Markov Voted All-Star Starter

Want to read Puckerings articles when it suits you? Just sign up for our RSS feed!

The starting lines for the 2008 NHL All-Star Game in Atlanta have been announced that out very own breakout defensemen Andrei Markov will be starting for the Eastern Conference! Markov is the only first-time All-Star on the roster this year, making his 316,136 votes a major achievement. Only Sidney Crosby amassed more votes in the East with 507,274.

The 2008 NHL All-Star game takes place in Atlanta, Georgia on January 27th at 6 PM EST.

January 8 - Chicago Blackhawks

As part of the advance celebrations marking the Montreal Canadiens’ centennial on December 4, 2009, a commemorative pre-game ceremony will be held at the Bell Centre on Tuesday, January 8 to salute 82 seasons of rivalry between the Habs and the Chicago Blackhawks.

For this occasion, several of the greatest players who ever wore Canadiens and Hawks jerseys, and who were at the heart of the notorious confrontations between both clubs, will be invited to centre ice, where a video montage showing the most memorable moments during the two teams’ match-ups will be shown on the central scoreboard screen. All fans attending the Bell Centre game will receive a free souvenir program highlighting the greatest moments of this exciting rivalry and its unforgettable participants.

Former Blackhawks legends who have confirmed their presence at this historic evening include: the spectacular Bobby Hull (1957-1972), better known as the Golden Jet, who had five NHL seasons in which he scored 50 goals or more, totaled 1,170 points, including 610 goals; Tony Esposito (1969-1984), winner of the Calder and Vezina trophies and still the only NHL goalie to record 15 shutouts in one season (1969-1970), and Stan Mikita (1958-1980), a five-time All-Star team member, a four-time NHL scoring leader and two-time winner of the Hart Trophy.

Meanwhile, among the Canadiens legends attending the event are Guy Lafleur (1971-1984), five-time winner of the Stanley Cup and author of 1,246 points, including 518 goals and a host of individual honors, Henri Richard (1955-1975), one the 12 former Habs to have won the Stanley Cup for five straight seasons and responsible for the famous goal that allowed Montreal to win the Stanley Cup during the seventh game of the final against Chicago in 1971, and Yvan Cournoyer (1963-1979), Canadiens captain from 1975 to 1979 and 1973 Stanley Cup hero, scoring the winning goal against Chicago, two-time winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy with 25 points including 15 playoff goals.

Next season, to mark the 100th season of the Montreal Canadiens, the New York Rangers and the Toronto Maple Leafs will be part of commemorative ceremonies to celebrate the greatest moments of their rivalries with the Canadiens and other NHL’s original six teams.

Team Canada Wins Gold!

Team Canada took its fourth straight gold medal at the World Junior Championship in the Czech Republic today, beating Team Sweden in the final round in a breathtaking overtime victory.

Canada’s goals came from Brad Marchand (of the Halifax Mooseheads!), Claude Giroux and Matthew Halischuk in overtime. Goaltender Steve Mason looked solid throughout the game, recovering well after giving up a late third period goal as the Swedes played 6-on-5 with their goaltender on the bench.

Canada is now set to make it 5 gold medals in a row at home in Ottawa next year – I can’t wait!

WJC NOTES: Russia beat the United States 3-2 earlier today to claim the bronze medal. By winning the silver Sweden takes home a medal for the first time since the World Junior Championship in Boston in 1996.

Washington 5 - Montreal 4 (OT)

The Canadiens met the Washington Capitals for the first time since beating them 5-2 in DC on December 20th and they came prepared for Ovechkin and company. The Habs opened scoring the first with a powerplay goal by Tomas Plekanec off of a crisp pass from Alexi Kovalev and continued to skate hard for the rest of the period. Oleg Kolzig played well, keeping the score at 1-0 going into the first intermission.

The Habs’ newest young superstar, Andrei Kostitsyn, buried his fourth goal in three games after dancing around three Caps defensemen to launch a snapshot over the blocker of Kolzig, putting the Canadiens up 2-0 only minutes into the second period. Only minutes later Alex Ovechkin ripped a wrist shot off of a clean faceoff win in the Canadiens zone over the shoulder of Carey Price, who appeared to be screened. Niklas Backstrom added another Caps goal only 3 minutes and 22 seconds later, beating Price on a 2-on-1 and evening the score at 2 goals apiece.

