If you looked at the NHL scoring leaders on Friday afternoon, you’d have to go all the way down to No. 38 to find Sidney Crosby’s name.
In 39 games this season, the Pittsburgh Penguins star has 12 goals and 19 assists for 31 points — miles behind the Chicago Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane, who was leading the NHL in scoring with 23-37-60 totals heading into Friday night’s game against the Buffalo Sabres.
You also won’t find Crosby’s name on the All-Star Game rosters this season — but you will find the Arizona Coyotes’ John Scott, who has one assist and 25 penalty minutes in 11 games. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman can explain that one to the fans in Nashville who are paying $321 per ticket to sit in the lower bowl and $221 for the upper bowl of the Bridgestone Arena to watch the all-star three-on-three tournament on Jan. 31.
Canadiens goalie Carey Price also won’t be at the All-Star Game — in fact, he won’t be in any game until after the all-star break, and maybe longer than that. Price hasn’t played since suffering a lower-body injury on Nov. 25 and five days later the Canadiens said he would be out for a minimum of six weeks. That deadline comes Monday … now we wait for the next deadline.
“We don’t expect him to be back before the all-star break,” coach Michel Therrien said after practice Friday in Brossard. “That’s all I can tell you.”
Therrien also said that defenceman Jeff Petry — who missed practice Friday — is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury that isn’t considered serious.
Would the coach ever lie?
One player who will be in the Canadiens lineup Saturday night when the Penguins visit the Bell Centre (7 p.m., SN, TVA Sports, TSN Radio 690) is Tomas Plekanec, and he’ll be seeing a lot of Crosby when Therrien matches lines. Plekanec has only one goal in his last 26 games — as all Canadiens fans seem to know — but he is tied with Crosby in points with 8-23-31 totals.
“It’s tough to base Pleky’s game off of numbers,” captain Max Pacioretty said after practice. “After playing with him for most of this year, I’ve realized how much more his line is supposed to bring to the table every night and him, in particular, being the centre of that line.
“He’s got so many more assignments he has to do to help the team win,” Pacioretty added. “It’s not always glamourized, it’s not always what everyone talks about, but it’s definitely a huge piece of the puzzle. And when we win, it means that he and his line did the job.”
Plekanec — and the entire Canadiens team — has had a spark since Brendan Gallagher returned to the lineup at the NHL Winter Classic on New Year’s Day after missing 17 games with two broken fingers and was reunited on the No. 1 line with Plekanec and Pacioretty. The line has combined for five goals (three by Gallagher and two by Pacioretty) and 10 points during the three games since Gallagher’s return, including three assists for Plekanec. The Canadiens have won two of those games.
“I think he’s played three pretty good games,” Gallagher said about Plekanec. “The first game coming back he made it easy on me. He takes care of a lot of responsibilities that I don’t have to worry about. There’s a lot more to his game than putting the puck in the net.
“It’s not always the guy scoring the goal that’s the most important thing,” Gallagher added. “I think there’s a lot of aspects of Pleky’s game and I think since I’ve been back he’s been playing really good hockey.”
Therrien agrees.
“I see a lot of good things lately,” the coach said. “Since Gallagher is back on that line I could see the line’s got chances. I could see the line is more dynamic the way they play. They got a lot of success early in the season and I like what I see lately.”
Plekanec wasn’t around when the doors to the Canadiens locker room opened to the media after practice Friday, but Pacioretty was doing as good a job as his linemate’s agent talking about him. Plekanec signed a two-year, $12-million contract extension in October that kicks in next season and will pay him $1.5 million per season more than Pacioretty earns.
“The centreman controls the line for the most part,” Pacioretty said. “You’re involved in the D zone (as a centre). … So I think as a centreman your job is to make your linemates better and that’s why I feel like you often see a lot of centremen with more assists than goals, and Pleky’s done that this year. He’s made me and Gally better players when we’re on a line with him and, obviously, he might not get all the credit because he has way more assists than goals. But in my mind, that’s a sign of a great centreman and I think that’s why he’s had a lot of success over the years.”
Plekanec and Crosby should put on a pretty good show battling each other Saturday night at the Bell Centre and they will play key roles in the outcome of the game.
Maybe all-star John Scott will do the same in Nashville.
