WHEELER SCORES HAT TRICK AS THE ROOKIES BEAT THE ELDERS

Going into the All-Star game in Montreal Boston Bruins rookie Blake Wheeler didn't expect to put the puck in 3 times against a goalie like Carey Price. Wheeler was just happy to be in the All-Star atmosphere in Montreal."It's a great thing to have that rivalry for the fans to show their passion and feelings for our team," said Wheeler, whose teammates Zdeno Chara, Tim Thomas and Marc Savard will play in the main all-star game on Sunday. "It's great for the sport." You Can tell that Price was not trying hard to win because he didn't want to injure his ankle. Even though Price was not playing his best game,he still made some great saves.

As for Leafs rookie Luke Schenn he has not scored his first NHL goal yet,but he still managed to score his first NHL All-Star goal."Playing three-on-three was a bit of a challenge,"said Luke Schenn, the Toronto Maple Leafs rookie."Guys are just out here feeling it out," he told CBC Sports, of the game, which had consisted of three, five-minute periods. "We haven't really played three on three in a while."This was a great game,even though it was only 15 minutes.Carey Price will play in the first 20 minutes of tomorrow nights all star game.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

P.S -Chara(Of the Bruins) won the Slap-Shot Competition.
-Ovechkin(of the Capitals) won the Creativity competition.
-Doean (of the Coyotes)Won the shootout competition.
-Malken(of the Penguins) won the accuracy competition.

Komoserk ready for the slapshot competition

Mike Komisarek will be making his All-Star debut tonight in Montreal.Komisarek is also going to have to get a harder shot then defending champ Zdeno Chara, and former teammate Sheldon Souray.Komoserk has been working hard all week practicing his Slapshot for the All-Star game hoping that he will win the Slapshot competition. “My strategy is to just shoot it low and hope I hit the net. It’s going to be a tough time if I miss the net out there,” joked Komisarek, whose last appearance in a hardest shot competition was at the 2003 AHL All-Star Game, where he recalls netting in a puck at around 96 mph.“I don’t think that’s going to win it here, though. You’ve got to at least break into triple digits to have any chance at all,” he admitted. Another former Canadiens blue liner Mark Streit will also be participating in the Slapshot competition,trying along with Mike Komiserk to be an underdog when it comes to predicting a winner.The skills competition will be tonight at 7Pm E.T on CBC.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

P.S Andrei Markov will also take place in the SlapShot Competition.

Kovalev has a few tricks in store for tonights skills competition

This years All-Star game everyone expects Kovalev to pull of some great moves in the breakaway relay.“I just do whatever comes to mind once I touch the puck. The thing is, the more I think about it, the worse it gets,” said Kovalev.I don’t think that’s going to win it here, though.You’ve got to at least break into triple digits to have any chance at all,” he admitted.Kovalev said he does not need to practice what he's going to do tonight,that was no surprise to Komoserk.“My money is on Kovy,” revealed Komisarek, who like all 36 All-Star skaters will have his own try in the shootout. “I’ve seen this guy pull moves in practice that will leave your mouth hanging wide open. I think when he was born he came out stickhandling, so Kovy doesn’t need to practice for it. With his talent and skill the puck just sticks to his blade.”The skills competition will be tonight at 7Pm E.T on CBC.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

The 17 most memorable games in Canadiens history

Rocket's record 500 goal- Chicago Blackhawks@ Montreal Canadiens-Oct. 22, 1957-To the roar of the crowd, Maurice Richard nets his record-setting 500th career goal with a ferocious slapshot. The Montreal Canadiens will go on to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 in this historic game on Oct. 19, 1957. At age 36, the Rocket is the oldest player in the National Hockey League but he continues to amaze players and fans with his consistent and physical play.

1965 Stanley Cup Final - Chicago @ Montreal, Game 7 (May 1, 1965): The Habs win the Cup in a final series where the home team won every game. Gump Worsley made his first cup final appearance in 12 NHL seasons earning two shutouts in the series, including Game 7. Jean Beliveau won the Conn Smythe Trophy.

1975 Super Series - The Red Army vs. Montreal (Dec 31, 1975): One of the greatest international friendly's ever played. It was a 3-3 tie.

1976 Stanley Cup Final Montreal @ Philadelphia, Game 4 (May 16, 1976): The Habs won six out of 10 cups awarded in the 1970's. The 1976 Final was the first of four in a row. Philadelphia's Reggie Leach was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy in a lose to the Canadiens.

