Games:

10/10/08- Islanders, 1, New Jersey Devils 2

10/11/08- Islanders 5, St. Louis Blues 2

10/13/08- Islanders 1, Buffalo Sabres 7

10/16/08- Islanders 4, Tampa Bay Lightning 3

10/18/08- Islanders 0, Florida Panthers 2

New and Notes:

- The big story thus far has been the inactivity of franchise goalie Rick Dipietro. He finally received his first start of the year against Florida on Saturday night and let in a goal early on. However, he settled down afterwards and played reasonably well, keeping the Islanders in the game.

- G Joey MacDonald, the back up goaltender who was expected to play very little this season, has been holding down the fort for Dipietro. He was a surprising 2-2 over the four games he played and looked good in every contest except against Buffalo. Islander fans should breathe a little easier knowing that their second string netminder is not actually half bad.

- D Bruno Gervais leads all defensemen in scoring with three assists. He appears to be playing with more confidence, something New York desperately needs him to do.

- LW Trent Hunter has surprised many observers, notching four goals in the first five games. Hunter is expected to be an important part of the Islanders’ future and fans hope the fact that he seems to have rediscovered his scoring touch will continue.

- C Doug Weight has delivered upon the promise that he would improve the power play. He has three power play points already.

Next Week’s Games:

10/23/08- vs. Dallas Stars

10/25/08- vs. Carolina Hurricanes

Not to fear, fellow believers, not to fear. It’s one game, decided by a shootout-there’s no shootouts in playoffs. Besides, we all know Carey Price’s track record in shootout-he’ll be fine.

A few observations I made while watching tonight’s game:

Thank you, Mats Sundin: Without your offseason soap opera, and taking it to the point where Mr. Gainey couldn’t wait anymore, we would have never acquired Robert Lang from the Hawks-and what a start he had! A goal in his first shift in his first game as a member of the Tricolore…now that’s making a statement. He and Sergei Kostitsyn showed flashes of brilliance together, and Kostopoulos did a fine job on that line, but when Higgins returns from injury we will be seeing Guillaume Latendresse alongside those two, which will hopefully add another dimension to what looks to be shaping up as quite the trio-and that’s only the third line!

The Price is Right: So the Carey Price show only lasted 65 minutes, but it was the performance by the 21-year old netminder. Besides the Vanek goal, he was solid, making many key saves and showing the quickness and agility…a big year for Carey, should all go well.

Kovy and Co.: They didn’t hit the scoresheet, but every time the Kovalev-Plekanec-Kostitsyn line got on the ice, you could feel Lindy Ruff tighten up. That line had Buffalo srambling all night-give it a couple of games, and they’ll be firing on all cylinders once again…

Tanguay and Saku: These guys are gonna need a couple of games to adjust. There also going to need Chris Higgins, because someone needs to shoot the puck, and right now it isn’t going to be either one of these two. They HAVE to shoot more.

Ryan O’Byrne: Solid game tonight, I can see another Komisarek in the making here, still a work in progress, but coming along nicely.

All in all, not the start we all envisioned, but we can take some positives out of it. Some sloppy moments, especially penalties, but the PK looked good-the PP didn’t. Some time needed there as well for some chemistry to develop.

I leave you all with this final, burning question…

Why is Patrice Brisebois still around? (I have nothing against the guy, but c’mon, he’s the Breezer for a reason, those terrible passes that the opponents receive on a silver platter need to stop if he wants to be even the 7th defenseman-’cause Yannick Weber ain’t far folks…not far at all…

The only remaining player on the team that has yet to be sent to the Hamilton Bulldogs formation is Kyle Chipchura. The chipper is being kept s a precaution as the Habs still have some light groin injuries to a couple of their players, but Chipchura should be sent down soon enough.

With all the young talent that has impressed not only the Montreal Canadiens orgainzation, but many other teams as well as both French and English media, it’s a wonder that they were all sent down to Hamilton.

Names like Max Pacioretti, Ben Maxwell, Matt D’agostini,  and soon Kyle Chipchura are all Bulldogs for now. But all these players impressed hard in the pre-season and look to be 90% NHL ready. Are the Habs saying that Mathieu Dandenault is better than all of those players? Dandenault was riding the bench for much of the season last year.

Carey Price having lost 21 pounds this off-season looks NHL ready this year. He played really well and made some spectacular saves during all of his games.

Jaroslav Halak has a tweaked hip but with the demotion of Marc Denis to Hamilton, the Habs believe that Halak will be ready to back up Price for the start of the season. Halak also played well during his pre-season games.

The only acquisition that the Habs made in the off-season that didn’t play one pre-season game is Georges Laraque who is still nursing a groin pull. Scott Livingston ( Canadiens strength and conditioning coach) believes that big Georges should be ready be day one of the regular season.

This year is seemingly the year for the Habs as most of the team is either a restricted or un-restricted free agent at the end of the 2008-09 season.

