Habs vs Former Habs - October 27

The Canadiens players made some interesting gains on their former counterparts this past week. A pair of 5 goal games didn't hurt matters.

A pair of quick clarification notes for starters.

I've flipped Markov for Bergeron and Bouillon for Hainsey for no other reason than it is more interesting to follow players who are actually pointing. By mid-season or later, depending on Markov's return date, I might just list 7 defensemen per side.

Additionally, the players ranked side by side aren't neccessarily being compared to one another. There's been some confusion or misunderstanding about this. Players on both sides of the columns are ranked simply by points. If that happens to align one against another, you can draw your own conclusions on that note.

Now onto the interesting bits:

The biggest jumps on the Canadiens' players side were made by Cammalleri, the NHL's second star of the week, and Glen Metropolit, who returned from his rib injury and has posted consistently in three games played. Gionta, Gomez and Plekanec have had some multi-point games to shore up their totals as well. Among the depth players, there's a few added digits alongside the names of Moen, Lapierre, Pacioretty and D 'Agostini.

Among the former Habs, most have had a quiet week with just a point or two through three games. Perhaps the biggest surprise continues to be Steve Begin, who potted a couple of goals this past week, to add to his 4 assists. The same goes for Arron Asham, who's an anomaly on this list, as the sole player not cast off during the Gainey regime.

The six Canadiens defensemen have 7-11-18 totals through 11 games. The former Habs D comes in at 3-9-12 in roughly 9 games played on average.

Mara, Spacek and Bergeron have 3-9-12 on their own, while defensemen the Canadiens let go last season, Komisarek, Bouillon, Schneider and Dandenault are pointless.

On the surface, Canadiens forwards have 22-36-58 totals, while the former Hab forwards come in at 22-29-51. The former guys have played a few games less each, so it is still pretty much an even draw in that category.

Here's where it gets a bit more revealing:

Gomez - Gionta - Cammalleri: 11-14-25

Koivu - Tanguay - Kovalev: 4-5-9

A second tier of reel ins versus castoffs would look like this:

Moen and Metropolit: 4-7-11

Kostopoulos and Begin: 3-4-7

The removal of Lang (1-3-4) from the Canadiens center position seems to have helped Plekanec (2-8-10) return to a form shown two years ago.

Here's the rundown on all players:

Jaroslav Halak 5-4-1-0 2.28 / Jose Theodore 7-2-2-2 2.55 (Capitals)

Carey Price 6-2-4-0 3.36 / Cristobal Huet 8-4-2-1 2.49 (Blackhawks)

Paul Mara 11-0-5-5 / 10-1-3-4 Mark Streit (Islanders)

Roman Hamrlik 10-3-1-4 / 9-1-2-3 Francois Beauchemin (Maple Leafs)

Jaroslav Spacek 11-1-3-4 / 8-0-3-3 Craig Rivet (Sabres)

Marc-Andre Bergeron 4-2-1-3 / 8-1-1-2 Ron Hainsey (Thrashers)

Josh Gorges 11-1-1-2 / 3-0-0-0 Sheldon Souray (Oilers)

Hal Gill 11-0-0-0 / 9-0-0-0 Mike Komisarek (Maple Leafs)

Mike Cammalleri 11-5-7-12 / 11-3-6-9 Mike Ribeiro (Stars)

Tomas Plekanec 11-2-8-10 / 10-3-3-6 Michael Ryder (Bruins)

Scott Gomez 11-2-5-7 / 10-2-4-6 Steve Begin (Bruins)

Brian Gionta 11-4-2-6 / 9-2-3-5 Mikhail Grabovski (Maple Leafs)

Glen Metropolit 5-1-5-6 / 9-3-1-4 Alexei Kovalev (Senators)

Travis Moen 11-3-2-5 / 10-1-3-4 Robert Lang (Coyotes)

Andrei Kostitsyn 11-1-3-4 / 10-1-3-4 Sergei Samsonov (Hurricanes)

Maxim Lapierre 11-1-2-3 / 6-3-0-3 Arron Asham* (Flyers)

Max Pacioretty 11-1-1-2 / 10-1-2-3 Saku Koivu (Ducks)

Guillaume Latendresse 11-1-0-1 / 12-0-2-2 Christopher Higgins (Rangers)***

Georges Laraque 8-0-1-1 / 9-0-2-2 Alex Tanguay (Lightning)

Matt D'Agostini 9-1-0-1 / 10-1-0-1 Tom Kostopoulos (Hurricanes) 

Habs Total GP: 179 / Goals: 29 /Assists: 47 / Points: 76

Former Habs Total GP: 160 / Goals: 25 / Assists: 38 / Points: 63

Week Three / After 7 games: F 112-15-26-41 / 117-15-31-46

Week Two / After 5 games: F 80-12-20-32 / 67-8-22-30

Week One / After 2 games: F 33-6-11-17 / 23-4-13-17

On the former Habs front, a player I always appreciated was Chris Higgins. A reader asked about him on Saturday, suggesting a parallel between him returning to Montreal and the similar storyline of Kovalev's return a week earlier. Sadly, Higgins storyline never quite materialized. He took an untimely penalty and found himself in John Tortorella's dog pound for the third period. Rangers' fans are seriously worried about him.