1977 Stanley Cup Final - Montreal @ Boston, Game 4 (May 14, 1977): The Habs-Bruins rivalry is alive and today because of games like these. The Bruins were very good, but just not good enough to beat the Habs. Jacques Lemaire and Guy Lafleur broke the hearts of Bruins fans several times.

1979 Stanley Cup Semifinal - Boston @ Montreal, Game 7 (May 10, 1979): The Bruins lead 4 -3 with late in the game when they take a too many men on the ice penalty. Cue the comeback, which later got Bruins head coach Don Cherry fired.

1984 Adams Division Final - Quebec @ Montreal, Game 6 (April 20, 1984): The emotion of the Battle of Quebec boiled over in this 'Good Friday fight.' It was one of the greatest rivalries in all of sport. Maybe there will be a franchise in Quebec City again one day.

1986 Wales Conference Quarterfinal - Montreal @ NY Rangers, Game 3 (May 5, 1986): If there was one game that solidified that Patrick Roy as a great NHL goalie, it was this one. At just 20 years old, Roy withstood a barrage of Ranger shots in overtime and Claude Lemieux scored the winner on Montreal's first shot to lead the Habs to a win.

1986 Stanley Cup Montreal @ Calgary, Game 2 (May 18, 1986): In another famous Game 2 of a Stanley Cup Final, the Habs set an NHL record that still stands - the fastest overtime goal in a Cup Final at nine seconds because of Brian Skrudland.


1986 Stanley Cup Montreal @ Calgary, Game 5 (Sat, May 24):In game 5 of the Stanley cup final,Montreal rookie goalie Patrick Roy made brilliant saves that you have to see to belive in the final minute with the Canadiens leading 4-3.The Canadiens would go on to win the Cup,and Roy became the second Rookie Goaltender to capture the Stanley cup.

The Closing of Montreal Forum (March 11, 1996): The last great public moment for Maurice Richard, with a moving, six-minute standing ovation for The Rocket. All the great sports venues should close like this one did.

1993 Adams Division Semifinal - Montreal @ Quebec, Game 5 (April 28, 1993): The last playoff game in Quebec City against the Nordiques and the second of a record 10 overtime games the Habs would win en route to their 24th Stanley Cup.

1993 Stanley Cup Final - LA Kings @ Montreal, Game 2 (June 3, 1993): Down 2 -1 late in the third period, Jacques Demers makes one of the greatest coaching moves in Stanley Cup history put calling Marty McSorley's illegal stick and pulling Patrick Roy for a 6-4 advantage and the tying goal. Then in overtime, defenceman Eric Desjardins would score his third goal of the game to complete the comeback.

1993 Stanley Cup Final - LA Kings @ Montreal, Game 5 (June 9, 1993): The Canadiens win the game and the series 4-1 and collect their 24th Stanley Cup - the last one captured on Forum ice. Patrick Roy wins his second Conn Smythe Trophy in another goaltending performance for the ages.

2004 Eastern Conference Quarterfinal - Montreal @ Boston, Game 7 (April 19, 2004): The poor Bruins. They were up 3-1 in this series with three chances to close out the Habs, who were being outplayed up to Game 4 (which included a huge blunder that led to Boston's OT win in the game). Up until 2004, Montreal had never come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a series.

The Heritage Classic was an outdoor ice hockey game played on November 22, 2003, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, between the Edmonton Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens. It was the second NHL outdoor game and the first regular season outdoor game in the history of the National Hockey League, and was modeled after the success of the "cold war" game between the University of Michigan and Michigan State University in 2001.The Canadiens won that game 4-3.

New York @ Montreal(Febuary 15,2007):After allowing five consecutive goals to the New York Rangers, the home team rallied back to finally win the contest by the score of 6-5.This was the first time in Canadiens history that the Canadiens have came back from a 5-0 deficit.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

KOVALEV, THORNTON NAMED ALL-STAR TEAM CAPTAINS

Montreal Canadiens forward Alexei Kovalev and San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton have been named Captains at the 2009 NHL All-Star Game in Montreal.Kovalev will wear the "C" For the Eastern Confrence All-star team.He was chosen as a starter in fan balloting and is making his third All-Star Game appearance."I'm trying not to do too much," Kovalev said of his struggles in the early portion of the season. "I came out this year and felt pretty good, so I felt like I could do a little bit extra. But it was time to go back and not try to do everything by yourself, and use your partners a little bit." Thornton Will wear the "C" For the Western Confrence All-Star Team.He was picked as a reserve for this year's team and will play in his 6th All-Star Game.Earlier today Thortan spoke about Kovalev this is what he said:"When he's out there throwing passes you have to be ready at all times because he'll find you. When you think he won't find you, he'll put the puck on your stick.”The All-Star game will take place this saturday and Sunday on any channel that broadcast the NHL.

