Habs Need One More Win, Sens Lose To Bruins

With the Ottawa Senators losing to the Boston Bruins 4-0 today, the Montreal Canadiens need only one more win this season to claim the Northeast division.

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.