Blogging About The Montreal Canadiens and Canadiens Hockey

Bob Gainey is still busy with his General Manager duties as he signed Olivier Fortier Thursday morning to a three year deal. As per usual, financial terms were not disclosed.

Fortier has missing around 40 games this season due to a knee injury but has managed 35 points in 29 games including 12 penalty minutes. Fortier was drafted in the third round, 65th overall by the Montreal Canadiens and has been playing with the Rismouski Oceanic for the past four seasons.

Player Links:
HF Profile
HockeyDB

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History will be made tonight at the Bell Centre as Patrice Brisebois will play his 1000th NHL game. Oh, and some goalie will try to match a record for most career wins. All kidding aside, tonight is a huge game. New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur (you may have heard of him) will look to tie the NHL record for most career wins set by none other than the Canadiens own Patrick Roy. You couldn’t ask for a better storyline. Brodeur will try to match the record in his hometown, against his favorite childhood team with the current record holder in attendence. Let’s hope the Habs can play spoilers tonight!

 Montreal Canadiens
Record: 36-24-8 (9th)
Confrence Rank: 5th
Power Play: 17.9% (18th)
Penalty Kill: 82.8% (8th)

Kostitsyn – Koivu – Tanguay
D’Agostini – Plekanec – Pacioretty
Higgins – Lapierre – Kostopoulos
Stewart – Metropolit – Dandenault

Markov – Komisarek
Hamrlik – Brisebois
Schneider – Gorges

Injuries
Francis Bouillon (Groin)
Alex Kovalev (Flu)
Robert Lang (Achilles Tendon)
Georges Laraque (Back)
Guillaume Latendresse (Shoulder)

New Jersey Devils
Record: 44-20-3 (4th)
Confrence Rank: 2nd
Power Play: 19.9% (12th)
Penalty Kill: 81.4% (14th)

Injuries
None

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Jaroslav Halak will get the start in goal tomorrow night against the New Jersey Devils. It will be his first start since suffering from the flu. Halak has won his last 4 games in a row and five of his last 6.

What could be a historic night for Martin Brodeur, who with a win, will tie the record set by Patrick Roy for most career wins, is also a historic night for Patrice Brisebois. Tomorrow night’s game against the Devils will be his 1000th game played in the NHL. Brisebois played his first game with Canadiens in the 1990-1991 season and has spent the bulk of his 19 NHL seasons here , minus 2 seasons with Colorado and 1 season in the Swiss League during the lockout. He won the Stanley Cup with the Candiens in 1993. Congrats Patrice!

Guillaume Latendresse, who has been out of the lineup since February 1st with a shoulder injury has recieved medical clearance to play. We will know tomorrow whether he will be in the lineup.

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Since it’s only 40 minutes until puckdrop, I’ll just post the important information.

Montreal Projected Lineup
Record: 36-24-7 (9th)
Conference Rank: 5th
Power Play: 17.9% (18th)
Penalty Kill: 82.8% (9th)

Tanguay – Koivu – Kostitsyn
D’Agostini – Plekanec – Pacioretty*
Higgins – Lapierre – Kostopoulos
Stewart – Metropolit – Dandenault

Markov – Komisarek
Hamrlik – O’Byrne
Schneider – Gorges

Carey Price
Jaroslav Halak

Montreal Injuries:
*Kovalev is a game time decision with the flu
Guillaume Latendresse (Shoulder)
Georges Laraque (Back)
Francois Boullion (Groin)
Robert Lang (Achilles tendon)

New York Projected Lineup
Record: 22-37-8 (30th)
Conference Rank: 15th
Power Play: 16.7% (21st)
Penalty Kill: 82.5% (10th)

Comeau – Bailey – Okposo
Bergenheim – Nielson – Tambellini
Hilbert – Iggulden – McLean
T. Jackman – McAmmond – Rechlicz

Streit – Gervais
Witt – Martinek
Pock – Hillen

Injuries
Rick DiPietro (Knee)
Trent Hunter (Ankle)
Freddy Meyer (Groin)
Richard Park (Rib)
Mike Sillinger (Hip)
Andy Sutton (Foot)
Nate Thompson (Shoulder)
Doug Weight (MCL)

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It didn’t take Bob Gainey, Interim Coach and General Manager of the Montreal Canadiens, long to begin making changes with his team. Gainey has changed all three defensive pairings and has put Alex Kovalev on left wing with Matt D’Agostini and Tomas Plekanec.