Christopher Higgins, Saku Koivu, Alex Tanguay, Alex Kovalev, Tomas Plekanec, Sergei Kostitsyn, Robert Lang, Steve Begin, Tom Kostopoulos, Mike Komisarek, Francis Bouillon, Patrice Brisebois, and so on are all RFA’s or UFA’s at seasons end.

So it would seem that it’s now or never for the Habs. Or is it?

There has been some speculation as to the 4.5 million of Saku Koivu and where it will end up. Most seem to beleive that Koivu will either be traded or leave at the end of his contract. Would that mean that Plekanec would then become the number 1 centre of the team and the money would go to re-signing him along with someone else?

The Pittsburgh Penguins are in need of some defence-men, could the Habs trade some to them along with Higgins and a prospect for Jordan Staal?

Trades or no trades, speculation or not, Sundin or no Sundin. The Montreal Canadiens have far too many players that will play for their next contracts to be an average team this year. No matter what team individual players play for, when their contract are up at the end of the current season, the players always up their play in the hopes of securing that big money contract they all want. With that notion alone not counting the fact that the Habs won the Eastern Conference last year, should bring them back into the play-offs.

The addition of Laraque should help the Habs not only in the regular season, but in the play-offs as well, as the Habs were a little too small and being pushed around in the post season last year.

Carey Price with his weight loss should be even quicker than last year, and his conditioning will help him not to be tired in the post season.

Not to mention the fact that there are many young players nipping at the heels of some veteran players. Gregory Stewart could replace Begin next year. Pacioretti could replace Guillaume Latendresse. Maxwell could replace Maxim Lapierre, as could Kyle Chipchura. D’agostini could replace Kostopoulos. P.K. Subban, or Pavel Valentenko could replace Bouillon.

Basically, there are many players that could be replaced within the organization, which Habs fans haven’t seen in at least 18 years.

So is it now or never, or is it now or possibly soon? We will all see.

The Habs start the season Friday October 10, 2008 against the Buffalo Sabres, then Saturday October 11, 2008 against the hated Toronto Maple Leafs.

Lets all hope that the players playing for a contract next season coupled with the talent waiting to come up will push the Habs to at least the Conference finals, and possibly the Stanley Cup.

Good luck boys. May the Price be with you.

TSN reports are that the Maple Leafs will send McCabe to Florida along with another player, with at least one player coming back from the Panthers. Not Panthers defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, though. Sportsnet’ Nick Kypreos suggests that the player heading to Toronto is defenseman Mike Van Ryn.

However, McCabe’s agent, Ian Pulver, says that his client hasn’t made a decision on his future yet and the two sides continue to talk about a compromise.

“We continue to talk to the Leafs about whether he is going to remain a Leaf or move to another team. Technically he won’t waive the no-trade until there is a trade and there hasn’t been a trade.”

Pulver notes that McCabe may in fact stay in Toronto.

“Having said that, he may remain a Leaf. There’s a lot of things to discuss.”

Maple Leafs GM Cliff Fletcher appears to support Pulver’s stance, saying that a deal is not imminent.

“(McCabe) hasn’t even said he would accept being traded yet. We’re working on it.”

It’s expected that if the Maple Leafs were to move McCabe, they would do it after September 1st, the day he is to receive a $2 million signing bonus.

McCabe is set to earn $6.15 million (including the $2 million dollar signing bonus) this season, and $4.15 million for the next two seasons remaining on his contract. His salary cap hit will remain at $5.75 million.

Gainey started negotiations with RFA Andrei Kostitsyn. Rumors have been circulating claiming that Kostitsyn received a huge offer from a Russian team, meaning he might not come back with the Habs next season. Both Gainey and Kostitsyn said they heard the rumors and that they are only rumors. Kostitsyn does want to stay in Montreal and expects negotiations to be easy and so does Gainey.

Gainey says Kostitsyn is one of their most important task for the off season since he has had an incredible 07-08 season. He is part of the Habs’ future and losing him to another team is not something Gainey believes is going to happen. Gainey’s discussions with other GM’s for possible trades are underway too.

If Kostitsyn does stay in Montreal, the team is going to arrange for his wife and daughter to be able to move from Bielorussia and come live with him in Montreal as early as next winter. I’m sure that makes the offer even more attractive for Kostitsyn, and let’s not forget that becoming a fan favorite in Montreal and playing with his brother are other important factors too.

Bob also said he intends on starting the negotiations with UFA offensive-defensemen Mark Streit in a couple of weeks. Streit already expressed his feelings on the situation by saying he loves playing in Montreal and is very thankful to the organization for giving him a chance to prove himself in the NHL. This means a lot for Streit and it is one big reason why he would accept a smaller, but still average, contract to stay in Montreal instead of going to another team for next season. The other reason is probably his Montrealer girlfriend, and I’m sure he’d like to stay here with her. Some rumors have already claimed that The Buffalo Sabres expressed some interest in acquiring Mark Streit’s services. Bob wants to keep him, but both him and Streit know money is going to be a big factor in the discussions. We’ll soon know how much Mark really wants to stay in Montreal…

Surprisingly, Gainey even mentioned the possibility of speaking to Michael Ryder about a new contract in Montreal next season. Ryder was perhaps the Habs’ biggest disappointment last season and the price to keep him is definitely going to be lower than the 2 millions contract he had. Gainey also said that defensemen Patrice Brisebois and center Brian Smolinski might still be part of the plans for next season.

