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.

February 7 - Toronto Maple Leafs

The NHL’s oldest rivalry will renew itself at the Bell Centre tomorrow as the Habs take on the Leafs for the fourth time this season; Montreal stands at 3-2 against their foe this season.

Carey Price will get his first start for the Habs since early January when he was sent down to Hamilton for conditioning. Price has played and won three games against Toronto this year and Carbo and company hope the streak continues.

Toronto is coming off of a terrible 8-0 pounding at the hands of the Florida Panthers and Les Habitants are sporting a big win over Ottawa; a loss by Ottawa against the Panthers on Wednesday night in conjunction with a Montreal win over Toronto will see the Habs take first place in the Eastern Conference for the first time this season. If both teams win, Montreal gets another shot at Ottawa at Scotia Bank Place on Saturday night.

Montreal 4 - Ottawa 3

This was a very big game in terms of setting the scene for the days and weeks to come in the Eastern Conference and Montreal made a big statement to Ottawa with a regulation win that brings the Habs within a single point of the Senators for the number one spot.

The Habs were up 4-1 midway through the second period on two goals from Tomas Plekanec and one each from Andrei Kostitsyn and Mark Streit. The Senators made a game of it by scoring a couple of goals in the third to make things close but the Habs held on for a huge 4-3 victory.

The Canadiens will host the flopping Maple Leafs (they got pounded 8-0 tonight by Florida) on Thursday before taking a trip to Ottawa to face the Sens again.

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!

Carey Price Recalled From Hamilton

The Canadiens have sent Jaraslav Halak back down to Hamilton and recalled our superstar-in-waiting, Carey Price. Price had a hot start to the season but struggled in his last three starts for the Habs before he was sent down to the Bulldogs in early January.

I mentioned earlier that Halak may get the start against Ottawa to give Huet a break after the heavy weekend - maybe Price will get that start? We’ll have to wait and see on that one. Let’s hope he’s back in top form and ready to take the reins as our full-time backup.

New York Rangers 5 - Montreal 3

The Habs opened up this afternoon’s game much like they did against the Islanders yesterday with Christopher Higgins drawing an early penalty; Andrei Markov scored on a wristshot from the point to put the Canadiens up 1-0 with the powerplay goal. The Rangers went on the powerplay a few minutes later only to have the Habs draw another penalty to arrange for another powerplay. Montreal kept the pressure up and Alex Kovalev cashed in on a beautiful pass from Chris Higgins to put the Habs up 2-0 with two powerplay goals. A flawless penalty kill by Montreal highlighted the last few seconds of the period and the Habs went into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead.

The second period opened at the same furious pace, this time from the Rangers, and Huet made several saves against the first couple of shifts to maintain his shutout. Sergei Kostitsyn drew a penalty only a few minutes later and then drew a penalty shot during that powerplay; the Habs went up 3-0 on his wristshot over the glove of Hendrik Lundqvist. A Rangers powerplay did produce a goal from Michael Rozsaval (he redeemed himself for the two early penalties that produced the Habs 2-0 lead) to cut the lead to 3-1 and only 24 seconds later Brandon Dubinsky wired a slapshot over the glove of Huet to quickly make it a one goal game. Alex Kovalev laid a hard elbow on New York’s Hollweg, right into his jaw, and got away with it; this did increase the pace of the already physical game and the entire Bell Centre waited to see if there would be retaliation of some sort. Before that could happen though, the Rangers completed their three goal comeback with a goal during a scramble by Gomez.

Seconds later a brawl broke out in the New York end of the ice as Hollweg decided he would take his aggression out on Sergei Kostitsyn instead of waiting to meet Kovalev. Orr made a run at Francis Boullion who gladly stepped up to meet the challenge from the much larger player and they had a good dance. The whole thing resulted in Hollweg and Orr being ejected from the game and Montreal going on a 3 minute powerplay as Gorges and Boullion took penalties as well. A two minute four-on-four situation started things off with no damage done and the Habs went on the powerplay, hitting the post before ending the period with the 3-3 tie.

A scrum at the end of the second period eliminated the Canadiens powerplay and allowed for some four-on-four time before the Rangers would have a powerplay of their own. Tomas Plekanec had a bit of a breakaway only a few seconds in but Lundqvist made a big save to keep the game tied. The Habs killed the penalty off and play continued to go back and forth at an exciting pace until Chris Drury finally beat Huet to put the Rangers up 4-3 on a nice pass from Nigel Daws. Mara followed that up with another Rangers goal to seal the game at 5-3 with five straight goals from the team from New York.

Habs Will Overtake Ottawa on Tuesday

Alright, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, but here’s the scoop: Montreal beat the Islanders today while the Maple Leafs downed Ottawa 4-2. That puts the Habs 3 points behind Ottawa with a game in hand as I write this.

Montreal meets  the New York Rangers tomorrow and will come within one point of Ottawa with 52 games played apiece if they beat them. That sets Montreal up for a big win against the Senators at home on Tuesday to take a one point lead and first place in the Eastern Conference.

Cross your fingers, but I think we’ve got this one locked.