Habs grab win over Wild

Last night in Minnesota the Canadiens took 10 penaltys and did not allow a single goal.On the Canadiens power-play they only converted on 1 out of 6. Francis Bouillon and Andrei Markov scored and Carey Price stopped 28 shots as the Habs beat the Wild by the score of 2-1.

"That's probably the best PK game we've played all year so far," Carey Price said after stopping 28 shots in his team's 2-1 victory Thursday night. "It's going to be pretty hard to top that."

"Our PK was awesome tonight," Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau said.

"You always have to give some credit to the other team," Wild coach Jacques Lemaire said. "The few good chances we had, Price stopped them. It's not an excuse when you do have three 5-on-3."

Montreal took a 2-1 lead 2 minutes in the 2nd period on Markov's one-timer from the right circle on a 5-on-3 power-play goal after a slashing call on Minnesota's Mikko Koivu.

Minnesota had there share of chances but what they needed to do which was score on the power-play opportunities they could not do it.

"I think that kind of grabbed the momentum for us," Price said. "It kind of took the wind out of their sails."



The Wild were playing so terrible that the fans were booing them.Before losing the night before in Dallas, Minnesota had been the only NHL team without a loss in regulation to start the 2008-09 season.

"In Dallas we had a couple bad bounces to start the game, and this time we had trouble finishing," James Sheppard said. "Our game was there, we just have to learn to capitalize."

With the Canadiens win they improved to a 7-1-1 record.The Canadiens next game will be on Saturday against the New York Islanders.

Written by Andrew Di Pardo

The Battle of the Brothers

The Wild will be playing 2 nights in a row tonight they will be taking on the Stars then they will play host to Saku Koivu and the Canadiens.

M.Koivu will be playing against his brother for the first time in 2 seasons.After a great performance from S.Koivu last night he will look for more against the Wild.

"It's great playing against somebody that's related to you." S.Koivu told the Canadien press.

“Obviously there’s going to be more attention and more stuff going on off the ice but I think the guys were used to some of that in the last couple of years,” Canadiens captain Saku Koivu said.

Carey Price will start for the Habs in goal.As for the Wild Niklas Backstrom will start in goal for them.

The Habs will look for a better result than that 3-0 lose they got against the Wild in the Pre-Season.

The Puck drop will be 8:10PM E.T

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

Koivu Scores game winner in a Shootout

The Montreal Canadiens came off a 6-4 Lose to the Ducks with lots of confidence,evan thought Carolina struck first in the game.

Alex Kovalev scored in regulation for the Canadiens And Alex Tanguay scored on a penalty shot.

Saku Koivu Scored the only goal in the shootout to make the Habs win 3-2.

"That tells you we have a lot of skill," Kovalev said. "With all the hesitation and the way we're playing we still find a way to win the games.

"It's not going to be easy to win every game like that, so we have to find a way to play the game we finished with last season. We have to take the hesitation out of our game and be confident with what we're doing on the ice."

The shootout loss still gave Carolina a point, but it wasn't much as there head coach Peter Laviolette wanted all of the 2 points.

"I'm in favour of the shootout, but it leaves you with a pit in your stomach, like you did something wrong," he said. "It's quiet in there, it's like we buried a dead cat. But it's a point."

Carey Price made 33 saves in regulation and overtime while also stopping Cullen, Eric Staal and Ray Whitney in the shootout for the win .

Cam Ward made 23 saves in the loss, the first of his career in Montreal after being up with a 7-0-0 record in his first seven starts at the Bell Centre.

written By Andrew Di Pardo

HABS HOST HURRICANES: SUTTER AND KOSTITSYN ARE THE LATEST VICTIMS OF HEADSHOTS

Montreal Canadiens forward Andrei Kostitsyn practiced Monday in his spot with Tomas Plekanec and Alex Kovalev but he his still not ready to play as the Habs play host to the Hurricanes tomorrow night at the Bell Center.

He has skated just 2 times since Kurt Sauer nailed him on the boards 2 weeks ago.He his still awaiting medical information to see if he can play in tomorrows game.The hit happened because he kept his head down but the hit was illegal.

"I don't know if you guys play hockey but it's hard to keep your head up when the pucks on the Ice."Guy Carbonneau told the TSN press.

Their was a similar hit by Doug Weight on Carolina rookie Brendon Sutter on Saturday.Alot of the media is just concerned with these hits because their on the head.