Gainey has a lot of work on the table for next season, and one of his most important task is to decide what to do with forwards Alex Kovalev and Saku Koivu, both of them going into the last year of their contract. Who will he keep? Who will he let go? Who will get traded? A lot of hard decisions coming up for Mr.Gainey.

Among the other rumors circulating are the ones claiming that Gainey might also be on the verge of signing forward Chris Higgins and defenseman Mike Komisarek to long-term contracts. I say okay for Komisarek, but I’m not too sure about Higgins.

I have to admit, it’s pretty cool to read an NHL’er’s take on the post-season; not to mention that you can always find little bits of information you previously didn’t know. For example, Ryan is good friends with Colorado Avalanche defenseman John Michael Liles from their days at Michigan State. That’s an interesting tidbit, especially since Liles is an unrestricted free agent come July 1st. Might the two buddies reunite in Buffalo? The Sabres could sure use an offensive defenseman…

Ryan is also kind enough to answer questions from fans on his blog. Of course, I had to take advantage of the situation, so, I posted a question for Ryan. Here’s what he had to say:

RumorMeThis: Hey Ryan! Great blog. It’s really nice to read your thoughts on the playoffs. Speaking of the playoffs, I would be interested to know what is your all-time favorite moment in the post-season (one that you were part of)?

Ryan: Beating Ottawa in overtime to move on to the Eastern Conference Finals. Just the sudden joy of winning in overtime and being able to really celebrate on the ice with the boys.

As a Toronto Maple Leafs fan and all-around Ottawa Senators hater, I found that answer a little humorous. It’s always fun watching the Senators get hoisted from the playoffs, no matter which team eliminates them. Sorry, Sens fans.

I was actually going to ask him about the rumors of him heading off to the Detroit Red Wings when his contract with the Sabres ends, but, browsing questions posted by other fans, I realized that that was already asked. Suffice to say, Ryan didn’t answer any questions regarding his contract. Can’t blame him, I guess. He’s in a no-win situation if he starts discussing his contract publicly.

Anyway, if you want to post a question for Ryan, head off to Maxim.com and ask away.

The scoring for the Canadiens went like this, Christopher Higgins, assisted by, Mark Streit, and Roman Hamrlik, then Brian Smolinski, from Steve Begin, and Ryan O’Byrne, and lastly from Smolinski, un-assisted. Carey Price made 27 saves for the win, but his best saves were late in the third period. The lone scorer for the Sabres was Ales Kotalik, from Derek Roy, and Jaroslav Spacek.

The Sabres are now officially out. This was a good game for the Habs, they played well, until Buffalo took advantage of a 5 on 3 and scored their only goal, after that, it was the Cary Price show, again showing the fans that Bob Gainey made the right move by placing him as no.1. The Habs played great for 40 minutes, and average for 20, but it was enough to beat the Sabres, and eliminate them from the play-off race. Things got a little bit chippy in the third, because the Sabres were annoyed at being eliminated, but the Canadiens fared well in that regard as well.

Matt D’Agostini played decent replacing Michael Ryder, Ryder having an inured leg. D’Agostini was a little tense in the first period, but played well for the rest of the game. There is a possibility D’Agostini will play again on Saturday, and Gregory Stewart will most probably make his first start on Saturday when the Habs play their last game of the season against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre.

The Habs are now tied in points with the Penguins in points, but the Pens have one more win than the Habs, for the Canadiens to win the conference, they would have to win on Saturday, and hope that the Pens lose on Sunday. Still, if the Habs win on Saturday, it would force the Penguins to play hard, and with their full line-up to win on Sunday, which would make an even more exciting end of the season.

One more game for the Habs, the possibility of one more win, and the pressure would fall to the Penguins, even if the Habs don’t win on Saturday, it’s still an impressive season, with 102 points, rookie Carey Price playing in 40 games with a record of 23-12-3, and more. Let’s hope they win on Saturday and force the Pens to win on Sunday.

The Penguins have played 81 games, with a total of 102 points, and 47 wins, the Canadiens have played 80 games for 100 points, but only have 45 wins. The Habs have to win their last two games, and score alot of goals, as well as not let many in, and hope that the Pens lose their last game to claim the conference. If the two teams were tied for number of wins , and points, then it would go to goal differential, at this time the Canadiens have scored 36 more goals than they have allowed, the Pens have scored 33 more goals then they have allowed, but they have also played one more game than the Canadiens, but as of now, if wins, and points were even, the Habs would take the conference.