Andrei Markov and Mike Komisarek are reunited as the #1 D-pairing, Ryan O’Byrne will play with Roman Hamrlik on the second D-pairing, and Mathieu Schneider will see slightly less ice-time playing on the third D-pairing with Josh Gorges.

The thing that really surprised me was that Max Pacioretty will be benched alongside Patrice Brisebois, and the injured Guillaume Latendresse.

I’m VERY happy to see the Tanguay-Koivu-A. Kostitsyn line stay together. That line absolutely dominated in the game against Dallas and had so many scoring chances.

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Hamilton Bulldogs Head Coach Don Lever will join Head Coach/General Manager Bob Gainey behind the bench as an assistant coach. He will join Associate coach Doug Jarvis, assistant coaches Kirk Muller and Roland Melanson who will remain on the coaching staff. Two seasons ago, Lever led Hamilton to a 16-6 post-season record and a Calder Cup Championship, the first in the 11-year history of the franchise. He became the Bulldogs sixth head coach in July of 2005 and is in his fourth season with a record of 153-127-8-17. Lever is the Bulldogs longest serving coach.

Bio From Wikipedia:
“Lever was drafted 3rd overall by the Vancouver Canucks in the 1972 NHL Amateur Draft. The forward reached the 20-goal mark six times in Vancouver and played for Canada at the 1978 World Championships. Lever was traded to the Atlanta Flames alongside Brad Smith in exchange for Ivan Boldirev and Darcy Rota on February 8, 1980. He was later the first captain of the New Jersey Devils. Lever scored the first goal in Devils history. He was recognized for both his penalty killing and powerplay abilities. Lever played 1020 career NHL games, scoring 313 goals and 367 assists for 680 points”

Player Links

Hamilton Bulldogs Profile

Hockey DB Coaching/Player Stats

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Now THAT is a shakeup. Head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, Guy Carbonneau, as been fired by the Montreal Canadiens and will be replaced by GM Bob Gainey until a suitable replacement has been found. The announcement just came out on RDS.ca.

This shouldn’t be a shocker to anyone, I mean, Carbonneau seemed to have a tough time making the difficult decisions that this team needed. Gainey making the decision to bench Kovalev for two games is just one example of this.

Obviously the Gainey and the organization didn’t feel like Carbonneau was helping this team, and it makes perfect sense.

Who would I like to see? This may come as a surprise to some of you, but I believe that Pat Quinn is still more than capable of leading a professional hockey team to the post-season.

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A source on HFBoards, which just happens to be Christopher Higgins’ brother, is suggesting that their has been a big shakeup in the Montreal Canadiens locker room, in the sense that someone may be on his way out.

It’s still not been said if it’s a player or management, but it’s possible that this could be a verified and accurate rumor. No “official” news has been released, but could be as early as this evening. We’ll keep you informed.

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Lines for tonight:

Tanguay – Koivu – A.Kostitsyn
Pacioretty – Plekanec – Kovalev
Higgins – Lapierre – Kostopoulos
Stewart – Metro – D’Agostini

Dandenault will be on defense meaning Brisebois will be in the pressbox. Not sure about O’Byrne or the D pairings yet.

Price will get the start in net

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According to a blurb at the bottom of this article, the Canadiens have already signed Captain Saku Koivu. The article is in french, translated it reads:

“A source assures me that Saku Koivu’s next contract is already in a drawer, signed, but that they’re waiting until summer to announce it so as to not make waves.”

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