"The league should at least stop saying it's concerned with hits to the head, because it's not," Rutherford told TSN. "I've had four players Erik Cole, Trevor Letowski, Matt Cullen and now Sutter get badly injured on hits to the head and only one of the guys who hit them was suspended. So don't tell me the league is concerned about hits to the head because it's not."


"You can say it's a contact game and it is, and I'm fine with that," added Rutherford. "Just don't say you care about players getting hit in the head because you don't."

I personally think both the fans and the media are concerned with the players getting hurt thats why I don't like that comment by Rutherford.

The puck drop for this game will be at 7:38PM E.T


Written By Andrew Di Pardo

HALAK AND PRICE CAN'T GET IT DONE

The Canadiens took 51 shots on Giguere but fell up short with a 6-4 lose.

"When you do have 50 shots you have to bury a lot more of those," Tanguay said.

It was Surprising that Halak only made 8 saves on 12 shots, his replacement Carey Price made 12 saves on 14 shots.

"We haven't played a game for 5 days and I think our whole team was rusty tonight.We did some good things but the mental focus wasn't there.We weren't as sharp as we were used to being in the last couple of games here."Habs captain Saku Koivu told the press.

Alex Tanguay had two goals, Saku Koivu and Tom Kostopoulos also scored for the Canadiens, who lost there first game in regulation time this season and there record is now 5-1-1,the Canadiens sit in the 4th spot in the eastern conference.

The Ducks top line was finally put on the score sheet last night with Perry scoring his 1st goal of the season.Huskins and Getzlaf also scored for the Ducks to give them a 2-0 lead at the 2:51 in the first period.

"Even though they scored the two goals to tie the hockey game and then they went up 3-2, we didn't really stray away from what we were trying to do," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "We were fortunate enough that our goaltender made enough stops at critical times and our power play delivered for us."


The Canadiens Next game will be on Tuesday against the Hurricanes.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

Habs look to win 6 straight

Hab Players are all starting to be reaching big milestones, it started last Saturday when Mike Komisarek played his 300th game.

"Mike is a big guy who uses his body.He's a great leader in the room and we all have respect for him.It might only be his 3ooth game but I'm sure there will be plenty more."Patrice Brisebois told the Canadiens web site.

Andrei Markov also has reached a big milestone as he has played 500 career games.

"I fell great. I've played 500 games and i want to play another 100 more."Markov Told the press.

Markov also helped there captain reach 600 career points.

13 years after Saku Koivu scored his first goal he has already topped "The Rockets" 421 Assists by getting 422 Assist so far in his career.Most recently he has picked up his 600th point and he ranks 12th on the all time leader list.

"It's a amazing felling when you look at the guys ahead of you and that your following in there steps and it's good to be close to the top 10.I'm that type player that doesn't worry about these things when I'm playing."Koivu Told the media.

The Canadiens will try to continue there winning ways tomorrow when they host the Ducks.

"We want to win as many as possible this season and we won't give up."Guy Carbonneau told the Canadien press.

"We need to start to win games if we want success this season."Brian Burk told the media.

Halak will most likely start for the Habs tomorrow as Carey Price is out with the flu.

Andrei Kostitsyn will be out for tonights game with a suspected concussion from Sauers hit last Saturday.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

Habs win 5 in a row

Montreal Canadiens captain Saku Koivu scored career goal 178 and got his 600th point in last night's 3-1 victory over the Florida Panthers at the Bell Centre.

"I have got to get the Swede," Koivu said in referring to Naslund, whose 612 points ranked 11th overall in franchise history.

"When I first got here a long time ago, I would look at the names on the wall and the Stanley Cups, but I was just trying to make the team. Now 13 years later, it is hard to believe I'm getting close to the top 10."

Bouillon scored the winning goal last night on his 1st game back from his back problem.

"I feel good," he said. "But if you look at the game tonight, there are still a lot of things that we need to work on."

We still need to work on neutral zone and defensive zone coverage a little bit. We just need to get better because we allowed 36 shots on Halak and I still think that, with the club that we have, that is way too much."

Halak had a great game last night with 35 saves."It was one of his best games, and it is not easy for him because it had been several days since he played," Canadiens head coach Guy Carbonneau said.

Eastern Confrence

GP W L 0L PTS
1.Rangers 9 6 2 1 13
2.Canadiens 6 5 0 1 11
3.Capitals 5 3 1 1 7
4.Sabers 5 4 0 1 9
5.Penguins 7 4 2 1 9
6.Devils 5 4 1 0 8
7.Hurricanes5 3 1 1 7
8.Bruins 5 2 1 2 6
-----------------------------
9.Senators 5 2 2 1 5
10.Thrashers5 2 2 1 5
11.Islanders5 2 1 0 4
12.Panthers5 2 1 0 4
13.Leafs 5 1 2 2 4
14.Lightnig5 0 2 3 3
15.Flyers 5 0 3 2 2

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

Panthers At Canadiens

The Canadiens are 4-0-1 going into tonight's game against the 2-2-0 Panthers.