What a finish for the conference, what will coach Guy Carbonneau do? Will he actually hope that the Pens lose their last game, and that the Habs win their last two games, or will he simply rest some players and hope for the best. The Canadiens are locked at the second spot, they can only go higher, but will Carbonneau take that chance and possibly as a result of trying too hard injure some players? It will be interesting to see, look every player wants to win, so chances are the Canadiens players might just say let’s go for it, but the Pens have to lose for the Habs to have a chance, and since they only play on Sunday, the Habs would have to win their two games and sit and hope that the Pens blow a tire on Sunday.

It is more difficult now for the Habs to claim the conference, either they go for it, or relax, and coast, Thursday’s game for the Habs is against the Buffalo Sabres, and Saturday against the Mats Sundin-less Toronto Maple Leafs, the possibility is there for the Habs to win both games, but at what cost?

Let’s just all enjoy the fruits of the Habs labour this year, they don’t have to claw, or win the last game of the season to be in the post season, they are in, and they can’t fall lower than second place in the conference, which means they have home ice advantage until the Conference Final, and they won the Northeast division, along with being the team with the no.1 power-play, and no.1 goals scored, and most recently they have gone from 24, to 16 in the league for penalty killing. They have done many things right this season, let’s be happy for them.

One thing is for sure, no matter what they win, records they equal, or break in the regular season, the play-offs are a different season entirely, they will have to do the same things in the post season, but this time it will be harder. Can they do it? Let’s hope so.

Alex Kovalev opened the scoring, assisted by, Michael Ryder, and Patrice Brisebois, then it was Mathieu Dandenault, from Guillaume Latendresse, and Maxim Lapierre, and finally, Andrei Kostitsyn, from Kovalev, and Mark Streit. Carey Price made 32 saves for the shut-out, and some fantastic saves at that, especially in the third period.

The Habs kept Ottawa off balance for the whole game, late in the third, Price was Priceless. The Canadiens now have won the Northeast division, a feat which has not been done in Montreal for 16 years. The Canadiens now have 100 points, and can finish no lower than second place in the Eastern Conference, which means they will play either the seventh, or eighth place teams.

Alex Kovalev showed fans that this year, he is the Habs impact player, now with 83 points for the season, he will have been more than a point per game player for the Canadiens by years’ end. Now with two games remaining, the Canadiens have a choice, either they rest some players and have them fresh for the play-offs, or try to win the conference. The Habs haven’t had that choice for a long time, and everyone in the organization has to be feeling happy about what transpired tonight in Ottawa.

The Habs proved again faced with adversity, they are a deep enough team to win, not only that, they also proved that they can beat a team which had a hold on them previously. The Senators need three points to make the play-offs, and they have only 2 games in which to get them, what a free-fall.

Price also had something to prove as the last meeting against the Sens, Price had let in 5 goals, well, that wasn’t the case tonight. The Habs now have the liberty to relax for two games, sure they want to win them, but there’s no panic anymore. Even with the Habs most physical defense-man injured, and their captain, no.1 face-off guy, and good centre injured, they still found a way to beat a talented team.

The Habs have achieved more than any forecaster thought they would, and they are still going strong, Chris Higgins needs one more point for the Canadiens to have 7 players with 50 points or over. The Canadiens are surprising more and more the skeptical people of the hockey world.

The Canadiens next opponent are the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday at the Bell Centre, for the fans, let’s hope they keep winning, for the team, let’s hope no-one else gets injured. Could the Habs be gunning for the Eastern Conference title as well, is it too much to ask?

So it comes down to this, the Habs need to win one more game, they have 4 remaining including tonight’s tilt against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Saku Koivu, and Mark Streit will not be in uniform tonight as they have sore feet after stopping shots yesterday against the Buffalo Sabres. Patrice Brisebois, and Mathieu Dandenault will be replacing Streit, and Koivu. Jaroslav Halak gets the nod for the game against the Leafs tonight.

If the Habs manage to defeat the Leafs this evening, they will win their division, the last time the Canadiens did that was in 1991-92 when they won the Adams division. It won’t be easy as the Leafs, and Habs dislike each other, and the Leafs will most certainly make life difficult for the Habs, especially without Koivu, and Streit.

Ottawa now has to hope that the Habs lose all their games, and that they win theirs to claim the division, it could happen, however it is very unlikely. The Sens were leading the division, and the conference by a mile at the start of the season, but they fell from grace and have been playing catch up ever since. I guess teams have now figured out how to stop the Sens army.

It will be up to the Kovalev line to win the game for the Canadiens tonight, hopefully with the help of the supporting cast as well. I’m sure that Mats Sundin and company will do what they can not to help the Habs. Let’s hope that the youngsters come up with a super good game tonight, and prove that the Habs management made a good decision in going with the kids yet again. The Canadiens remember all too well what happened at the end of last season, so look for them to really give it to the Leafs tonight, to show them that last season’s win to knock the Habs out of the post season was a fluke big game win.

