HABS STOP THE BLEEDING

Now, let’s get one thing straight.
One victory over the Atlanta Thrashers does not a season make.  But when it comes to the Montreal Canadiens, it’s a win that just might turn this season around.
Might.
If nothing else, Montreal’s 6-3 victory over the team with the third-worst record in the Eastern Conference of the NHL, snapped a [...]

MASS CALL-UP FROM HAMILTON

Upper body, lower body.
Upper body, lower body.
Unfortunately, it’s been an all-too-familiar refrain for the Montreal Canadiens of late. And the latest member of the Habs to be singing that painful tune is Alex Tanguay who is out with an upper body injury after going down early in Tuesday’s win over Tampa: specifically, a dislocated left [...]

HAPPY NEW YEAR? MAYBE NOT FOR TANGUAY

It’s not every day that your number one line is sitting in the press box.
But that could indeed be the case when the Canadiens return to action Friday in New Jersey after closing out the 2008 calendar year with three victories in four nights; win number three coming last night in Tampa thanks to a [...]

MID-TERM REPORT CARD

School’s out for the term, and members of the Montreal Canadiens are enjoying the Christmas break until they return to class Dec. 27 in Pittsburgh against the Penguins.  Report cards have been issued for all students.  Some have excelled, others need to show more effort.  Here are their grades:
Andrei Markov.  Andrei has been a very [...]

MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS AS HABS FALL IN RALEIGH

With game 31 of the regular season in the books, a 3-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricaines in one of the strangest hockey games you’ll ever see, I’m left pondering the question:
Where are these guys?
Where is the Tomas Plekanec who emerged as a truly splended centreman last season on a line with Andrei Kostitsyn and [...]

COSTLY WIN OVER CALGARY

The final stats on Chris Higgins and Mathieu Dandenault were lost in the shuffle of last night’s impressive 4-1 win by the Canadiens over the Calgary Flames at the Bell Centre.
Higgins:  3:33 of ice time.
Dandenault: 9:16 of ice time.
Both players left early after taking significant hits along the boards which left them both with “upper [...]

A NUMBERS GAME

All right. It’s time to take a deep breath.
Can we all agree that the goal that Ryan O’Byrne scored on his own net last night in the game against the New York Islanders is not the number one concern on this Montreal Canadiens’ team?
Good.
Now let’s move on, and take a look at the 2008-2009 [...]

ONE STEP FORWARD…

…two steps back?
We’ll begin to get the answer to that question Saturday night, when the Boston Bruins come to town on a night when the Montreal Canadiens retire Patrick Roy’s jersey number 33.
We’ve been down this road with this Canadiens‘ team before, of late. I take you back to the 6-3 loss to the [...]

BETTER PERFORMANCE, SAME RESULT

Well, at least they weren’t embarrassed.
The Montreal Canadiens came up with a better performance but still came up on the short end of a 2-1 decision to the Philadelphia Flyers Saturday night at the Bell Centre.  This was a more determined effort by a Canadiens‘ club that was shellacked 6-1 in Boston 48 hours earlier.  [...]

SATURDAY MORNING MUSINGS…

Am I the only one who thinks it might be time to give Mathieu Dandenault another crack at playing the blueline?  Ryan O’Byrne is proving that he’s not quite ready for prime time.  And if the Canadiens are not willing to give him the ice time he will eventually need to develop into an effective [...]