"Winning is fun, and right now we've only lost that first one in the shootout in Buffalo so we're still at the point where we need to rack up wins and move up in the standings," said Alex Tanguay, who scored twice in Saturday's 4-1 victory over Phoenix. "Right now we're certainly having fun."

Saku Koivu got 1 goal and 2 assist he will look to keep his scoring touch by adding his 3rd goal tonight against the Panthers.

Andrei Kostitsyn will not play tonight due to a dirty shot to the head by Kurt Sauer on Saturday night.

"I don't think Sergei Kostitsyn will be seeking for revenge tonight. The emotion is part of the game. Sergei didn't just respond to the hit but the whole team did."Guy Carbonneau told the Press.

Also Georges Laraque is out with a sore groin injury.Chris Higgins is also out with an unknown injury.The Habs has called up centre Kyle Chipchura for this game.

Jaroslav Halak will start in goal tonight for the Canadiens.Tomas Vokoun Will start in goal for the Panthers tonight he is 2-2-0 lifetime against the Canadiens.

The puck Drop Is 7:38 Pm E.T

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

ANDREI KOSTITSYN GOT NAILED BY A DIRTY HIT

A Dirty hit on Andrei Kostitsyn ment that it's time for Georges Laraque to show why the Montreal Canadiens General Manager Bob Gainey went looking for a tough player last summer.

Laraque was playing in a dirty 2nd but a clean 3rd as the Canadiens beat the Phoenix Coyotes 4-1 on 2 goals from Alex Tanguay and 1 goal and 2 assists from Saku Koivu in last nights game. The Canadiens appeared to have lost their star left winger Kostitsyn for an unannounced time.

"Whether it was cheap hit or not, when one of your best players gets knocked out like that, you're not going to say it's OK - you want to respond to it," said Laraque.

Montreal was leading 2-0 in the 2nd period when defenceman David Hale got an glove into Kostitsyns face and slammed his head right into the glass.

When Kostitsyns face hit the ice when he went down the crowd started to chant"lets go Laraque. lets go Laraque."Guy Carbonneau didn't wast any time to send out Laraque.


"Obviously, he's not going to go with me he's not a heavyweight," Laraque said of Hale, who has had 10 career fights to Laraque's 120. "I had to leave a message, but that's why a guy like Kostopoulos, who is more his size, responded.

The Canadiens Ended up Winning that game 4-2.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

Coyotes A.T Canadiens

Tanguay was acquired from Calgary in a draft-day trade in June.He scored the last goal in a 4-3 shootout Win over the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night in Montreal's first home game of there 100th season.

"You know, I'm nervous, I'm still nervous, still trying to find my way with the team, trying to get my momentum and trying to get in the groove," Tanguay said.

Alex Tanguay has 1 Goal and 3 Assist for a total of 4 Points all of his points came in that blow out win over Toronto.

On Wednesday Price stopped 34 out of 37 shots and saved all 3 sgots in the shootout. Montreal head coach Guy Carbonneau will expect the same from Price tonight.


Georges Laraque, another Montreal newcomer, made his season debut Wednesday after missing the first 3 games due to a groin injury. He fought Bruins forward Shawn Thornton just 2:28 into the game.

"I know all you guys are surprised at how long it took but I'm pretty sure that this year the seven seconds will be beat a couple of times, so get used to it," said Laraque, who signed as a free agent from Pittsburgh in some time in July.



The Coyotes will be without Daniel Carcillo due to a fight in a 4-1 loss to Chicago on Wednesday night.He sat out in last nights 6-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators.

"We're going up against some good teams," Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky(The Great One) said. "We need some of our guys to answer the bell a little bit.We need some more people to step up."

The Puck Drop will be at 7:08 PM E.T

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

Habs win 100th Season opener

The Montreal Canadiens nearly lost the game last night as they blew a 3 goal lead at the Bell Center.

"We were just fortunate that it didn't cost us two points tonight," Price said.

"We dominated the play and then it seems like we slowed down," Tanguay said. "We played to their level the last two and we're a puck possession team - we need to be playing with the puck, we need to be skating and I felt like we didn't play as well the last two periods and let them back in, and fortunately for us we got the two points."