Written By:Andrew Di Pardo

P.S. Carey Price will play in the All-Star game.

The Canadiens Lose against The Devils once again

Just as the Canadiens first power-play of the game expires,Paul Martin exit the penalty box and got a lead pass to give him a breakaway which he scored on.Martin added an assist later in the game to help the Devils beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-2 last night for their 5th straight win."It's a credit to the players, staying with it and being strong," Devils coach Brent Sutter said. "Being mentally strong allows you to handle adversity on the ice. We've dealt with adversity in the right way. Guys in that room have been through a lot, and they don't seem to get rattled."Travis Zajac, Johnny Oduya, Zach Parise and Patrik Elias also scored goals for the Devils in this game.Josh Gorges and Matt D'Agostini scored the only goals for Montreal.

"The last 30 minutes against Atlanta was better," Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau said. "Tonight we struggled for 60 minutes, but that's the way the Devils play. They make you work hard, they make you push yourself. Give them credit, that's the way they play. We've seen this for the last 15 years. We didn't have enough people respond."Montreal Captain Saku Koivu made his return last night along with Carey Price (Who started in his first game in over a month).Koivu(who Played his first game in 2 months) had about 5-7 shots on goal but he Couldn't beat the Devils golie Scott Clemmensen."Physically I felt good,but probability better than I expected.Still after missing along time I fell all the emotion the reaction and lose pucks and all those kinda things.I wasn't where I wanted to be but that's going to take some time.The foot felt fine it was an ok game."Koivu told TSN.Don't forget the All star game starts saturday in Montreal.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

The Canadiens fall to the Thrashers by the score of 4-2

Jaroslav Halak started in last night's game,but gave up 3 unanswered goals to put the Canadiens behind by 3.Carey Price took over,right after Halak gave up the 3rd Thrashers goal.The Canadiens were down 3-0 and made the score be 3-2 with a pair of goals by Max Pacioretty and steve Begin.Carey Price gave up the Thrashers 4th goal as they would take the game 4-2,as for Price he was happy that he got to have some game time.''It was nice to get in there,'' Price said. ''It was pretty close (before) a couple of bad bounces. The fourth goal was a bad bounce. What can you do?''The Canadiens next game will be tonight in New Jersey against the Devils at 7:00Pm E.T on RDS.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

The Senators fall to the Canadiens in a Shootout

Alex Kovalev and Maxim Lapierre scored in the shootout to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 5-4 win over the Senators. Kovalev opened the scoring at 7:50 in the first period with his 12th goal of the season on a 5-on-4 power-play.That goal was Kovalev's 3rd power-play goal of the season.Andrei Kostitsyn, Matt D'Agostini and Tom Kostopoulos also scored for Montreal in the game.With just 10 minutes remaning in the third the score was 4-2 for the Habs,but the Sens never gave up.The Senators eventually tied the game at 4-4 to send the game to OT and then a shootout wheir the Sens lost 2-0 in the Shootout and the final was 5-4."It's a good sign," said Fisher. "We didn't give up, we battled back. We gave ourselves a chance to win and we got a point.""He'd like to have the one back," said Hartsburg of the Canadiens fourth goal. "But I think he gave us a chance to win the game."

As for Maxim Lapierre he got fancy and deked the Sens golie to win the game for the Habs."For sure we would have like to have won it in the third period," said Carbonneau. "But we still found a way to win despite the number of injured players that we have. We still seem to be doing some good things as a team."Even though the sens lost Spezza was happy with the result."We look like a different team than we did maybe a few weeks ago," said Jason Spezza."Guys are battling pretty hard and I think that comes with a little bit of confidence and being a little more sure with the puck. We're starting to come around as a club and we've just got to try and get some wins together and hopefully climb up the standings."It's still possible for the Sens to make the post-season.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

The Canadiens will look to send the Senators back to their losing ways tonight in Ottawa

The Ottawa Senators are on a 2 game winning streak,they will look for their winning streak to increase to 3 in a row tonight against the Canadiens on home ice.The Senators winning streak started on Tuesday against the Hurricanes, the final score in that game was 1-5.The streak continued a day later against the Thrashers,the Final score was 3-2.The Sen's will look to keep this streak up tonight when they host the Canadiens.

