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.

It’s good to see that the young kids are influencing the veterans of sort, out of the few remaining, the likes of Alex Kovalev, Sergei, and Andrei Kostitsyn, Roman Hamrlik, and Andrei Markov along with Saku Koivu have yet to do it. At least the team has assumed an identity of sorts, being called the buzz cut boys from various Montreal media outlets.

Perhaps this buzz cut thing will bring the team together more than they already were, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of fans get on the band wagon either. Montreal fans are nuts, they took over some Boston pubs, are they crazy? Yup. That is what the post season means in Montreal, fans are crazy enough to go to the opposing team’s town, and take it over, wow, now that’s a crazy fanatic about his team! Perhaps the Montreal fans aren’t crazy like the Europeans are when it comes to football ( soccer ), but they are nut’s about their team never the less.

A newspaper published last week, I believe it was the West Island Suburban, that when it comes to play-off time in Montreal, we all agree, it doesn’t matter if you are English, French, or whatever nationality, when the Habs are in the play-offs, that’s all that matters, and for the moment anyway, all differences are put aside. Every person on the radio, or newspapers, or t.v. say the same thing, that they have never seen so much support for the Habs, any street that one would walk down in any city in Montreal, all one sees is Habs flags everywhere, on cars, buildings, houses, pets have Habs shirts on, people are painting their cars, getting tattooed, and various other things to support their team.

Perhaps the reason that the Habs are so enthused about the play-offs as well as the fans, is do to the fact that every prognosticator said that the Habs would be lucky to finish in the 9, or 10 seed this year, being that they won their division, and the conference, to go along with having the no.1 power-play in the league ( which hasn’t shown up in the play-offs ), and scoring the most goals in the league ( which is not apparent yet ), has light the proverbial fire under every one, including the players.

Let’s hope that the remaining players also go the way of the team in terms of head shaving and play-off beard, and that it carries them further into the post season. GO HABS GO!

The scoring for the Habs went like this Mark Streit, from Alex Kovalev, and Tomas Plekanec, next from Christopher Higgins, assisted by Streit, and Ryan O’Byrne, and lastly from Higgins, assisted by Brian Smolinski, and Andrei Markov. Carey Price played well again stopping 26 shots for the win. The lone scorer for the Leafs was Mark Bell, assisted by Kris Newbury, and Jason Blake. Andrew Raycroft made some excellent saves to keep the Leafs in it.

The Habs played another sound game, they scored when they had to, and played well defensively, but they didn’t play that hard as they were more than likely trying to stave off injuries leading into the play-offs.

By defeating the Leafs, the Habs obtained another two points, which puts them at 104 for the season, pushing the Penguins to win today to claim the conference crown. Alex Kovalev took the Molson Cup for the year for the Habs, and Mark Streit was honored with the Jacques Beauchamp trophy.

Regardless of the outcome of today’s Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers match-up, the Habs will face the Boston Bruins in the first round of the post season, a team which the Habs won the season series 8-0. Some would say that meeting the Bruins in the first round is good, but like everyone knows, the post season is a different season, it’s not because the Habs beat the Bruins in eight straight this year, that it will be an easy task, the Bruins will have something to prove to the Habs.

The post season starts next week, for the Habs either Wednesday, or Thursday, giving them 4-5 days of recuperation time for players to heal their bumps, and bruises, and giving more time for Mike Komisarek to completely heal.

Saku Koivu will be re-evaluated on Tuesday, to see if the Habs can find a way for Koivu to play. For the Habs sake let’s hope so as Koivu has been the Canadiens best player in the play-offs when they were in the post season.

The season is over, and from being forecasted to finish tenth in the conference, it’s a great season at 47 wins, and 104 points. Bravo!

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.

Koivu will be out for the remainder of the season, and coach Carbonneau doesn’t know at what point in the post season he will return. This is not good news as Koivu was coming on strong lately, and even-though his line isn’t lighting it up on a regular basis, the opposing teams still have to be weary of his line anyway, now with him out, Carbonneau will try a new approach, he will insert Sergei Kostitsyn as centre, between Christopher Higgins, and Michael Ryder.

Francis Bouillon will be re-evaluated today, as he also got injured, Bouillon blocked a shot against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The doctors are waiting until the swelling goes down to properly take x-rays of his ankle. Another big loss for the Habs, Bouillon might be small in stature, but plays a big mans game never the less.

Mark Streit, who also blocked a shot with his foot, has started skating again, all indications are that he will return to the line-up against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday. This at least is good news if he returns as the Habs need the power-play spark to start clicking, and that he plays both end of the ice. Streit was missed against Toronto, this unsung hero for the Habs does alot for them, hopefully he will return soon enough.

