More Hossa Rumours

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Originally post by The Fourth Period.

The Marian Hossa rumors continue to heat up, as Montreal’s La Presse is reporting that the Atlanta Thrashers have been scouting the Canadiens.

On Sunday, Thrashers GM/head coach Don Waddell took in the Canadiens’ home game against the NY Rangers.

Waddell told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he was merely on a scouting trip and wasn’t specifically there to talk trade with Habs GM Bob Gainey.

However, La Presse reports Waddell’s right hand man, Mark Dobson, the Thrashers’ Director of Player Personnel, also attended Sunday’s game.

In fact, Dobson and Thrashers pro scout Peter Mahovlich were in Montreal Tuesday for their game against the Ottawa Senators.

The paper notes that a Hossa trade to Montreal is not set in stone. Sources tell TFP the two sides are talking, but nothing appears imminent.

According to La Presse, Waddell is covering his bases and weighing his options. If he cannot sign Hossa to an extension before the Feb. 26 trade deadline, he’ll have to explore trading him.

If Hossa is traded, the Thrashers would apparently want a young NHL-ready player and a first-round pick, however the team might be interested in one of Montreal’s top defensive prospects, a source said.

Canadiens Looking at Marian Hossa?

TSN and Team 990 are reporting that Montreal is in serious talks with the Atlanta Thrashers and Marian Hossa’s agent as they weight out a potential trade. We all expected to hear Ryder’s name thrown around but he’s not enough to grab a sniper like Hossa; Chris Higgins’ name has been tossed out there by Team 990.

This is still speculative (remember all the fuss about Alex Tanguay?) - I’ll update here when more news leaks! Remember, the trade deadline is on February 26th!

Montreal 3 - Atlanta 2 (SO)

The Canadiens came on strong from the first puck drop tonight but the high-flying Atlanta Thrashers have been strong at home and are leading their division for the first time this season. The Thrashers poured on equal pressure and it paid off with Marian Hossa throwing a pass through the crease that went off of the arm of Christobal Huet and in to put Atlanta up 1-0. The period continued with strong pressure and outstanding goaltending from both teams and there were no more goals.

The second period opened with Atlanta forcing the Canadiens onto their heels a bit before Andrei Kostitsyn made a beautiful move to circumvent two Atlanta defensemen and puck a backhander over the shoulder of Kari Lhetonen, tying the game 1-1. The second period ended with the same ferocious pressure but Huet and Lhetonen kept the game scoreless going into the third period.

Michael Ryder put the Canadiens up 2-1 6:03 into the period, chipping a puck into the Atlanta net after a long series of perfect passes from his teammates. Atlanta poured it on and were finally rewarded midway through the period when Eric Perrin capitalized on a puckhandling error by Huet, throwing the puck into an empty net to tie the game again, 2-2. With the impending overtime, both teams were creating great chances but neither were able to capitalize.

The 4-on-4 overtime opened at a great pace with the Thrashers dominating early and Christobal Huet making up for his earlier mistake with several great saves. Kari Lehtonen was on top of his game at the other hand and the overtime made way for a shootout.

Now, we all know that the Canadiens in general and Huet in particular aren’t posting admirable numbers after regulation and especially in a shootout (2-5 as a team this season). Slava Kozlov shot first for Atlanta and Huet shut the door, making way for Montreal’s first shooter: Andrei Kostitsyn. Andrei performed his second beautiful deke of the night and put the puck through the legs of Lehtonen. Huet followed with another big save on Hossa and Koivu sealed things for the Habs with a second shootout goal, leading the Canadiens to a rare shootout win.

GAME NOTES: Despite the glaring third period error, Huet was very sharp and kept the Canadiens in the game on more then one occasion. Montreal has officially retaken 4th place in the Eastern Conference with this win.

January 17 - Atlanta Thrashers

After spending much of the first half of the season in the basement of the Southeast Division, the Atlanta Thrashers suddenly find themselves on top with a tenuous hold over Carolina. They’ve got renewed energy and have won their last two games.

The Canadiens took two points over the Islanders on Tuesday to cut Ottawa’s lead in the Northeast Division to eight points with their loss to Washington. Tuesday’s game, while officially a win, saw the Habs playing below their ability save for Christobal Huet who stopped all but one shot and made a few beauty saves to keep Montreal in the lead.

Atlanta has won its last two meetings with Montreal and the Canadiens will be looking to continue their point-getting ways (6-2-2 in the last 10 games) by breaking that streak. The Habs are hot on the road - let’s hope that works to their advantage!

It hasn’t been 100% confirmed as far as I can tell but I expect Huet to get the start tonight; Halak’s shot at starting will likely have to wait. This game sets us up for a very hot Pittsburgh team on Saturday; the Pens are 9-0-1 in their last ten.

Atlanta 3 - Montreal 2 (SO)

The Habs actually came out looking like they wanted to win for once, badly outshooting Atlanta most of the game and notching a couple of key goals. The Thrashers lost a 1-0 lead in the first and a 2-1 lead in the third with Sergei Kostitsyn and Alex Kovalev notching the Canadiens goals.

The game went to a scoreless overtime followed by the Habs attempting to steal the extra point with Huet in nets during a shootout. While he looked mostly solid throughout the game Huet expectedly looked very bad during the shootout, letting in both of the first two shots and dropping the game 3-2 to Atlanta.

Obviously Huet isn’t to take 100% of the blame for the loss but I’ll say this: I’m confident that we would have walked away from that game with 2 points if Carey Price had have started. Here’s hoping he gets the start in Dallas tomorrow.

Toronto 4 - Atlanta 0

The surprises continue out of Toronto as the Maple Leafs won a commanding shutout victory over the Atlanta Thrashers in Georgia tonight. The Leafs peppered the Atlanta net with 35 shots and Toronto goaltender Vesa Toskala made numerous key saves, earning a well deserved 2 points for his time and shutout for himself.

The Maples Leafs head into Montreal tomorrow night with a rare two game winning streak on the go.