One more win, the Habs have 4 games to get it done, for the division at least. One thing at a time, first it was clinching a play-off birth, now the close proximity of a division title, if and only if the Habs win the division can they then concentrate on the conference title. Let’s face it, if the Habs can’t manage to win one more game this season, questions will be asked.

The Habs looked as though they had no interest in the game, with the Ottawa Senators 4 points behind them, they had to win. The Habs looked as though they were hoping that the Sabres would score on themselves, like Chris Higgins did. Higgins tried to kick the puck to the boards, but it ended up in the net instead. The Sabres second goal was decent, but the their third goal was scored thanks to Mark Streit coughing up the puck behind Carey Price. Streit then assisted on all the Habs goals in the third period, and overtime, and Higgins scored the game winner, they both settled things after being the cause of some Sabres goals.

The scoring went like this, for the Canadiens, Alex Kovalev, assisted by Mikhail Grabovski, and Francis Bouillon, next was Tomas Plekanec, from Mark Streit, and Kovalev, then from Plekanec again assisted by Streit, and Andrei Kostitsyn. In overtime, Chris Higgins scored assisted by Streit, and Saku Koivu. For the Sabres it was Drew Stafford, from Derek Roy, and Andrej Sekera, then Nathan Paetsch, from Derek Roy, and Thomas Vanek, and finally Daniel Paille from Jason Pominville.

Both Ryan Miller, and Carey Price were good, Price stopped 35 shots while Miller stopped 25 shots, unfortunately for Miller, he let in three unanswered goals, 2 in the third, and 1 in overtime. Jesus Price was priceless tonight as two out of the three goals scored on him were a result of his own team-mates.

This was another come back win for the Habs this year, and they now sit atop the Eastern Conference again with 98 points, 1 point more than the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Canadiens also put two more points in the bank, and now have a 6 point lead over the Sens in the Northeast division. The Canadiens now need to win one more game, and hope Ottawa loses one more, or the Habs have to win two more games and the division is theirs.

The Habs now face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, a team which was eliminated from the post season yesterday, will the Leafs make the Canadiens life easy, or will they play hard against the Habs as they usually do? Komisarek is still out for the Habs, hopefully someone else will keep that annoying Darcy Tucker in check. If the Canadiens play like they did tonight against the Leafs, they will lose, so let’s hope they come out of Toronto with a win, and force the Sens to win all their remaining games.

There is some suggestions coming from Montreal radio stations that Jaroslav Halak could be in nets tomorrow, either way, the Habs will have to play better, sure they didn’t play for three days and were a little rusty, but it’s time to get back to work, the season isn’t over yet.

The Habs have 96 points right now, the Sens, even with their loss to the Buffalo Sabres tonight in a shoot-out, now have 92 points. The Senators have 4 games remaining, giving them a maximum potential of 100 points. The Habs need either 101 points, or to win two more games which would give them 100 points, and for the Sens to lose one more to claim the division title.

This is highly possible, the Canadiens have 5 games remaining, they can either win two of them and see if the Sens lose one more, or, just go and win the next three games, giving them 6 more points, which their total would be 102 points, and be out of the reach of the Sens, and be able to rest some players without worrying, the conference would be a different story.

The Sens basically have to hope that the Habs don’t win two, or three more games and that they themselves can’t lose 1 more game, or else, being that the Habs could win two more games would put the Sens out of it, which after all the self promoting, they deserve. Not too long ago, former Sens coach John Paddock uttered the words, ” The Canadiens want to catch us, let them try. ” Since then, the Habs have not only caught them, but passed them, and separated themselves from the Sens, making it hard for Ottawa to claim what was theirs in the beginning of the season.

I guess Paddock lit the fire under the Habs and his former players are now at the Habs mercy, instead of the other way around. Maybe before people talk next time, they will use their brain first. Look the Senators have many good players, the problem is, the best players all play on the same line, and their goal-tending is suspicious at best.

Three more wins, or two more and a Sens loss. Wow. Where are the predicting kings now? Hiding their heads in the sand, that’s where. Sure as a person making predictions, you have to way so many variables to formulate an opinion, but this year they didn’t do that, they wrote off the Habs, and said that they would be lucky to be in ninth, or tenth. Well look at them now, I’m not saying even though I hope the Habs win the Stanley Cup that they will, but with everything they have accomplished this year, being so close to winning the division, and the conference, I don’t hear anyone saying that they were wrong!

Perhaps this will serve as a lesson to those who cast the Habs into the abyss before the season started, go and see a game at the Bell Centre, even if the atmosphere is great all season, you need a megaphone to talk to the person sitting next to you right now, imagine in the play-offs, imagine if the Habs win the division, or the conference!!!

