East tops West in SuperSkills
January 26, 2008
Shining among the stars
January 26, 2008
All-Star Break 2008
January 25, 2008
With a couple of important wins coming into the All-Star break, Montreal Canadiens’ fans can relax and enjoy the All-Star festivities coming this weekend from Atlanta, Georgia. Here is a breakdown of what to expect and where to tune in to catch all of the action!
Saturday, January 26, 2008
The fun starts at 7 PM EST with the Young Stars Game and the NHL Superskills Competition. The Young Stars game features 3-on-3 action with only one faceoff, limited whistles, and penalty shots in the place of 2 minute timeouts.
The Superskills Competition will feature the events we all know and love such as the accuracy, hardest shot and fastest skater drills. New to the 2008 All-Star weekend in the breakaway contest, an event that will see players judged out of 10 by celebrity judges on the fanciness and effectiveness of their dekes. Think a slam dunk competition, only in the NHL.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
6 PM EST sees the start of the All-Star game itself, pitting East against West with both teams sporting the best players in the respective conferences. The Western Conference defeated the Eastern Conference by a score of 12-9 last year.
Back to business as usual on Tuesday when the Habs face the Caps at home!
Montreal 4 - New Jersey 3
January 24, 2008
The Habs looked down and out tonight in New Jersey going into the third period with a 3-1 deficit but the squad came through with flying colours to beat the Devils 4-3 in regulation.
Patrik Elias opened the scoring with a powerplay goal 12:18 into the first period to put the Devils up 1-0 going into the intermission; New Jersey outshot Montreal 6-3 in the first 20 minutes.
The second period saw Elias earn his second goal of the night on three and a half minutes into the period to give the Devils 2-0 lead. Bryan Smolinski batted a loose puck in to cut the lead to 2-1 only to have Jamie Langenbruner end the second period with his first of the night to put Jersey up a fairly comfortable 3-1 in the second intermission.
After outshooting the Devils 9-4 in the second period, the Canadiens really came alive in the third. Smolinski netted his second of the game only 29 seconds into the period to cut the lead to 3-2 and the Habs mounted the pressure, completely controlling the flow and leaving the fate of the Devils in the hands of Martin Brodeur. Ten minutes of persistence paid off when Saku Koivu batted a slapshot by Mike Komisarak past Brodeur to tie the game at three goals apiece. The Devils began to fall apart, failing to clear their zone and taking a series of penalties; Chris Higgins scored the game winner only three minutes after Koivu’s tying goal on the powerplay.
GAME NOTES: The Canadiens outshot the Devils 20-3 in the third period and 32-13 overall.
January 24 - New Jersey Devils
January 23, 2008
With their 8-2 win over Boston on Tuesday night, the Montreal Canadiens continued their complete domination of the Bruins; 6-0-0 this season, nine wins in a row total. The New Jersey Devils are a whole other story though, winning their last nine games against the Habs. Martin Brodeur, who will start tomorrow night, has a 5-0-0 record against Montreal in his past five starts with a – get this – 0.79 goals against average.
Montreal sits only 6 points back of Northeast Division leader Ottawa with a game in hand, so now is the time to break this nasty streak. The Devils are currently leading their division with 59 points and they are coming off of a big win of their own, 7-3 over Philadelpia on Tuesday, so the offensive onslaught is likely to conintue, leaving the game in the hands of Brodeur and Christobal Huet.
Montreal 8 - Boston 2
January 22, 2008
The absolute dominance of the Montreal Canadiens over the Boston Bruins continued tonight at the Bell Centre as the Habs delivered an 8-2 stomping of their division rivals, extending their overall winning streak against Boston to nine games with a 6-0-0 record against them this season.
The first period opened with a nifty scrum goal by Tom Kostopolous only 14 seconds in and things just got worse for the Bruins from there. Michael Ryder made it 2-0 a few minutes later but Boston looked to keep things close with a goal from Marco Sturm to make it 2-1. Andrei Kostitsyn put the Habs up 3-1 and Maxim Lapierre put a wrist shot into the top corner over Boston starter Alex Auld with 3 seconds left in the first period to put Montreal up 4-1.
Auld was replaced by NHL goals-against-average leader Tim Thomas in the second period but the Habs’ onslaught continued. Bryan Smolinski gave the Habs a 5-1 lead 5:45 into the period and Mike Komisarak put a beautiful snapshot past Thomas less than two minutes later to extend the lead to 6-1 going into the third period.
The Bruins added some pressure coming into the third but Christobal Huet stood strong in his net, turning away several prime opportunities and looking as sharp as ever. Alex Kovalev put a slap shot off of the leg of a Boston defenseman on the powerplay to make it 7-1 before Boston was able to put a powerplay goal of their own home to cut the lead to 7-2. Andrei Kostitsyn took a beautiful pass from brother Sergei with 2:16 remaining to put the Canadiens up 8-2, and that’s where it ended.
GAME NOTES: Lots of notes tonight! 13 different Habs had a point. Andrei Kostitsyn had three points (2G, 1A). Sergei Kostitsyn had his first NHL fight and added 2 assists. Christobal Huet stopped 29 shots; Boston actually outshot Montreal 31-24. Alex Auld let in 4 goals on only 7 shots in the first period.
With Ottawa’s 5-3 loss to Florida tonight the Habs are within 6 points of them. New Jersey’s win in Philly puts the Canadiens at 5th place in the Eastern Conference. Next game is in New Jersey on Thursday.
Maple Leafs Fire John Ferguson Jr.
January 22, 2008
I won’t go into too much detail on this because, let’s face it, none of us really care, right? It will be interesting to see where all of this leads for the Leafs though; Cliff Fletcher will take over for the rest of the year but has said publically that he is not interested in the position any longer than that. Head coach Paul Maurice has retained his spot for now, but he’s got to be sweating bullets right about now.
Alex Kovalev Warrior Commercial
January 22, 2008
This promotional shoot for the Warrior brand of hockey stick has Alex Kovalev showing off some unfathomable stickhandling and shooting skills.
Brisebois Sidelined Again
January 22, 2008
Patrice Brisebois underwent an MRI yesterday that found two breaks in the defenseman’s left foot. Breezer skated with the team this morning but will obviously miss tonight’s game and a few more at the least while he recovers.
The Numbers Game
January 21, 2008
From Canadiens.com
Here’s a numerical look at the Canadiens-Penguins game on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
7 - Consecutive number of the games the Canadiens have now allowed under 30 shots. Montreal is 4-2-1 in those games.
5 - Game-high number of blocked shots by Francis Bouillon.
67 - Maxim Lapierre’s faceoff percentage on Saturday night to lead all Habs centers on his way to raising his season average to 50.2 %.
5 - Game-high number of shots registered by Christopher Higgins who continues to lead the team with 148 shots on the season.
26 - Number of candles now birthday boy Mike Komisarek will blow out tonight.
6 - Game-high number of hits thrown by former Penguins forward Tom Kostopoulos, tying him with teammate Komisarek on the night.
14 - Number of games the Canadiens’ second-ranked power-play has failed to score at least one goal in 2007-08. Montreal is 5-6-3 in those contests.
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