Sharks will be good test for Habs
San Jose’s ‘solid defence’ will be a challenge
The
Canadiens face an interesting test Saturday night at the Bell Centre against the red-hot San Jose Sharks.
Canadiens goaltender Carey Price will start in net against the Sharks (7 p.m., CBC, RDS, TSN Radio 690), who suffered their first loss in regulation Thursday against the Boston Bruins.
“It will be a very big challenge for our team,” said Canadiens coach Michel Therrien, who considers the Sharks the best team in the NHL right now.
“It’s a team that will continually put pressure on their opponent. (They) always finish at the net. They’re solid defensively. They have a good goaltender,” Therrien added, alluding to Antti Niemi, who has a sparkling 1.67 goalsagainst average.
Canadiens defenceman Douglas Murray, who was drafted by the Sharks, has a good idea of what the Habs are up against.
“You’ve got to be patient and play a good team game,” Murray said Friday in Brossard after his first full prac- tice with the Canadiens since suffering an upper-body injury during training camp.
“They have a lot of skill and they capitalize on your mistakes. So team defence first and a good defensive game. And if you’re going to win the game, it’s not going to be a high-scoring affair.”
Murray said he’s day-to-day and starting to feel much better, but still has to get cleared by doctors.
“I really wanted to play (Saturday), but that’s not going to happen the way it looks like,” he said. “But I’m hoping as soon as possible.”
Murray signed as a free agent with the Canadiens in August and has yet to play a regular-season game because of the injury.
“If it would have happened in San Jose, where I was for seven years — played through injuries and I didn’t get injured that much in the past — it would have been different,” he said. “But it’s not fun ... first impressions getting injured right at the beginning of camp. It was tough, but just going to have to make up for it now.”
George Parros wore a noncontact jersey and practised with the team for the second day in a row since suffering a concussion in the Canadiens’ season opener.
The line of TomasPlekanec, Brian Gionta and rookie Michaël Bournival led the offensive charge Thursday in the Canadiens’ 4-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks.
“You go through those ups and downs. Right now we have that chemistry,” Gionta said when asked why the line is clicking so well.
“I think it’s three similar type players — guys that work hard at both ends of the ice. Bournival has added a lot of energy to the line as a young kid. He sees the ice extremely well for us and he’s making great plays.
“I can’t say enough about the kid,” the captain added.
“He’s a great kid off the ice. Real quiet, just goes about his business. But he’s a big part of this team.”
Bournival has points in his last four games since being a healthy scratch last week in Winnipeg.
He’s making good decisions with the puck, is really solid defensively and can create turnovers with his speed, Therrien said.
The Canadiens called up 6-foot-2, 222-pound defenceman Greg Pateryn this week from the Hamilton Bulldogs.
Therrien declined to say whether Pateryn is expected to be in the lineup against the Sharks, saying they’ll make a decision Saturday. Notes — Saturday’s game will be a homecoming and Bell Centre debut for Dorval native Jason Demers, a 25-year-old defenceman with the Sharks. “It’s going to be exciting to play in front of that crowd,” Demers said in a phone interview this week.
Demers was selected by the Sharks in the seventh round (186th overall) of the 2008 draft. He was naturally thrilled, but as a 20-yearold hadn’t thought he would be picked, expecting an NHL tryout instead.
In fact, Demers said he and his father were watching the draft on a computer because one of his friends was getting drafted. When Demers was picked, “We thought it was a joke,” he said.
In his rookie season in 2009-10 with the Sharks, Demers recorded 21 points in 51 games — tying him for fourth in the league among first-year defencemen. The Sharks re-signed him in June to a one-year deal.
Demers dealt with injuries in the last 48-game season, playing in only 22 of them. He’s played in all the Sharks’ games this season, mainly paired with Scott Hannan, while averaging 18:53 in ice time.
“After two years of injury it’s important to kind of re-establish my game and where I was two years ago,” he said.