To Price’s credit he made a few big saves before and after the second Washington goal, taking the Habs safely through their third and fourth penalty kill of the game to keep the game tied; standout defensemen Mike Komisarek threw all the right hits to keep the Caps shotless during the latter. Only seconds later though, the Caps’ Gordon blasted a long slapshot past Carey Price on his glove side, putting Washington up 3-2 with their three unanswered second period goals.

Roman Hamrlik answered the Caps early in the third period on a deflection from the boards, tying the game at 3 goals for each side. The Habs went to the powerplay early, setting up a few decent chances but not putting it home. Ovechkin, the penalized player, jumped out of the box to put his second goal past Carey Price, putting the Caps up 4-3 with 13 minutes left to play in the third period. The Canadiens upped the pressure until 8:34 in the period when Alex Kovalev walked over the blue line and fired a wrist shot past Kolzig to tie the game at 4.

Into overtime we went and it wasn’t a minute and a half in before Washington’s Mike Green finished the game, giving the Caps the win 5-4.

GAME NOTES: I love Carey Price, but he looked soft on at least 3 of the goals in regulation. I’ll be looking forward to seeing Huet against Chicago on Tuesday. Andrei Kostitsyn scored another goal, continuing his three game scoring streak by making it 4 goals in his last three games.

January 5 - Washington Capitals

We’ve been horrible at home this year and, especially considering the renewed offensive effort of late, you can bet that the Montreal Canadiens are hoping for better things to come at the Bell Centre after a 6-3 pounding of the Tampa Bay Lightning there this past Thursday.

The Habs have been hot lately, coming off of a very successful road trip and following that up with the win at home. Christobal Huet has been playing well, Michael Ryder has broken his scoring slump and Andrei Kostitsyn is suddenly a powerhouse on the wing. While Ovechkin and company looked very good in their 4 point home-and-home roll over the Eastern Conference leading Ottawa Senators, they have lost their last four meetings against the Habs.

Guy Carbonneau hasn’t made the goaltending start public yet and my original prediction that Carey Price would get the start tonight could be off given Huet’s hot streak – he is 4-0-3 in his last 7 starts.

The Caps are going to be hungry for goals after being shutout against Boston on Friday night but I think they Habs have what it takes to power over them once again. I predict a 5-3 Canadiens win with Huet in the net, 5-2 with Price

Canada Heads to Gold Medal Game

In a rematch of last year’s stunning semi-final game between Canada and the United States that saw Carey Price and company win after seven rounds of shootout play, the Canadian World Junior team was well aware of the fact that this game was a must-win.

The first period saw outstanding pressure from both teams with even better goaltending from Canada’s Steve Mason and the United States’ Jeremy Smith to keep the game scoreless at the end of the period.
The second period saw the Canadians break out early with goals from Shawn Matthias and Carl Alzner as Mason remained sharp to keep the Americans scoreless going into the third, facing a two-man advantage as the Canadians were outshot for the second period in a row.

Brad Marchand of the QMJHL’s Halifax Mooseheads made it 3-0 early in the third Colton Gillies added his first goal of the tournament to help Team Canada take a commanding 4-0 lead. The Philadelphia Flyers’ first round pick, James VanRiemsdyk, ended Mason’s shutout bid late in the third and the American’s maintained a faint hope as they went on a two-man advantage powerplay in the last minute of the third period. Mason remained strong in net and Team Canada coasted to a 4-1 win and a chance to play Sweden for their fifth consecutive gold medal at the World Juniors.

GAME NOTES: Steve Mason, shaky in his game against Finland in the quarter-finals, was named Canada’s player of the game.

Montreal 6 - Tampa Bay 3

I have to open this recap with the fact that Michael Ryder scored two goals and added an assist to make it a three point night! After such a terrible streak and the loss of confidence that followed, it’s good to see my favorite Newfoundland born Hab get back on track.

The Canadiens took a 1-0 lead midway through the first on a powerplay goal by Chris Higgins and made it 2-0 before the end of the period on yet another powerplay goal by Alex Kovalev. Tampa looked strong however, and Kari Ramo made several key saves to keep the lead at only 2 goals.

