The Montreal Canadiens are set to welcome back two of their tough guys back into the lineup. With the Habs preparing to play the Blue Jackets and Rangers in back-to-back games, Montreal will be thankful that tough guys Alexei Emelin and Brandon Prust are healthy and expected to start Saturday’s home contest against the surging Rangers.
The Habs have lost five of their past six games, two of those in a shootout. The most telling statistic from the past six matches is that the Canadiens have been outhit by an average of 18.5-23.6. Most notably, in their losses to St. Louis and Ottawa the Habs were outhit 29-15 and 38-20 respectively.
Prust has been out since October 19th while Emelin has been sidelined for the entire season recovering from knee surgery. Prust averaged 2.3 hits per game last season while Emelin averaged 2.9, meaning these two players will give the Canadiens a much needed injection of physicality.
Montreal has been stereotyped as the team that is easy to play against. Brian Gionta may be the only survivor from Bob Gainey’s Mike Cammalleri-Scott Gomez-Gionta experiment, but that has still not changed the team’s perception around the league. Adding the 5’9” Daniel Briere during the off-season certainly did not help put the stereotype to bed.
Slowly but surely though the Canadiens are beefing up, which should take their opponents by surprise. Tough guys Brandon Prust and George Parros provide an effective deterrent against the other team’s fighters. Alexei Emelin, Douglas Murray and Francis Bouillon are all capable of dishing out big hits from the back-end. And speaking of back-end, P.K. Subban has trademarked the backwards open-ice hit, which has become rarer but he connects with it has been proven to be deadly. Just ask Brad Marchand.
Up front, the Canadiens scoring talent have quietly grown in size. With David Desharnais currently riding the press box, Briere and Brendan Gallagher are the only forwards in Montreal’s top nine below 5’11”. Max Pacioretty and Lars Eller are 6’2” while Alex Galchenyuk is 6’1”. Few may have realized it, but the Canadiens are not as small as their stereotype might suggest.
With two of their most physical players returning Saturday, fans should expect better result from their beloved bleu-blanc-rouge. The absence of two physical presences has forced players to play out of position and finish hits they might not be used to finishing. Prust and Emelin will take the pressure off of the rest of the team to set a physical tone.
After their back-to-back this weekend, the Habs finish the month against the Wild, the Capitals twice, the Penguins and the Leafs. None of those will be easy games, but with Carey Price in the form of his career and a serious physical tone returning to the Canadiens’ game, there is no reason the Habs shouldn’t take at least 12 points from a possible 16 in November.
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