The wizards ( NHL planning directors ), thought of something controversial, the team that wins in overtime gets 2 points, the one which loses gets 1 point. By doing this I find that the wizards are rewarding losers, which once you become a professional, should not exist, the players are not children anymore, they don’t have to reward effort, you lose, tough luck, no points. Why should teams be babied, to tell owners that the wizards have their back, well who has the fans back??

The shoot-out is a different story, if both teams have made it past the overtime, then they should have at least one point each, with the extra point going to the winner of the shoot-out. That is the way it should be, if you make it past the overtime, you get a point, you lose in overtime, no point for you, enough with the constant child like rewards.

Unfortunately, the loser point has made things interesting in the race for the play-offs this season as a multitude of teams which should not be in the hunt are. Teams like the Florida Panthers, Washington Capitals, Buffalo Sabres, Edmonton Oilers, and so on, even teams which are at the top would possibly not be there if the loser point wasn’t there, but some teams at the top also lost in the shoot-out, so some would still be at the top anyway.

In the current situation, I do not think that the NHL will remove this loser point anytime soon, it’s giving teams which arguably shouldn’t be in the race a chance to get into the play-offs, in the end the owners of low market teams probably like it that way, some teams don’t want to spend more then the floor cap, and they are happy to be in the hunt for the play-offs. It is exciting as all spots are pretty much up for grabs, however they should be challenged by winners, not overtime loser points, shoot-out loss is o.k. as both teams made it past overtime, by the old standard, they both get a point, but please, players, and owners are past the age of positive reinforcement.

The scoring for the Habs went like this, Andrei Kostitsyn, from Tomas Plekanec, and Roman Hamrlik, secondly from Chris Higgins, assisted by Maxime Lapierre, the third goal was from Andrei Kostitsyn, from Mark Streit, the fourth from Francis Bouillon, from Brian Smolinski, the fifth from Andrei Markov, assisted by Michael Ryder, and Alex Kovalev, the sixth from Mikhail Grabovski, from Sergei Kostitsyn, and lastly from Tom Kostopoulos, assisted by Andrei Markov. Carey Price stopped 31 of 36 shots.

The Sens scoring is Antoine Vermette, from Randy Robitaille, and Martin Lapointe, secondly from Dany Heatley, from Daniel Alfredsson, and Luke Richardson, next was Martin Lapointe, from Shean Donovan, and Randy Robitaille, then Dany Heatley from Mike Commodore, and Daniel Alfredsson, and lastly from Cory Stillman, assisted from Daniel Alfredsson.

The Habs came out busting, not letting the Sens do anything at all for two periods, closing the neutral zone, hitting the Sens, and making an aggressive fore-check. They made the Sens wonder what team they were playing, they blazed by them on all accounts. The third period however was a different story, with a mix of bad calls from the refs yet again, and a total lack of organization from the Habs, not to mention a couple of goals that Price should not have let in, it was a total collapse in the third, once again started by the questionable calls from the refs.

The Canadiens have now cliched a play-off birth, and they are 7 points ahead of the Sens for the division lead, and three points ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the conference lead. The Habs next play the Buffalo Sabres on Friday, the Sabres can do the Habs a favour by beating the Sens twice this week, and giving us the division championship. The Habs can now breath a little easier with the assurance of making the play-offs, they now have 96 points, and need to win two more games to get 100 points.

Carey Price had a difficult third period, but in the end he has to be a professional, and let it slide off his shoulders as they won anyway. It’s unclear at this point if the Habs will give Jaroslav Halak another start before the play-offs, and if that start will be on Friday against the Sabres to then come back with Price on Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The fans let out a sigh of relief after tonight’s game, their team is now officially in the play-offs, where they will sit is still to be determined.

Nice going boys, keep it up, but play all 60 minutes instead of only 40.

The belief is that Carter will seek a similar deal to the one signed by teammate Mike Richards, who signed a 12-year, $69 million contract extension earlier in the season. Carter and Richards have similar career statistics, and so would be comparables during negotiations.

Aaron Portzline of The Columbus Dispatch suggests that the Columbus Blue Jackets may re-sign pending UFA forward Michael Peca because he has a great “dressing room presence” and could help guide Rick Nash through the “early stages” of his captaincy.

Portzline also speculates that the Buffalo Sabres will botch contract negotiations with goaltender Ryan Miller much in the same way they did with forwards Chris Drury and Daniel Briere, and defenseman Brian Campbell.

Miller is set to become a UFA after the 2008-09 season, and word is that he already sees himself playing for the Detroit Red Wings in 2009-10. A native of East Lansing, Michigan, Miller is also good friends with Red Wings goaltending coach Jim Bedard.

Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun suggests that if the Toronto Maple Leafs can’t trade forward Darcy Tucker, they should buy him out.

A buy out would cost the Maple Leafs two-thirds of Tucker’s $6 million contract; the club would be on the hook for a $1 million cap hit per season, over six years.

