Montreal Canadiens

Montreal Canadiens winger Brendan Gallagher has been out since he broke two fingers on Nov. 22 in a 4-2 victory over the New York Islanders. However, he has been cleared to return to the ice.

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Gallagher in Lineup for Winter Classic 

Thursday, Dec. 31

The Canadiens announced Gallagher will return against the Boston Bruins on Jan. 1.

Earlier in the day, Eric Engels of Sportsnet.ca reported doctors officially cleared Gallagher to play.

Gallagher Comments on Return

Thursday, Dec. 31

"In no way do I think I'm the answer, I just want to be part of the solution," Gallgher said, per Engels.

Latest on Gallagher's Practice Status

Saturday, Dec. 26

Basu reported Gallagher practiced with his teammates for the first time since he injured his fingers.

Gallagher Undergoes Surgery

Tuesday, Nov. 24

The Canadiens announced Gallagher would be out for a "minimum" of six weeks after the procedure.

Gallagher Suffered Injury After Blocking Shot

Sunday, Nov. 22

Sportsnet has video of the play that sent Gallagher to the ground:

Gallagher's Return Gives Lift to Canadiens

The injury is uncharacteristic for Gallagher considering he has played in 229 of the past 234 games for the Canadiens, per Chris Peters of CBSSports.com.

Prior to the injury, he had been productive this season with nine goals and 10 assists for Montreal.

Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price suffered a lower-body injury that has kept him out of his team's lineup since Oct. 29; however, he's ready to return to the ice.

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Price to Return Friday

Thursday, Nov. 19

The team announced Price will start in goal Friday vs. the New York Islanders.

“I feel good,” Price said earlier, per Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette. “I still have work to do on my timing and I won’t play a game unless I’m 100 per cent."

Latest on Price's Practice Status

Monday, Nov. 16

Price was on the ice at Monday's optional skate, going through drills with goalie coach Stephane Waite, per Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette.

Price Is Vital Part of Montreal's Stanley Cup Aspirations 

Price, 28, was brilliant during the 2014-15 season, leading the Canadiens to a 110-point season and finishing 44-16 with a 1.96 goals-against average and .933 save percentage. He made his fourth All-Star Game and added hardware to his resume, winning the Hart Memorial Trophy, the Vezina Trophy, the Ted Lindsay Award and the William M. Jennings Trophy.

He started like a man on fire in the 2015-16 season as well, winning his first six games with a 1.00 GAA and .966 save percentage. All told, Price has gone 7-2 with a .936 save percentage and two shutouts so far this season.

It's clear that Price is Montreal's most indispensable player and perhaps the most valuable player in the NHL. The Canadiens have a strong team without their netminder behind them, but they may not be Stanley Cup contenders without him.

In Price's stead, Mike Condon has stepped in as the team's starting goalie. That's a tall task for the rookie, but he has held his own so far, going 7-1-2 with a .918 save percentage in his first nine appearances this season.

The Montreal Canadiens announced a two-year contract extension for center Tomas Plekanec on Friday. He's now signed through the 2017-18 season.

Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette reports the new deal carries an annual average value of $6 million. The 32-year-old veteran will make $7 million next season and $5 million in the final year.

Pierre LeBrun of ESPN states the agreement doesn't include a no-movement or no-trade clause.

Plekanec is currently in the final year of a six-year, $30 million contract and would have been an unrestricted free agent at season's end, per Spotrac.

Instead, he'll spend at least a couple more seasons in Montreal. He's off to a hot start to the new campaign with four goals in five games, which have all been victories for the storied franchise.

The Czech forward has spent his entire career with the Canadiens. They drafted him in the third round of the 2001 draft, he made his NHL debut three years later and has been a key contributor for the better part of a decade with 503 points in 766 career games.

A short-term deal makes sense for both sides. It gives Plekanec some security rather than playing the entire season with free agency looming over his head. And he's still playing at a high level, meaning he should provide solid top-six production for at least a few more years.

At this stage, it's difficult to imagine him donning another team's sweater. It wouldn't be a surprise if the Canadiens reassess the situation when this deal ends and, if he plans to keep playing past age 35, give him one more contract to ensure he finishes his career in Montreal.

The NHL announced Monday it placed Montreal Canadiens forward Zack Kassian in Stage 2 of the Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program following his car crash over the weekend.

According to the Montreal Gazette, the 24-year-old was a passenger in a truck that collided with a tree in a Montreal borough early Sunday morning. Kassian suffered nose and foot fractures in the accident.

