Montreal Canadiens Blog

As most of you are probably already aware, the Montreal Canadiens have exclusive talking rights to Mats Sundin until July 1st, at which time he’ll be an Unrestricted Free Agent. The probably of landing such a player is very low, but it seems Gainey is still going after the Toronto stud who’s been the face of that franchise for a very long time.

Their are many reports that Gainey himself will be flying to Sweden to meet with Sundin face to face, but according to TSN analyst, Bob Mackenzie, this is probably not the case as Gaineys talking rights can only go so far, and stalking players is not covered under those.

I haven’t decided whether I would be happy with this, or not, as it’s a double edged sword. One one hand, he’s a solid player who comes out every night and plays like it’s his last. He’s been a dominating player in the league for years, and always produces. On the other hand, we’d most likely only be able to sign him to a one year contract, and that of course is if he doesn’t retire in this off season.

So you see, it’s up in the air at the moment. Talks with Sundin by Gainey will be done this week, so we’ll hopefully know sooner than later.

Well folks, now that we’re into the quarter-final matchups of the World Hockey Championships, I wanted to go over the stats totals for Canadiens players. These are direct from the IIHF site, so they are accurate as of 5/10/2008. Unfortunately, Belarus has been eliminated from the tournament by the Czech Republic, so both Kostitsyn’s and Grabovski will not be tallying any more points.

Most noticeably, are Andrei Kostitsyn’s 18 penalty minutes! Who knew. He also has two goals and an assist in four games.

Now that the wound has healed a little bit, Bob Gainey and Guy Carbonneau had their year end press conference for the media yesterday, and it didn’t appear that either were one bit rattled over the early departure of the Montreal Canadiens from the Stanley Cup playoffs, and why would they be? I mean, the average age of this team is like 22, one of the lowest in the NHL. This team is going to be great for years to come.

Bob Gainey will definitely be looking to make some moves over the summer, looking for a guy or two that fits in with the Montreal Canadiens’ style of play, which he described as being quick and exciting, and that would help the current players get better, and more prepared for the playoffs.

One member of the Montreal Canadiens not likely to be back next season will be Michael Ryder, not because he didn’t try hard, or didn’t want it, but because the Montreal Canadiens reorganization of lines and special teams just wasn’t in Ryder’s favor, and you can’t blame the guy for that. Using Mike Rebeiro as an example, I believe that Ryder could have a breakout year with a team who needs a sniper at RW.

On the other side Gainey is looking to resign UFA Mark Streit for another season, and who could blame him. Streit had a breakout year with 62 points, his best year since…well, ever. This strong Offensive/Defenseman gives us a great shot at the point on our PP, and could move up to our fourth or even third line if need be.

The Montreal Canadiens will be looking into resigning Andrei Kostitsyn, who is RFA next season, but the possibility of him return to the RSL, or going to another NHL team is viable. Gainey believes that Kostitsyn is comfortable in Montreal, especially now that his brother playing here, and believes we’ll be seeing Andrei Kostitsyn back in the Bleu, Blanc, et Rouge, next season.

Montreal is said to be a frontrunner for Swedish start, Fabian Brunnstrom, who just happened to be in Montreal for two days on the weekend, checking things out. Brunnstrom is also said to have visited Detroit and Dallas, but should make a decision by the end of the week who he wants to go with.

All in all, I think we’re going to have a great 08-09 season.

‘Tis a sad day for all us Habs fans, as the Montreal Canadiens were eliminated from the playoffs last night in only 5 games in the second round. I’m sure many fans will wake up today pretending it didn’t happen, but when they tune in to watch the next game, the realization will kick in.

I can’t even imagine how the players of the Canadiens must be feeling today, but for myself, I’m not upset about it at all, a little disappointed maybe, but not upset. This was the best season I have ever seen for as long as I have been a Montreal Canadiens fan. I’m already getting ready for next year.

Last night was a hard fought game, and they had everything they needed to win, but unfortunately a couple of lucky goals propelled the Flyers to a win. Umberger had two, while Richards, Hartnell, Knuble, and Upshall are notched goals to give Philadelphia a 6-4 win over the Canadiens. Key players has to step up this game, and they did as Plekanec, Kovalev, A. Kostitsyn, and Christoper Higgins scored for the Habs.

Price played a solid game and looked pretty good through all three periods of this game, and we can only wait until next year where we’ll see him another year older, and more experience. This Canadiens team as a whole is built for the next few years with a complete and young roster, and will definitely be competing in the playoffs for a while to come. This is all thanks to Bob Gainey and the scouting staff of the Canadiens.

