Posts tagged Christopher Higgins

Prospect watch : Tom Pyatt

Oct 30th

Posted by Yves in Prospects

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Boston Bruins v Montreal Canadiens

Back in the early months of the summer and just prior to the draft we all heard of that big trade that brought Scott Gomez over from the New York Rangers. In that deal we saw Chris Higgins go the other way…. a player that I enjoyed and had high hopes for.

Along with Gomez came his hefty contract which, I will admit, made it hard for me to swallow that deal. After “UFA season” opened and we signed Cammalleri and Gionta, who both mentioned the Gomez deal as a factor in their decision, I thought it might be shaping up. At least it didn’t look too bad…. we had some newly acquired offensive punch to replace that which had gone out with the players who were not being offered contracts to return.

In that trade came a player that at first I took no notice of. His name is Tom Pyatt.

So who is Tom Pyatt??
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Looking much better

Apr 1st

Posted by Yves in Game comments

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Last night, I watched the Montreal Canadiens play VS the Chicago Blackhawks.. I game I was looking forward to for the last week.

Overall, I think the Habs played a good game last night.
Carey Price made some really  nice saves… really nice. He’s been showing more confidence of late as is most of the team.
Shortly after Carbo was fired from the coaching position and Gainey was behind the bench I started hearing some chatter on sports talk shows asking if there had been any real changes since Carbo was gone. As the team didn’t respond in a huge fashion right away, most said there were no real changes. I didn’t think there was either at first.
But, I think there were and they simply had to play out with a bit of time.
Gainey always seems to be a calm guy, even when his team seemed to loose some pretty bad games he didn’t panic or flinch in his news conferences and most importantly the lines were never scrambled as often as they were with Carbo…. nor were all 4 lines used in almost equal time at “crunch time”.
Confidence doesn’t come overnight. Confidence builds in a person (and a team for that matter).
Gainey’s made alot of smaller moves in his lineup…. one guy who’s really come on defensively is Chris Higgins. I was surprised that he was in the lineup last night but delighted that he was.
Higgins almost seems to have a clearer role in recent weeks and it’s not really the offensive role that he would occasionally be given…. he’s been a really good defensive forward. On the PK last night he played some really great hockey. There was one play last night where he had 3 Hawks players go backwards with the puck because of his fast skating…. Higgins was looking good as a shutdown guy.
There seems to be some confidence built in these guys over these last few weeks. They play with more jump, they seem to hit a bit more…. encouraging.
There’s a stat that’s been jumping out at me also.. and it’s the shots on goal which had a steady decline in numbers in recent weeks. There had been some “talk” and questioning about the goaltending, but the numbers of shots these guys had to face was a bit unreal. Now, their defensive play has really been doing their goaltenders justice.
I’ll compile some shots on goals stats later on. Last night, they outshot the Hawks 33 – 29.
So this morning, the Canadiens sit 1 point ahead of Florida for 8th place with 1 game in hand… and 1 point back of the Rangers with 1 game in hand.
The race is on!
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Players not in practice

Oct 22nd

Posted by Yves in Montreal Canadiens

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At today’s practice 4 players were missing.

1. Andrei Kostitsyn is still sitting out (not surprising)
2. Carey Price
3. Andrei Markov
4. Chris Higgins
I don’t mean to sound paranoid or anything… but I’m starting to feel a little weird about Higgins. Especially because he was announced as being in the lineup a couple of games ago… only to have his status changed again later that day… and he still hasn’t played and is missing practice.
Couple that with all those trade rumours for Gaborik… and you’ve got all kinds of people speculating that something is going down.
I guess one thing that leads to all this speculation is that we’re left in the dark to the exact nature of what Higgins injury is…. which might explain why he continues to be absent.
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Halak gets the call and A. Kostitsyn

Oct 19th

Posted by Yves in Montreal Canadiens

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Jaroslav Halak gets the call in goal monday night vs the Florida Panthers.

So far I really like the tandem of Price and Halak in goal even though their young…. Price has been amazing and Halak has looked good too in the little time he’s had.
Amidst some of the present trade rumours and future trade rumours, I’m sure his name will continue to be thrown around… in any event, I think he’s gonna be a very good goaltender for years to come.
Looks like Andrei Kostitsyn’s injury is not looking too serious…. which is a huge relief. According to an RDS article, a few hours after the hit he was already feeling much much better. Carbo figures about a week off and he (Andrei) will be back in the lineup on Saturday.
Christopher Higgins will be in the lineup on Monday, his first game of the season. He’ll be on a line with Robert Lang and Tom Kostopoulos… I think that Higgins might work out on that line… Lang will most certainly find him.
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