GAME DAY NOTES:Gionta & Pacioretty Will Not Play, War Of Words Begins

Already without Lars Eller, the Montreal Canadiens job got even more difficult as they will be without their captain and also perhaps their most skilled forward as Brian Gionta and Max Pacioretty will not play tonight due to upper body injuries, according to coach Michel Therrien.

Oct 26, 2011; Montreal, QC, CAN; Montreal Canadiens left wing Max Pacioretty (67) celebrates his goal against Philadelphia Flyers with teammates center Tomas Plekanec (14) and captain Brian Gionta (21) during the second period at the Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports

This will impact the Canadiens’ ability to score, and the Senators need to jump on the undermanned Habs while they can and take a stranglehold on the series.

OTHER NOTES:
The war of words is already brewing between the club, well at least in one direction.

Habs’ forward Brandon Prust resorted to name calling when he referred to Sens coach Paul MacLean:

MacLean, staying classy, responded with:

"MacLean on Prust: “they can say whatever they want. I’m just here to coach.”— Wayne Scanlan (@HockeyScanner) May 3, 2013"

Meanwhile, Therrien accused MacLean of disrespecting Eller and his family with the postgame comments, which from what I saw were pretty much directly aimed at the suicide pass from Raphael Diaz.

While Prust also suggested that he hopes Gryba doesn’t get suspended, probably because he and his teammates want to get a piece of Gryba.  Perfect.  Let them run around and chase Gryba.  He is 6’5″ and can take care of himself.  Let the Canadiens focus more on that than on the fact that they trail the series 1-0 at home.

It took exaclty one game for the rivalry to explode, and the rest of the series promises to be a barnburner.