman Jack Thompson scored his first career goal for the Sharks (4-8-2), who entered the night with the worst record in the NHL. San Jose has won four of five.

Celebrini, the top pick in the 2024 NHL draft, missed 12 games with a hip injury he sustained in the season opener Oct. 10 — an injury first incurred during the pre-season. Celebrini didn’t score and missed a shot early in overtime.

San Jose goalie Vitek Vanacek was fantastic in net, making 49 saves.

Blue Jackets right wing Kirill Marchenko scored for the second consecutive game. Columbus (5-6-1) has lost three straight.

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Canada’s Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Routliffe pick up second win at WTA Finals

Published

1 day ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.

The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.

The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.

Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.

The final is scheduled for Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.

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Allen nets shutout as Devils burn Oilers 3-0

Published

2 days ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.

The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.

Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.

TAKEAWAYS

Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.

Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.

KEY MOMENT

New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.

KEY RETURN?

Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.

OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN

The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.

The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.

UP NEXT

Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

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