"I do not have all the information, but it is disappointing to say the least," said Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin, per Sportsnet's Luke Fox. "You have to be respectful. You're lucky to be hockey players. I'm a firm believer in character, and that's really a lack of character and judgment on his part."

Although immensely talented, Kassian has yet to put it all together on the ice, scoring 35 goals and assisting on 31 more in 198 career NHL games. Montreal acquired him from the Vancouver Canucks on July 1, sending Brandon Prust and a 2015 sixth-round pick the other way.

In accordance with league policy, Kassian will be suspended indefinitely without pay until the substance-abuse program's administrators allow him to return to the ice.    

Montreal Canadiens left winger Max Pacioretty is recovering from a knee injury. 

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Pacioretty's Rehab is 'On Track'

Tuesday, August 11

Pacioretty is attempting to make his way back to the Canadiens after injuring his knee in an off-ice workout on July 9. The team said in its release that it expected Pacioretty to miss 12 weeks.        

Over a month after suffering the injury, Pacioretty is right on track, according to ESPN Boston's Joe McDonald: "Canadiens' Max Pacioretty will have another scan taken on his knee once rehab increases and talks with team docs. His rehab is on schedule...he's working hard to be back as soon as he can and has been feeling really good lately."     

It'll be a relief for Canadiens fans to see that Pacioretty is on schedule. From the date of his injury, 12 weeks would see him return around Oct. 1, six days before Montreal opens up its season against the Toronto Maple Leafs. 

He will not be able to retain a regular-season form of play upon his return, as he will most likely have to ease his way back into the Canadiens, but Pacioretty is too big of a weapon to lose long term. 

He recorded a career high with 67 points last year with 37 goals and 30 assists while leading the league with a plus-38 rating. All this means is that when Pacioretty is on the ice, good things tend to happen for the Canadiens, who are looking to make that next step in the East after losing in the conference semifinals despite a 110-point season.     

Stats courtesy of Hockey-Reference.com.

Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price has been rewarded handsomely for his spectacular 2014-15 campaign, becoming just the fourth player in NHL history to win the Hart Memorial (MVP) and Vezina (best goalie) trophies in the same season, per Sportsnet Stats.

Price joins Jacques Plante (1961-62), Jose Theodore (2001-02) and Dominik Hasek (1996-97, 1997-98), the last of whom accomplished the impressive feat in consecutive seasons.

The Hart Memorial Trophy has only gone to a goaltender eight times, with each of the last five instances also including a Vezina Trophy for the player.

Prior to Plante in 1961-62, the Hart was awarded to fellow goaltenders Ray Worters (1928-29), Chuck Rayner (1949-50) and Al Rollins (1953-54), but none of those three also received the Vezina Trophy in the same season.

Price made his case for both awards with a statistically impeccable regular season, finishing with a 44-16-6 record, .933 save percentage and 1.96 goals-against average (GAA) in 66 appearances (all starts).

He led the NHL in wins, save percentage and GAA, becoming the first player since Ed Belfour in 1990-91 to pull off the so-called goaltending triple crown, per the Toronto Star.

Furthermore, Price's 44 wins set a new team record on the league's most accomplished franchise, breaking the mark of 42 that Plante and Ken Dryden previously shared, per Sportsnet Stats.

There are many reasons why the Montreal Canadiens are one of just six teams still alive in the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Goaltender Carey Price, of course, belongs near the top of the list, as do star defenceman P.K. Subban and leading goal scorer Max Pacioretty. Many other members of the team’s long-term core have performed extremely well.

General manager Marc Bergevin saw the potential of that core, and he made smart, low-cost moves at the trade deadline to bolster it. The most significant of those moves was the acquisition of defenceman Jeff Petry from the Edmonton Oilers at the low price of a second-round pick and a conditional fifth-rounder.

Petry has delivered on that purchase price. Consider, for example, how CTV Montreal’s Brian Wilde assessed the defenceman’s play on Saturday in the Habs' Game 5 win:

Apart from one late blunder trying to clear the zone, Jeff Petry was—and is—outstanding. Petry is a number 2 D. He will command free agent money like a 2 D in a thin year. Only one GM can give him eight years. Now I am not saying for sure to make that offer but it is sure something to think about seriously because Petry is bloody fantastic. His vision. His patience. His shot. His smarts. His read of the play. I could go on... but I have [a] lot of other guys to mention.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate his accomplishments in the postseason is to compare him to Montreal’s other six defencemen:

By looking at the average time on ice statistic, Petry obviously has the coach’s trust. He’s logging heavy minutes and contributing at even strength, while shorthanded and on the power play. The other numbers show that the trust is well earned.