Mike Komisarek has started lightly skating again, slowly but at least it’s encouraging, he probably will not play the final three games, but at least he might be in shape to start the play-offs, or at the very least in the third game for the Habs. This is good news as well, the Canadiens have been missing his angry nature since he went down against the Boston Bruins.

The Habs need one more point to secure their division, unfortunately for them, injuries are happening at the wrong time. Hopefully they will have enough to get at least one more point, and perhaps everyone will be back before the play-offs start.

The Leafs captain Mats Sundin, would have been traded for a boat load of talent , and draft picks, one rumour, had Mats going to the Montreal Canadiens for Chris Higgins, and the Habs no.1,2, and three draft picks this year, that would have definitely made the Leafs younger, and with all those draft picks, it would have gotten back some of what was lost recently thanks to Jon Ferguson jr, not to mention that Higgins so far is a consistent 20 goal scorer. Unfortunately Sundin refused to waive his no trade clause.

Some other reports suggest that another no trade Leafs player would have been traded to the Philadelphia Flyers for Jeff Carter, and possibly a draft pick as well, again this would have made the Leafs younger, and added more draft picks, which were lost by Ferguson, so without anymore than those two rampant rumours, the Leafs would have been better.

Another rumour which is floating around on many radio stations, is that Chris Pronger could have been a Maple Leaf, and the trade would have involved Tomas Kaberle, but he has a no trade clause, the problem is his no trade would have only kicked in a month after the trade would have occurred, but Ferguson caved under Kaberle’s agent who apparently said his client had a no trade and regardless of when it takes effect, Ferguson had to honour that. Wow, nice cowering man he is, Ferguson was lucky to have his job as long as he did. Imagine Leaf fans, that you had Chris Pronger, the Leafs would have definitely been better this year.

Ferguson is the one who allotted those no trade contracts, he really has made Cliff Fletchers’ job more difficult as new interim General manager for the Leafs, Fletcher could have made his team better, but in the end because of Ferguson’s handling, was basically handcuffed at the deadline, he managed to trade away dead weight, one of those being Chad Kilger, who hasn’t reported to the Florida Panthers, and has been taken off their roster for now.

One view about no trade contracts is, if a player is given one, is the player to blame for refusing to waive it, like Mats Sundin, or Wade Redden of the Ottawa Senators who has refused to waive his no trade for the past two years. Or is the player who refuses to waive his no trade being selfish, and is basically refusing to help the team in a bad situation. Unfortunately for Mats Sundin, his wanting to stay with a sinking ship as the Captain for fear of being ridiculed as yellow and scared of not making the play-offs, has put him in a bind, next season he either has to retire, or resign with the team for less, if he wants to keep the notion of going down with the ship, or else he runs the risk of being hated by the Leaf fans for sabotaging the future of the Leafs.

Only one thing is for certain, if gm’s are willing to implement no trade clauses, players will almost always accept them. No more no trade clauses, as it punishes the team in the long run, or, the player has to submit a list of at least 10-15 teams which if the possibility arose, they could be traded to.

Sundin refused to waive the no-trade clause and allow the deal to go through.

Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs were also close to acquiring Philadelphia Flyers forward Jeff Carter and the club’s first round pick in return for defenseman Tomas Kaberle on deadline day. The deal “was written up at the league office and awaiting approval,” but Kaberle invoked his no-trade clause.

The Edmonton Journal claims that the New Jersey Devils will sign Flyers defenseman Jason Smith in the off-season as an unrestricted free agent.

Atlanta Thrashers GM Don Waddell told Craig Custance of The Atlanta Journal Constitution that he is not negotiating contract extensions with any of the club’s pending free agents.

“There are no talks going on right now,” Waddell said.

Waddell says that there is plenty of time to discuss new contracts with possible UFAs Mark Recchi, Johan Hedberg, Eric Boulton, Bobby Holik and Steve McCarthy, and the team’s lone pending RFA Kari Lehtonen.

“On our current team there’s only one restricted and that’s Lehtonen. We have a couple unrestricted guys but right now no talks have gone on with any of our players. I think the [current] situation, I don’t see a big need just yet. We have a couple weeks here to focus on winning hockey games.”

Pat Hickey of The Montreal Gazette suggests that the Canadiens will have an easier time attracting quality free agent in the summer due to their excellent play this season and good group of talented young players.

Bob Smizik of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette suggests that the Pittsburgh Penguins should not trade forward Sidney Crosby for any reason. Duh!