As for the Canadiens they have won 5 of their past 6 games coming into tonight's game,even though their fighting off several injury's such as Saku Koivu,Chris Higgins,Alex Tanguay,Matthew Dandenault and Jorge Laraque.More News on Koivu he is expected to make his return either tonight or tomorrow."I will check with the doctors,but I'm not going to play until I fell 100%."Saku Koivu told CBC.

The puck drop for tonights game will be at 7:08pm E.T On CBC and or RDS.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

Montreal University corse might start studyes on the "2nd Religon``Called the Montreal Canadiens

In Montreal,hockey is like god to them, every one knows how the Canadiens are andhow many Cup`s they won.Considering that the Canadiens have won a cup every century and that this is the last year for the Canadiens to win the cup if they want ton win it this decade.Even if the Canadiens don`t win the cup this year the fans will still be loyal to them.You know it shows how loyal they are when the city of Montreal might possibly consider the idea of having a 2nd Religion program that is just about the Canadiens history."It was clear that the Canadiens were a kind of religion. For me, it was amazing that in Montreal there was a hockey jersey that is holy."Bauer said of the idea for his new French-language class.This idea will be decided over the next few months.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

Carey Price may not play in the NHL All-Star game

Montreal Goaltender Carey Price,(Who was voted into the Eastern Conference's starting lineup), did not skate at the Easterns team practice in Brossard on Wednesday."If Price doesn't play a game before the break, I will recommend that my goalie skip the game."Guy Carbonneau told TSN.ca."He's an intelligent person and I hope he will have that in mind," Carbonneau said. "It's his decision. If he can't be on the ice this weekend and can't be part of a game on Tuesday or Wednesday, I don't see why he would play in this game - re-injuring his leg and be out another month."Carey Price hasn't been skating hard but he's been Skating lightly.I think this is good news for the Canadiens and the Eastern's allstar team.

"He tried to skate yesterday and it was sore," Carbonneau said. "So he went to see a doctor. It's a little setback. He's going to be off another couple of days - until Saturday or Sunday - and we'll re-assess at that time. It changes our plans a little bit, but there's no use for him to come back and re-injure the leg. We're going to have to be patient and wait." The All-Star Game will be played in Montreal on Jan. 25.More news on the Canadiens captain Saku Koivu,he's been Skating hard and will possibly play on Saturday against the Senators.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

Andrei Kostitsyn's powerplay goal guides the Canadiens past the Preds

Almost all of the Habs fans thought the Canadiens would be in a hole when Montreal netminder Carey Price got a Lower-Body Injury,but that was not the Case as Price's back-up Jaroslav Halak had been making save after save to lead the Habs from a slump back to a Coup contender."We've been playing great hockey and scoring a lot of goals," Halak said after his 23-save performance. "And even when we give up goals, we seem to get one more than the other team.I knew that when Carey went out, I had to step up. It didn't work out the first few games, but then we got on a roll."

Guillaume Latendresse scored the opening goal of the game with just 24 sec. remaning in the first period to put the Habs up 1-0.In the second period Vernon Fiddler tied the game at 1-1.Later in that period Andrei Kostitsyn scored a power-play goal to put the Canadiens up 2-1.Andrei Markov would add a nother in the Period to make 3-1.In the third J.P. Dumont put the Predators within 1.But that would be all the scoring the Canadiens will take this one by the score of 3-2."We try to keep it tight and grind it out, but it didn't work out for us," said Dumont. "They got a few bounces and it cost us the game."Montreal golie Jaroslav Halak made 23 saves in the win.

"I know it was a tough situation for Jaro because we decided to give more games to Carey this year, but he has a lot of character," said coach Guy Carbonneau. "He had a stretch when he struggled, but now he's hitting his stride."The Canadiens next game will be on Saturday in Otawa to Face the Senators at 7:08pm E.T on CBC and RDS.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

Habs host Pred's tonight at 7:38pm E.T

The Montreal Canadiens will try to get back to their wining ways tonight as they host the Preadators.The Canadiens are 14-4-4 at the Bell Center this season.Last year they were one of the worst home teams in the NHL,but now their one of the best.This game will be the Canadiens first home game in 2 weeks,and this will be their last home game until Saturdays NHL All-Star game.

The Canadiens had won 4 in a row before thier 3-1 lose on Tuesday against the best team in the NHL the Boston Bruins.Chara scored a pair of Power-play goals to put the Bruins up 2-1,they would add a late period goal to take the game by the score of 3-1. Jaroslav Halak will start in goal again tonight as Carey Price is still out with a lower-body injury.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

P.S The Preadators beat the Leafs by the score OF 2-0 AND will look for their 2nd straight win tonight in Montreal.