Not even the lucky tie could save us this time. Let’s take a look at some post-game audio from various Canadiens players.

Carey Price
Josh Gorges
Saku Koivu

Sorry folks, but I didn’t have time to write a game day post today as I had a ball hockey tournament all day (We won!!). I just wanted to make a quick post before game time to let everyone know that the lucky tie is indeed in this game, so hopefully we can see a great game with the Habs winning it.

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Seriously! Did anyone actually doubt that he would? Carbonneau has named Carey Price the true starter on several occasions, so god forbid Halak get a start every now and then. So yes, Price will be starting game 5 at home against the Flyers, which he has known since after the last game. “Coach told me after the last game,” Price said. “He said prepare for the next three games. It’s going to be a war.”

If that doesn’t get you pumped up for tomorrow nights game, then you might as well hang up your six shooter, because you my friend, are no Canadiens fan.

I have a lot of respect for Halak, he tries hard every single game, and even took us 99% of the way to the playoffs last season before Huet came back and fucked it up, but I digress. Now that price has had some rest I would hope to expect nothing bu perfection, or close to it, in the next few games, which could possibly be the Montreal Canadiens last games of the season.

Go Habs Go!

After four games in a grueling series against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Montreal Canadiens find themselves down 3 games to 1 as they face a potentially heart breaking loss in front of 21,273 at home on Saturday. The question on everyone’s mind is, ‘Do the Canadiens have it in them to come back?’.

My love for the Habs notwithstanding, I will begin by saying that it is possible, but their is no doubt it my mind that three different factors need to happen first.

1. Price needs to have three incredible strong games with save percentages above .950. We can’t afford any flukey goals at this point, so he needs to make sure that the defense aren’t getting in his line of vision.

2. We really need our Special Teams to pick up their game to what we’ve seen all regular season. This, of course, includes the penalty kill, and more importantly the power play who has been absolutely horrible.

3. The final thing we need is to be much more aggressive around Biron, and I do mean aggressive. The goals that we’ve scored on him in the post-season have been ones where we were crashing the net, and screening him. This is the type of play we need from more than just our fourth line.

The Canadiens have done this before against Boston, and that was absolutely monumental. This series is far from over if the Habs can push for a win in Game 5, because no one wants to lose the series at home ice.

With two losses in a row, I’m reminded of the last series against Boston when the Habs lost two in a row to come back in win game 7 with a 5-0 shutout. Price may have been pulled in the third period of last game, but expect to see him back in nets and looking hungry. As usual the Game Day Post is where it’s at.

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A late rush in the third period wasn’t enough for the Habs as the Philadelphia Flyers take game 3 by a score of 3-2. All three of the Flyer’s goals were scored in the second period by Upshall, Richards, and Umberger, before Carey Price was pulled for the third giving Halak some time in nets.

Midway through the third period the Flyers received a four minute penalty to give the Habs a perfect opportunity to come back where they had a mass of chances but almost tied it up with 2 goals in a 1:12 span by Tomas Plekanec and Saku Koivu.

It was unfortunate that Price was pulled but his play the last few games has been questionable. He seems to be an up and down goalie at the moment which probably comes from the fact that he’s only 20 years old, and in his first playoff run in the NHL. I’m not at all worried, as we’ve seen this before from the kid (ala the 5-0 comeback against the Rangers), and he always seems to come back with a storm of great games.

Jaroslav Halak took the reigns in the third period, which was completely dominated by the Habs, stopping all of 2 shots that he face in that 20 minute time frame. Late in the third their was also a questionable too many men penalty which could easily be argued, but I’ll just leave it at that.

The next game will also be held in Philadelphia, so let’s hope for a better result to split the Away trip and tie up the series heading home.

The Flyers wanted nothing more than to tie up the series before heading back to Philadelphia and they did just that. A stunning game for Biron, the Flyers’ netminder, while at the other end Price might have been a little rattled and he let in some weak ones. The final score of this one was 4-2 for the Flyers with Umberger, Carter, and Koivu scoring in the first period, Briere scoring in the second period, and Markov and Umberger (again) scoring the third.

The Habs definitely made this game interesting and almost accomplished the come back which saw them win game one, but just couldn’t finish it off. They had a lot of chances including many posts, but Biron was definitely a game saver for Philly. Koivu is having an insane come back with 6 points in 4 games including the goal he got last night to open the scoring for the Montreal Canadiens.

Price will have to play better in the next games, and I am completely confident that he will. Here is a great response from him about the game, “It’s kind of tough when you’re not getting a whole lot of work and then you get a bad break, it’s tough to hang in there,” Price said. “I know I can play better, and it’s going to happen in the next game.” What a guy.