Alex Kovalev, Saku Koivu and Maxim Lapierre gave Montreal a 3-0 lead, beating Thomas in a 3:19 span late in the opening period.

Carey Price stopped all 3 shots in the shootout including Phil Kessel, Patrice Bergeron and former Canadien left winger Michael Ryder in the shootout to help Montreal win after 4-3.

Tanguay scored the only goal last night in the shootout which made the Canadiens win by the score of 4-3 against the Bruins.

"Obviously, the first period, that's not the start that we wanted," Bergeron said. "We never stopped battling and we came back in the game, and I think that's a big point, but we could have avoided going to overtime by playing well in the first period."


Written By Andrew Di Pardo

Canadiens ready the 100th season opener tonight against the Bruins

Today Montreal head Coach Guy Carbonneau was asked by a TSN Reporter if he will use Laraque tonight to fight. "Alot of things happened over the years and because we have him were going to use him.Like I said I dont want him just to fight on the ice,I want him to make plays."Guy Carbonneau responded.

"I don't care what Guy ass has to says I mean Begin broke one of our players back and Laraque fought alot in the minors and if hes rattled about that hes focused on the wrong things."Joe Thorton said.

This should be a very rough game tonight in Montreal.The Puck drop is 7:38 PM E.T

Written By:Andrew Di Pardo

Canadiens Get Revenge

Roman Hamrlik and Komisarek scored goals 44 seconds apart in the third period, helping the Montreal Canadiens rally to beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-3 on Monday night.The Flyers are still yet to win a game in the 08-09 season.

Hamrlik took away the Flyers lead with a passe from kovalev which he put the score 2-2. Komisarek then gave Montreal the lead , when his shot from the point knocked off Upshall's stick and over Biron to make it 3-2. Robert Lang scored with 6:20 left for a 4-2 lead.

With a 4-3 Canadiens lead with 29 seconds on the clock the Flyers had an empty net in their own zone to try to tie the game.But it didn't happen because a player from the Flyers defense wanted to block Steve Begins shot but instead he made it change direction and go into his own net.

"There's no excuse when you give up three goals in the third period and give a team a chance to get back in like that," Biron said. "It should never happen."

"A lot of people are talking about Montreal as the 'Pride of the East,' and I thought for 40 minutes we really showed that we could be a good team against a good team," Stevens said. "That is the step we want to take."

The Habs next game is against the bruins on Wednesday in there home opener.

Written by Andrew Di Pardo

Canadiens At Flyers

The Montreal Canadiens were in the Number 1 spot in the Eastern Conference going into last season's Stanley Cup playoffs, making them be favorites to win the Series against Philadelphia Flyers in the second round.

But the Canadiens had to take a win in Game 5 to stay alive in the Playoff Series.It was looking good up 2-0 after 1, but in the 2nd and third they blew the lead to go down 3-2 but the Canadiens responded but they ended up losing 6-4 the was the Final.


"It's OK to be disappointed about how our season ended, but we can't forget how much we improved in 2007-08 season as a team," right wing Alex Kovalev told the Canadiens' press, citing the team's jumped from 4th place in the Northeast Division in 2006-07 to the top of the Eastern Confrence.

Montreal shook off whatever the problem was in its season opener, but they ended up getting a 2-1 shootout loss at Buffalo on Friday.All of a sudden it appeared to be back in Confrence title the next night against the original 6 rival the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Canadiens scored the 1st 5 goals at Air Canada Centre on Saturday including 2 power-play goals from Sergei Kostitsyn in their 6-1 blowout win against Toronto.

Canadiens goaltender Carey Price was 3-0-0 with a 1.34 GAA against the Flyers during the season before going 1-3 with a 4.13 GAA in the playoff series.Price would like to get his revenge tonight in Phillie.

The Montreal Canadiens will want to get a similar result tonight against the Flyers as they got against the Leafs. The Puck Drop is 7:08PM E.T


Written By:Andrew Di Pardo

Habs humiliate Leafs

Montreal left wing Alex Tanguay had a goal and three assists to help the Canadiens humiliate the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-1 on Saturday night for victory number 1 in their 100th season.Sergei Kostitsyn scored twice and added an assist, and Roman Hamrlik, Alex Kovalev and Guillaume Latendresse also had goals for the Canadiens. Captain Saku Koivu added three assists.Jason Blake scored for Toronto.

In the Second period the Canadiens scored 4 out of their 6 goals in the game.

"You can't blame it on the young kids but you can blame it on the older players. But they will want you to blame it on the young kids and thats what the bad teams do," Ron wilson said to the Leafs Tv.