Garrioch also wonders if teams like the Flyers, Los Angeles Kings and Chicago Blackhawks may put in an offer sheet to Montreal Canadiens pending restricted free agent goalie Jaroslav Halak this summer. Aside for Cristobal Huet of the Washington Capitals, the free agent market appears to be pretty bare, leaving teams looking for an upgrade in net to perhaps try and poach RFAs.

Lastly from Garrioch, he reports that if Boston Bruins struggling forward Glen Murray doesn’t start scoring and help the team earn a playoff spot, he will likely be dealt in the off-season.

Murray’s $4.15 million salary could then be used by the Bruins to try and land Pittsburgh Penguins pending UFA forward Marian Hossa.

Tampa Bay Lightning head coach John Tortorella tells Damian Cristodero of the St. Petersburg Times that 23-year-old defenseman Paul Ranger is an “untouchable” in terms of trades.

“To me, he’s an untouchable because of what he’s going to be.”

“He’s one of the most underrated players in the league,” Tortorella said. “He’s a huge piece of our team as far as transition, as far as his stick, getting us out of our end zone, penalty killing. Ranger is more physical than any of our D. He’s grown.”

The Bruins probably thought that by eliminating Komisarek, they would have the upper hand on the Habs, well it didn’t work on Thursday, nor did it work on Saturday as the Canadiens swept the season series 8-0. Unfortunately, the Bruins may have helped the other teams the Habs face for the rest of the season, by taking out Komisarek, the Habs lose the no. 2 player in hits in the NHL, not to mention no. 1 in shot blocker, the Habs will have to revise their defensive strategy for the remainder of the season and possibly for the beginning of the play-offs, but Komisarek has stated that he would like to be back for the play-offs.

Komisarek is a big loss for the Canadiens, he’s rough, tough, and most of the time, in the right position to handle most players, he doesn’t shy away from fighting if he has to, he protects the front of the net in a mission type aggression. Now we will have to see what Ryan O’Byrne is really made of as he will have to be the physical presence for the Habs for a while, O’Byrne isn’t much lighter only giving away 12 pounds, but he is not as experienced as Komisarek which could prove hazardous for the Canadiens down the final 6 game stretch.

The Habs face only divisional opponents form now on, which will mean that there will be some rough stuff ahead as the Buffalo Sabres (who the Habs face twice), the Toronto Maple Leafs (who the Habs face twice), which are both trying to claim the final play-off spot will make the Habs feel the loss of Mr. physical Komisarek more than the Ottawa Senators (which the Habs face twice), the Sens will most likely match the Canadiens scoring prowess more than the physical aspect as they are still without Chris Neil.

The Canadiens Bill Masterton trophy candidate Komisarek will most likely be training hard to keep his conditioning up to standard as his comeback will be in the midst of fire as the play-offs will start when he returns. Let’s hope the Habs don’t suffer too much without big Mike, and can be at least a .500 team for the rest of the season, one thing is for sure, with the loss of Komisarek, teams will not think twice for a while about going in on his side of the ice. Get well soon Mike, but don’t come back too soon and hurt yourself again, the team needs you, but not in the press box, heal fast Kom.

The goal scorers for the Habs were, Andrei Markov, unassisted, and Andrei Kostitsyn, from Mark Streit, and Tomas Plekanec, Saku Koivu scored a beautiful goal in the shoot-out to get the victory for the Habs. Carey Price stopped 33 of 35 shots he faced. The Bruins scorers were Marc Savard, from Zdeno Chara, and Dennis Wideman, and lastly, Petteri Nokelainen, from Mark Stuart, and Milan Lucic.

This was a game of mistakes for the most part from both teams, but both goalies made some amazing saves all night, it made for an interesting game never the less. Tim Thomas for the Bruins made some great saves that would have made the Canadiens win by at least a three goal margin. Steve Begin came back to the line-up tonight and hit a few Bruins, and got into a fight, so did Maxime Lapierre. The Habs have now defeated the Bruins 11 straight games, including last year, it wil be interesting to see if the two teams meet up in the play-offs.

The best line for the Habs was the Koivu line, all game they buzzed around the net, I guess it’s only fitting that Koivu was the one who won the game for them. The defence scrambled a little with the loss of Mike Komisarek, they couldn’t find a real rhythm until the third period.

The Canadiens now have 94 points, one more than the Pittsburgh Penguins to sit on top of the east, and are now 5 points up over Ottawa in their division. The Habs now have 6 games remaining, the next week looks like this, Monday against the Senators, Friday against the Buffalo Sabres, Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Habs still need 3 wins out of their last six games to really solidify a good spot in the play-offs, let’s hope that the loss of Komisarek won’t prevent them from going at least .500 for the rest of the season.

Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings, Paul Stastny of the Colorado Avalanche, Phil Kessel of the Boston Bruins, Alexander Radulov of the Nashville Predators, Drew Stafford of the Buffalo Sabres, Jiri Hudler of the Detroit Red Wings, David Booth of the Florida Panthers, Brandon Dubinsky of the New York Rangers, and Travis Zajac of the New Jersey Devils.