The second period opened with Vincent Lecavilier coming in on a breakaway and Huet turning to stone as Vinny put the biscuit between his legs. To his credit Huet looked very sharp for the remainder of the game but this lack of confidence on breakaways and shootouts needs to change! Michael Ryder came in on a wing and put a nice wrist shot into the net to put the Habs up 3-1 before Martin St. Louis put a powerplay goal home minutes later to cut the lead back to a single goal. Only two minutes after that Vincent Prospel put another one in the net for Tampa to tie the game 3-3 going into the third.

After playing nearly eight minutes with very little on-the-net action in the third Andrei Kostitsyn flew down the left wing on Kari Ramo and rocketed a slapshot into his shoulder and into the net to put Montreal up by a goal. This time, rather than blow the lead for the third time, Kyle Chipchura put the puck in an empty net after Tomas Plekanec fired a crisp pass onto his stick across the crease. Ryder sealed the deal with just under 3 minutes on another beautiful feed from Chris Higgins, scoring his second and putting the Habs up 6-3 to end the game.

GAME NOTES: Ryder again! 4 points in the last two games including three goals after going 15 games without a goal and 13 without a point. Huet, beyond the sloppy breakaway goal, was sharp throughout, making 30 saves.

What Would You Do For Vinny?

Let me start off by saying that this post is full of speculation and wishful thinking! While the Montreal media went through a frenzy when the rumour that Vincent Lecavalier would like to play for the Habs late in 2007, things never went any further and no official talk came from the Habs and the Lightning. Before I commit to calling the dream of Vinny in Montreal wishful thinking, let’s break down the potential specifics.

Would Tampa Bay part with him? Given that Lecavalier is the leading points scorer in the NHL at the moment, one would assume that the Lightning would either be unwilling to trade or would want such a high price tag that we simply wouldn’t bite. But, being that Tampa is floating in last place in the Eastern Conference at the moment, maybe there is a chance that they would trade in order to fix their goaltending woes.

What would we have to trade? Given the goaltending situation in Tampa, Huet would be a good starter. Throw in an all-star forward (Koivu, anyone?) and we may just have a deal. The questions from the Montreal end of things:

- Is Carey Price ready to take over as a true number one? Sometimes he looks like it, other times not so much. Halak has the potential to be a star backup and that is important to remember.

- While we all love Saku, he just hasn’t been living up to expectations lately (save for the past few games). He is a star centre and a great playmaker, but he isn’t the high scoring front man that we need.

The real question for the readers is, assuming Tampa were open to negotiations, who would you trade for Vinny?

Habs All-Star Voting

Just a reminder to all of you Canadiens fans out there that there is still ample time to vote (often!) for the three guys we have in contention at the moment.

Andrei Markov currently leads all defensemen in the Eastern Conference with 282,336 votes, nearly 50,000 votes ahead of second place Zdeno Chara of Boston.

Christobal Huet ranks third for goalies in the East with 154,198 votes, only a few hundred votes from second place Henrik Lundqvist; Martin Brodeur tops the category with just over 185,000 votes.

Finally we have Saku Koivu ranked 8th among forwards with 103,395 and Alex Kovalev, a write-in candidate, in 12th position in the same category with 62,557 votes.

The All-Star game is in less than a month so get those votes in!

January 3 - Tampa Bay Lightning

With the six-game road trip that the Canadiens just finished, they haven’t played at home since December 18th; that was a 3-2 loss to Florida. The Habs are 1-5-2 in their last 8 games at home and, while we remain strong on the road, the Bell Centre streak doesn’t seem to be improving.

Montreal faces Tampa Bay at home on Thursday night. The Lightning have lost 8 of their past 9 games and the Habs are 1-0-1 against them this season. After obtaining 8 of 12 possible points on the road trip, Montreal is flying on a high note right now.

Huet looks to be getting the start (I expect Price will go up against Washington on Saturday night – rumour has it that they will be starting their second line goalie as well) and, while he hasn’t exactly been on fire, he has been solid for the most part in the past few games.

I personally predict a 4-2 Canadiens win

« Previous Page — Next Page »