The next two items on the chart are contextual statistics.

The first is War-on-Ice.com’s quality of competition metric, which measures a player’s opponents based on how much time on ice they get. Petry’s opponents average 17.7 minutes per game, which is quite high and only a hair below the opposition faced by Montreal’s top pairing.

There’s a clear gap between the top four defencemen on the team—who seem to be used interchangeably against worthy adversaries—and the rest of the defence, which has been pretty carefully sheltered.

The next figure, zone starts, shows us what percentage of non-neutral zone shifts start in the offensive and defensive zones. A high number indicates lots of time on the offensive end of the rink, while a low number indicates a defensive specialist.

Petry’s been handed the toughest assignments in that regard, starting nearly two shifts in his own end of the rink for every one at the offensive end. It goes without saying that this sort of assignment gives the opposition lots of time to hammer shots and goals on the Montreal net.

That’s what makes the next numbers, which show on-ice results, so interesting.

Fenwick percentage measures the scoring chances a team compiles compared to the opponents while a certain player is on the ice. A 50 percent number shows that a player’s team manages as many goals, shots and missed shots as the opposition when said player is on the ice, and the higher the number, the better a team has performed.

With Petry out there, Montreal has performed very well indeed, hammering the opposition on the shot clock despite the fact that Petry typically plays a lot in his own end of the rink and against good players.

It’s also interesting to note that in a lot of tough minutes, Montreal’s opponents have only scored a single goal when Petry was out on the ice. Only Nathan Beaulieu, who has played all of four games in the playoffs, can claim to have allowed fewer goals while playing.

Fenwick percentages and goal results obviously measure more than just one player, but they tell us that Petry has been part of a very effective five-man unit when he’s out on the ice.

It’s telling that Petry’s regular partner, Alexei Emelin, has been far less successful, despite spending a lot of time on the same five-man unit as Petry. It’s also telling that Petry’s on-ice numbers were routinely better than those of his teammates over several years in Edmonton, despite the fact that he also played tough minutes on a ramshackle Oilers blue line.

But these numbers, while capturing some of what makes Petry special, are dispassionate. They are even a little boring in how they translate live action into black-and-white statistics. They capture results but don’t illustrate Petry's intelligence in reading plays, or how his speed suits him to a transition game. They don't display his underrated skill game with the puck or his physical game on defence.

ESPN's Pierre LeBrun writes that Montreal head coach Michel Therrien sees all those things in Petry's game. 

"In the case of Petry, he’s playing the best hockey of his career. It’s as simple as that," said Therrien. "He’s really solid defensively, skates well, distributes the puck well, he’s able to jump up in the playoff (sic) offensively."

One example of Petry's emergence is his offensive game. The numbers above showcase Petry as primarily a conservative defenceman, and that is his chief virtue. But Jack Han of Eyes on the Prize does a good job of explaining how Petry’s subtle offensive game has been crucial to Montreal’s power play:

Speaking of Petry, he has been a great addition to Montreal's first powerplay unit alongside Subban. For the first time, it gives the Habs a versatile, right-handed defenseman to play the all-important concierge role on the 1-3-1. ...

Petry is called upon to hold the fort defensively, and to distribute the puck—to Subban at the left point for the one-timer or to a forward at the right sideboards.

If he does his job right, he shouldn't be shooting the puck all that much. Most likely, he'll be getting second assists, or no credit at all on the scoreboard.

That's why I call him the concierge. It's an important, if somewhat thankless job.

Petry’s performance in Montreal has done a lot to improve his profile in this summer’s unrestricted free-agent market, but right now, that’s not important, as Petry himself noted to LeBrun.

"[M]y focus is on hockey; it’s the big time of the year. I don’t want anything from the outside coming," Petry said. "We’ll just play out the year and see what happens."

After a grim start to the second round which saw the Canadiens fall to Tampa Bay in the series' first three games, the team is once again playing well. Montreal has pushed back with two consecutive victories, reducing the gap between the Lightning and the Habs to a single game and once again giving the playoff's last surviving Canadian team a legitimate shot of advancing to the Eastern Conference Final.

If the Habs are to complete the comeback, they’ll need Petry to continue to do what he’s done so well already: Provide calm, competent play in heavy and difficult assignments. So far, he’s been up to the challenge.

Statistics courtesy of NHL.com, Hockey-Reference.com and War-on-Ice.com unless otherwise noted.

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.