While not all are expected to receive long-term deals such as the one signed by Philadelphia Flyers forward Mike Richards last December (12 years totaling $69 million), it’s possible that some of the top tier players may.

Looks like we were on to something: the NHL’s CBA prohibits teams from buying out injured players at two-thirds of their salaries, as Luke DeCock of The News & Observer suggested the Carolina Hurricanes may do with defenseman David Tanabe this summer.

DeCock reports today that for the Hurricanes to be allowed to buy out his contract for 2/3, Tanabe would have be declared fit to play by July 1.

Otherwise, the Hurricanes would be on the hook for Tanabe’s entire $900,000 salary. The good news is that it wouldn’t count against the salary cap.

Look for the St. Louis Blues to bolster their inconsistent offense during the off-season.

St. Louis Post Dispatch President John Davidson tells Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post Dispatch that while he’s well aware of his club’s shortcomings, the organization still needs to pinpoint where their troubles stem from.

“For whatever reason, we haven’t scored and we have to figure out why,” Davidson said Sunday, one day after the Blues’ 4-2 loss to Vancouver.

“… there’s a lot of variables that we’ll have to sift through.”

All it took was 16 seconds to make this Empire State matchup really, really interesting. Buffalo gained the zone first right off the faceoff and a battle ensued in the far corner. Both Rozival and Staal chase into the corner, trouble already. This leaves Dubinsky alone, who is just below and right of the slot. Pominville is fighting for the puck in the corner. The puck ends up on Hecht’s stick, who throws a blind backhander into the slot. Pominville streaks for the net while Staal is busy sightseeing in the corner with Rozival. Pominville for Buffalo, 1-0. A rare mishap by Staal, but I’ve noticed NYR defensman making coverage mistakes more often lately. I guess thats ok, because that means that physical mistakes aren’t our problem right now, just mental, which can be fixed with coaching.

What was best is how the Rangers managed to strike back ASAP. Jagr jumped off the faceoff and got a good shot. Line change and we have Shanny-Gomez-Dawes. Shanny works it deep to Dawes who looks trapped by two Sabres. He threads a needle to a cutting Tyutin who almost mis-handles it. To Tyutins credit though, he setteled it quickly and snapped it, not holding onto it long. Miller mis-plays it and it sneaks through his blocker. A soft goal, but credit Tyutin for a quick shot and not letting Miller set-up longer. And another showing of why Dawes is a playmaker and a great passer, and easily outplays Prucha.

Past the two goals the first was filled with good action, but nothing really notable besides a couple of “routine” Henrik Lundqvist saves. It was a game the NHL must have loved. Close game, fast paced, with great scoring oppurtunities along with a little rivalry. One thing the Rangers did was spend too much time in the box. This was evident as 4 minutes in the Rangers were down 2. Henrik stole the show again with a great right pad to absolutely stuff a Sabre on the back door.

This eventually led to a huge hit in the close corner by Avery, who sent Dmitiri Kalinin flying into the boards hard. He then acquired the puck behind the net and sent a pass to the slot, where a lone Jaromir Jagr stood and fired to make it 2-1 half way through the game.

5 minutes later on another Buffalo PP the puck was being worked around. Vanek set up in front as the puck got to the left point. He deflected a waist-high shot past Hank to tie it at 2. There wasn’t much the Rangers could do here besides to not take the penalty in the first place. Later on Dawes fought for the puck behind the Buffalo net and successfully took it. He then found Gomez streaking down the far side while cutting to the net, who couldn’t finish the point-blank opportunity. If Gomez had the same touch with his shots as he does with his passes, he would be an even more lethal player.

Gomez would eventually redeem himself in the shootout later after another Shanahan snipe high glove side. Someone will eventually figure him out haha. I feel like I’m summarizing so here are some things I would like to see as the Rangers go on a mini-spring break down in Florida this week before they visit the Panthers and Lightning on Friday and Saturday night.

- As stated yesterday, our king Henrik is back. He put up another great showing in Buffalo last night. The two goals were good plays and finishes, and nothing short of a miracle such as the one he pulled on Boston Sunday would have stopped those. I have a hunch Vally will see ice in the weekend dates with Florida and Tampa Bay, bet on Florida for me.

- Penalties. I would like to see them clean up the box. I don’t mind the fighting by Orr or some of the roughings, but the trippings, hookings, and interference’s need to stop before we run into a team such as Montreal, who can kill you with their PP. I have a feeling this will be looked at by the coaches. Maybe the Rangers were just a little slow after the Sunday game. Who knows.

- The Rangers Penalty Killers need to lay off the points. We don’t have a crease-clearing defenseman like Chara who can handle two guys at once. I see this when a winger pinches out and a D man has to cover on the wing for one of the wingers. This leaves the lone D in front along with usually two opposing attackers. The Rags seem to have a habit for blocking shots and clearing the net when they have the bodies in their, so keep doing it.

Thats all I have for now, expect one before the weekend. – Rob