"I wish i can play all my games like this but I know it wont happen all the time" Tanguay told TSN.

It was just the 4th time Toronto has faced Montreal in its home opener since 1970.

written by:Andrew Di Pardo

Canadiens at Leafs

Last night the Canadiens played the Sabers. Carey Price provided excellent goaltending with 35 saves through the regulation and overtime, but was allowed 2 goals on 2 shots in the shootout as the Canadiens took a 2-1 lose."Anniversary or not, every season you try to get off to a good start," Lang said. "Good starts come in handy around Christmas and at the end of the year. You never know when you'll need them."Lang scored Montreal's only goal while Tanguay was didn't get a shot on goal in just over 19 minutes of ice time.

The Montreal Canadiens (Habs) will look to rebound against the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight at the Air Canada Center.

The Toronto Maple Leafs got off to a good start Thursday as they beat the defending Stanley Cup Champions the Detroit Red Wings."This is one of the more satisfying wins I've ever had,". "I've had some really great teams come into Detroit and you're hanging on for dear life and if you can win a game in a shootout, you consider yourself lucky" Explained Ron Wilson to the Toronto Press.

Toskala finished with 35 saves on Thursday night against the Red Wings. He figures to be back in net tonight, looking to improve his 4-1-1 career record and 2.48 goals-against average against Montreal.

As for Monteals Cary Price he will also be starting in goal as they will look to improve there 0-0-1 record to 1-0-1 tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Puck is expected to be dropped at 7:08 PM E.T



written by:Andrew Di Pardo

Game Preview:Canadiens at Sabers

The Canadiens will be starting there 100th season against the Sabers in Buffalo this Friday.Carey Price will be playing his first Season as a number 1 Goaltender by starting the season against the Sabers.With this season being a very important season for the Canadiens as they will be retiring number 33, honoring former Montreal Canadiens players they would aloso like if they would win the cup this season.All the Montreal Canadiens Fans would like if the canadiens will finish 1st in the Eastern Conference and if they win the Stanley Cup this year.To win the Eastern Conference the Canadiens will Haft to win 12 out of the 15 games to get a shot at the conferences number 1 spot.To Win the Stanley Cup the Habs would half to stay healthy by playoff time.

The Starting goaltenders are for the Habs Carey Price and for the Sabers Ryan Miller.The puck drop is 7:38 Pm E.T

Score:Canadiens 1 - 2 Sabers SO 7:38 PM E.T


Written By Andrew Di Pardo

Tanguay,Koivu,Higgins will play on Line 2 this Season

Suiting up on a line together this upcoming season, Alex Tanguay and Saku Koivu have no intention of fighting over the puck this season alongside fellow linemate Christopher Higgins.“I like making quick passes,” admitted Tanguay.“I’m not the kind of player who likes to hang on to the puck forever.Saku and I also have something else in common, we’re always being told to shoot more often. We’ll get to work on that together this season.”With Koivu and Tanguay playing on the same line as Chris Higgins that line should be one of the Habs quickest line this season.

Aloso today Montreal Canadiens Head Coach Guy Carbonneau was signed to a 3 Year Contract Extension.


The Habs have announced there lines for this season.



Goaltenders

1.C.Price
2.J.Halak
3.M.Denis

Defense

A.Markiov
M.Komisarek
J.Gorges
F.Bouillon
R.O'Brian


Line 1

Left.A.Kostitsyn
Center.T.Plekanec
Right.A.Kovalev


Line 2

Left.A.Tanguay
Center.S.Koivu(Captin)
Right.C.Higgins

Line 3

Left.G.Latendresse
Center.R.Lang
Right.S.Kostitsyn

Line 4

Left.G.Laraque
Center.M.Lapierre
Right.T.kostopoulos


Written By:Andrew Di Pardo

Canadiens Announced Cut's From Rosters

Last night the Montreal Canadiens General Manager Bob Gainy announced that forwards Ben Maxwell, Gregory Stewart and Matt D’Agostini have been cut from the Habs Roster and have been assigned to the AHL`s Hamilton Bulldogs.The 3 forwards will go to the Bulldogs’ training camp Thursday in St-John’s, Newfoundland.

The Canadiens alos announced defenseman Mathieu Carle is out with an injury.

The team travels tonight to the Mont Tremblant area to practice at the St-Jovite arena on October 2-3.The Canadiens will play their final preseason game at the Bell Centre on October 4th against the Minnesota Wild.

Written By:Andrew Di Pardo