More Hossa Rumours

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

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.

February 5 - Ottawa Senators

The Habs will host Ottawa tomorrow night at the Bell Centre in a big game that may very well set the tone in the upper echelons of the Eastern Conference for the rest of the season. Montreal sits just 3 points behind Ottawa with 53 games played apiece - the two teams meet several more times over the remainder of the season so this game, at this point in the season, is huge.

The Senators will still be without Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson and Martin Gerber is likely to get the start after Ray Emery’s rough 4-2 loss to Toronto. Christobal Huet didn’t play up to his usual standard in the Canadiens’ 5-3 loss to the Rangers on Sunday so I’m guessing Halak may finally get a chance to play - considering the import of this game, that may not happen. The call will likely be left to Huet as to whether he is too fatigued after playing two games over the weekend.

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.

Montreal 4 - New York Islanders 1

The Canadiens jumped to a great start at home in Montreal tonight, controlling the flow of the first period by drawing several penalties, killing several penalties and blasting Islander’s goalie Rick Dipietro with shot after shot. The New York team worked with a bit of luck and a bit of stellar goaltending to keep the Habs off the board and the first period ended at a scoreless tie.

The second period opened on a strange note as the goaltenders were forced to switch ends quickly to play 11 seconds that were mistakenly missed on the official clock during the first. Those 11 seconds were uneventful but the Canadiens jumped to a 1-0 lead only seconds into the official second period as Alex Kovalev capitalized on a giveaway by Mike Comrie and dropped a clean pass to Tomas Plekanec who scored with a nice wrist shot, shorthanded at that. The Islanders were able to tie it up at one before Mark Streit struck on the powerplay on another beautiful pass, this time from Saku Koivu. Alex Kovalev added a goal of his own as he beat Dipietro through the 5-hole to end the period with a 3-1 lead for his Montreal Canadiens.

The Habs opened the third period on the penalty kill as Sergei Kostitsyn spent 1:51 in the box on a tripping penalty he took late in the second period but the Islanders were stumped by the Montreal defense and the solid goaltending of Christobal Huet. The Islanders still failed to control the flow but they did create far more chances in the last 20 minutes then the first 40; Huet continued to come up on the winning end of those shots though. After the Habs began to pour on the pressure Rick Dipietro continued to come up very big but was finally beaten by Mattieu Dandenault to put Montreal up 4-1 with only 2:25 left to play; the 4-1 score held up as the Habs grabbed another two points at home.

GAME NOTES: Despite the mostly good play of the team as a whole, Michael Ryder continued to flounder, giving up the puck nearly every time he fought for it and failing to capitalize on a couple of “sure things”. Being from Nova Scotia with a wife from Newfoundland, I try and give the guy the absolute benefit of the doubt, but it’s nearing playoff time and I personally think it’s time to admit that both the Habs and Ryder himself have nothing to lose in a trade.

February 2 - New York Islanders

Montreal will play host to the New York Islanders as it opens a four-game home stand where they will attempt to continue their winning ways and surpass Ottawa in the Eastern Conference. Oh yeah: it’s going to happen!

Better play at home is key and the Habs will be facing the Senators twice next week; a strong couple of games beforehand will not only add points, but also confidence. The Habs are 2-0 against the Islanders this season, winning 4-1 and 3-1 respectively.

While Huet may have been a little soft against the Caps on Thursday (well, Ovechkin, anyway), he is 10-2-2 in his last 14 starts, posting a 2.38 GAA in that time.

I’m going to predict a big win in this one, somewhere in the realm of 5-1. Bring on the Senators!

Washington 5 - Montreal 4 (OT)

Alex Ovechkin apparently decided he owed the Canadiens a little something after his team was shut out in Montreal on Tuesday; the four goals and one assist he notched tonight in the second half of the home-and-home certainly makes it seem that way.

Ovechkin and Kozlov traded goals in the first and second period before Ovechkin netted his second of the night at the mid-point of the second period to give the Caps a 3-0 lead, leaving the Habs scratching their heads as Olie Kolzig stopped everything they threw at him. The Habs got a goal from Sergi Kostitsyn only 50 seconds after the second Ovechkin goal and brother Andrei landed a powerplay marker with a fraction of a second remaining in the period to cut the lead to 3-2; this was the first time that brothers had scored in the same game for Montreal since the Mahavolich brothers in 1974.

Ovechkin scored at 12:30 of the third to increase the Washington lead to 4-2 before Guillaume Latendresse scored 1:17 later to make it a one goal game again. Things went back and forth and the Habs finally pulled Christobal Huet and managed a goal with 32 seconds remaining, again from Latendresse.

Ovechkin scored his fourth goal of the game in overtime to end it but the Habs grab a point and gain some confidence after coming back from a 3-0 deficit.

Next Page »