Blogging About The Montreal Canadiens and Canadiens Hockey

This season has been less than ideal for the Canadiens who have lost two straight to both Buffalo and Washington, but they’ll be looking to turn things around as they play the Florida Panthers, the only team that the Montreal Canadiens have an all-time losing record against.

If history is any indication then this will be another low scoring game between these two teams, albeit the last game saw 9 goals score in a 5-4 win for the Habs on new years eve.

The starting goaltender could go either way but Jaroslav Halak has the best record of the two young goaltenders going 3-0 in his career against Florida. His goals against average of 3.25 and .907 career save percentage versus Florida will tell you how his games in net have gone.

Matt D’Agostini has been promoted to the first line and will be playing with Tomas Plekanec and Mike Cammalleri in tonights game. I can’t see him playing the first line the entire game but if he brings his game he may just do it.

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For the first time this season the New Jersey Devils and Montreal Canadiens will square off in what’s sure to be an “exciting” game. The Devils look to continue their stellar play while the Canadiens are looking to break their two game losing streak.

Carey Price should get the start after Jaroslav Halak had an .820 save percentage night against the Buffalo Sabres. Price is 2-2 in his career against the Devils recording a .933 save percentage and averaging 2.20 goals against including a single shutout performance.

Andrei Kostitsyn has 4 goals and 1 assist in his last 2 games and has 3 points in 9 career games against New Jersey.

Live Stream Links
- http://www.pcworkbench.net/kilonet.shtml
- http://www.justin.tv/exnordic02

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Andrei Kostitsyn had his second two goal game in a row but it wasn’t enough to get a win over the Buffalo Sabres. Untimely penalties seem to be the trend in the last two losses which is something that the Canadiens are going to need to improve if they expect to make the playoffs.

Adding to Kostitsyn’s goal was a goal from Mike Cammalleri who went top shelf with a pass from Andrei Kostitsyn. The top line of Andrei Kostitsyn, Mike Cammalleri and Tomas Plekanec combined for 7 points on the night.

Jaroslav Halak stopped 23 of the 27 shots he faced giving him an .851 save percentage which is not good enough to beat a team like Buffalo.

Three Stars: 3. Jochen Hecht 2. Tyler Myers 1. Andrei Kostitsyn

Game Highlights

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The Sabres visit the Canadiens in this Monday night match-up and the Canadiens will hope to redeem themselves after their previous bout with the Sabres that saw them lose 6-2 after getting badly outplayed.

Jaroslav Halak will get his chance to get back at the Sabres tonight as he will be the starting goaltender. Halak is 2-1 in his career against the Sabres recording an .875 save percentage and averaging 3.90 goals against. In his last start against the Sabres earlier this year he allowed 6 goals.

The Canadiens are 7 points behind the North-East division leading Sabres so a win here would make huge progress for the Habs.

No new faces in tonights lineup for the Habs, but Markov is getting closer and closer to a return. Andrei Kostitsyn will be the player to watch for the Canadiens after coming off of a 2 goal performance Saturday night against the Atlanta Thrashers.

Live Stream Links for Buffalo Sabres vs Montreal Canadiens
- http://www.ndsportstalk.com/sop2.html (Internet Explorer Required)

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After last nights horrible loss against the Sabres, the Montreal Canadiens hope to come back with a win against the Boston Bruins at home as they celebrate 100 years of glory.

Carey Price will get the start tonight and will be dawning a special centennial mask. Price is 7-2 in his career against the Boston Bruins during the regular season with a .915 save percentage so he’s been pretty solid. In his last appearance against Boston earlier this year he had a shutout going until the end of the third period where Bergeron netted a goal off the faceoff.

I’m impressed with how Sergei Kostitsyn has rebounded since his return to the NHL. He has yet to score a goal but he’s notched 3 assists in the 5 games that he’s played since his return including a nice feed to Scott Gomez in last nights game against the Buffalo Sabres.

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For those of you who aren’t able to watch the Canadiens and Sabres game on T.V. here is a link to the live stream of the game.

sop://broker.sopcast.com:3912/84588

This link requires the Sopcast player which can be downloaded using the link provided. Just download the the software found at the link above and then click on the link. It can take up to 5 minutes for the game to load.

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Two days after the Montreal Canadiens got thromped by the Maple Leafs they try to avoid a fourth loss in a row to the hands of the Buffalo Sabres.

Andrei Kostitsyn will be back in the lineup tonight with Gill sidelined as a healthy scratch.

Jaroslav Halak gets his first start since a November 10th loss in Calgary. Halak is 2-0 in his career against the Sabres with only an .898 save percentage and a 2.89 goals against average.

This is gonna be a tough game for the Canadiens has Ryan Miller has been crazy hot lately and I don’t suspect that Andrei Kostitsyn is going to be the diferrence maker in this one but would be pleased if he was.

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It’s hard to get excited about writing about a team that consistently disappoints me, but I suppose as a fan it’s my duty to do so.

With a 1-0 loss to the Flames, the Canadiens now have a record of 8 wins and 10 loses and with just 16 points they are 3 behind the division leading Buffalo Sabres and 8 behind the the conference leading Pittsburgh Penguins.

I’m beginning to notice that when we’re defensive, we can’t be offensive, and vice verse. With the amount of money we have spend on scoring we should not be seeing these 1-0 losses.

Halak or Price, Price or Halak. It’s not going to really matter if we can’t help them out defensively, and if they don’t performing on a more consistent basis. They’re both young and still learning so I understand that it’s going to take some time before they’re ready to play 60 games a season, but if neither of them can play 40 then we may have a problem.

On a more positive note our penalty kill was 100%, and in his first game on the Bleu, Blanc, et Rouge, Jay Leach was NOT a minus and played 17 minutes.

Stars of the tonight’s game were 3) Jarome Iginla, 2) Jaroslav Halak who had a .968 save percentage and 1) Miikka Kiprusoff with the shutout.

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December 20th @ 7:00pm EST

RDS(HD), MSG-B

vs

NHL Preview: NHL.com
HFBoards GDT: HFBoards.com
Watch it online: FREE

Injuries: Mathieu Dandenault (Broken Arm), Chris Higgins (Injured Arm), Saku Koivu (Ankle/Foot), Carey Price (Flu/Lower-Body), George Laraque (Groin), Andrei Kosstitsyn (Lower-body)

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Eklund reports that the Canadiens, amongst others, may be interested in Nashville Predators D-man Ville Koistinen who is as he describes, “a diamond in the rough” on the Nashville blueline. Koistinen currently has 7 points and 6 penalty minutes in 18 games with the Predators this season.

I’m gonna be honest, I have never heard of Koistinen, but his stats look good and he lead all Defenseman in the Finnish Elite League in points with 34 in 56 games, and also likes to play on the PP so he may have a good shot.

Other teams that may have interest in him include Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres, and Tampa Bay Lightning.

Player Links:
HF Profile

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