Blogging About The Montreal Canadiens and Canadiens Hockey

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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It was a big win for the boys in blue, white and red. The final score was 4-2 with goals coming from Roman Hamrlik, Chris Higgins, Maxim Lapierre, and Andrei Kostitsyn.

They played much better than they had in the last few games, and the ATAK line even clicked netting a goal. Let’s hope they can take this winning attitude when they play Buffalo on Friday and then the Maple Leafs on Saturday.

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Along with Carey Price, Saku Koivu and Christopher Higgins will be making the trip to Atlanta and New Jersey. The chances of them playing is slim to none however, especially with a couple of days rest coming up for the All-Star break.

Price will most likely be good to go for the All-Star game, but may not take part in the Skills Competition. I’m glad to see Carbo not rushing anyone back.

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Very good news on the injury front as every single player has been on the ice today for the practice in Brossard. Georges Laraque was on the ice an hours before regular practice with Strength and Conditioning coach, Scott Livingston. Everyone else was on the ice for the regularly schedule practice.

Carey Price should be in one of the two games played this week, hopefully New Jersey, and it looks like Saku Koivu and Chris Higgins will make a return shortly after the All-Star Break. It will be so nice to get these guys back.

Alex Tanguay and Mathieu Dandenault should make a return in mid-February.

I’m not even sure where everyone is going to go? It’s unfortunate by I can definitely see Matt D’Agostini, Max Pacioretty, and Kyle Chipchura all being sent back down to Hamilton but it just goes to show we can have guys in the Pro’s next year when all of the UFA’s bolt.

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Lots of news from practice today. Along with updates on many players, the Habs have decided to release more information on long term injuries. Instead of using vague discriptions like “upper and lower body injuries” the nature of the injuries will be released to the media.

Carey Price, Saku Koivu and Alex Kovalev did not practice today.

Price doesn’t appear to be coming back any time soon and may miss the All-Star game. Carbonneau told the media if he doesn’t play a game with the team before the All-Star game, he should not participate. There is 4 games between now and the All-Star game on January 25th.

Saku Koivu, who practiced with the team Monday, suffered a “setback” in his recovery and may return for Saturday’s game against Ottawa.

Alex Kovalev missed practice because of a sickness. No word if he will miss tomorrow’s game against Nashville.

Mathieu Dandenault (broken arm), Chris Higgins (shoulder) and Georges Laraque (back, I’ll get to that below) all skated today. With the new injury policy, we learned today that Laraque is suffering from a back injury, not a groin as was speculated. He has been skating and hopes to join the team in practice next week.

Yannick Weber has been sent back to Hamilton. He only played one game with the team since being called up January 1st.

**Side Note: I wish they had kept him up, the schedule the this week is pretty light with the Predators and Senators. He only played one game, that mess against Toronto, not really a good chance to see what he could do. I liked what I saw though.**

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It looks like the injury was a bit more serious that we had originally thought and it is reported that due to the injury to his left shoulder, Chris Higgins will be out 4-6 weeks, another big loss to the team.

This is a though one, he hasn’t really been producing lately, but he played hard which is something we desperately need right now.

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Mathieu Dandenault had surgery on his broken arm this morning and will obviously be out indefinitely for the next while.

Higgins had an MRI and we are awaiting the results. All that is know at this point is that it is an upper body injury, and he will definitely not be in the lineup tomorrow against Tampa Bay.

Ryan O’Byrne will be back in the lineup tomorrow to replace the incapacitated Dandenault, but Carbonneau is unsure of whether or not Latendresse will dress as he also has Laraque who is a healthy body.

I’m hoping O’Byrne has a little more confidence this time out because we can’t afford for him to make crappy mistakes on the blue line against a team who has guys like Lecavalier and St. Louis who is bound to break out.

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Holy crap, Dandenault played the rest of the play with a broken arm, now that is dedication. Looks like he’ll be out for a little whole so O’Byrne will be back in the lineup on Thursday. I’m actually a little saddened by this; Dandenault was playing pretty damn good since we put him back on Defense.

Higgins is going for an MRI tomorrow to find out the extent of his injuries. Not much else is known at this point.

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Three Stars: 1. Jaroslav Halak 2. Robert Lang 3. Alex Kovalev

With his fourth goal in as many games Matt D’Agostini scores what ended up being the game winning goal against a tough Calgary squad. The final score on this one was 4-1 and it seems that the Canadiens may have finally figured things out as they played a very strong 60 minutes while dealing with some missed calls by the refs. The other goals scorers in this game were Lang who scored 2 to give him a total of 10 on the year, and Markov who also added an assist.

Halak played extremely well in this one especially during the open period where he made some incredibly crucial saves to keep the Habs in it. Do I believe he’ll start Thursday night against Tampa Bay? No. But he showed that he’s capable of taking over when Price needs some rest which he definitely needed. Halak ended the night with 32 saves and a .969 save percentage.

The only goal from Calgary came from a nice 2 on 1 by Dustin Boyd, top shelf off of the one-timer. Halak had no chance.

Kovalev added another two assists to give him 16 and 21 points on the season. Although he didn’t have any goals for another game, he’d played like Kovalev of old and you definitely can’t say that’s a bad thing. He almost had a tip on the Markov goal but just missed the puck by inches before it when 5-hole on Kiprusoff.

Although we didn’t have an Power play points, we should have. You would have never thought that this was the team that has only been 10% on the PP at home because we had some monstrous Power play chances that we just couldn’t bury, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

Also to note, Chris Higgins and Mathieu Dandenault left the game due to injuries and will not return. More information as we have it.

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Game 7 is here, and just like everyone else, I’m scared out of my trees. As much as I believe in my Canadiens, I can’t help but have doubts after the way they have been playing the last few games. The Habs need to get their shit together and play like they want it, not play like they deserve it. Koivu’s return sparked some offense in this team, now we can only hope that that continues into tonight.

Expect to see a similar lineup as last game, with Koivu on the second line with Chris Higgins and Sergei Kostitsyn. Hopefully we can get our Powerplay together, and score some points.

I honestly believe that this is not a breakdown by the Habs, I think the Bruins have just figured out our style of play, and realized that rougher game can slow that play down. If the Habs make it out of this series with a win, I expect to see them back to their old selves in the second round. At that time Koivu should be back to his old self.

The Canadiens need to play on the edge, but not hazardous. They’ve played this role before and have excelled like no other. Once they find that happy median during this game, it’ll be smooth sailing. Going up early will be very important to the Canadiens, so we can only hope for a couple of early goals. These one goal leads are what is killing them, we tend to play the trap too much at that point which we can’t be doing.

It’s all or nothing…I Believe!

Injuries

Changes

Playoff Series: Tied 3-3

Team logos graciously provided by NHL Tournament of Logos.

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