Three's a Streak

What a game. Halak looks fantastic. Koivu comes through with faceoff magic late. And L'Artiste with three points again. The Habs are back ladies and gentlemen.

Mathieu Schneider, again, looked great anchoring the power play. His booming shot has added a dimension the Canadiens were sorely missing. Mike Komisarek also had a very strong game, playing physical against a very tough Philadelphia team.

And lastly, new Hab Glen Metropolit looked great against his old team. Wearing #15, he played very strong on a line with Tom Kostopolous. Looks like another strong move by Gainey.

In Bob We Trust.

RUMOURS

From the Buffalo News, Tim Connolly to Columbus for Rostislav Klesla.

Also of note, Jacques Martin was scouting tonight's Canadiens-Flyers game.

Game Day - Philadelphia

Big game in the middle of the Eastern Conference standings, with the Canadiens coming in 4 points behind the Flyers for fourth place and having played 2 more games overall. Things have been rolling along fairly well of late for the Habs with wins in their last two, so they look to keep it going tonight.

In an interesting aside, the Canadiens acquired Glen Metropolit earlier this afternoon and had him in the starting lineup tonight to take the opening faceoff against his old team (possibly angering the other 4th line players already on the roster who've been fighting/demanding trades for ice time, but that's an argument for another time). I suppose that there's something to be said for making the new guy feel at home and all, but you'd think that you'd at least try and get him one practice and a jersey with a permanent nameplate before throwing him out there to see what happens. Through one period it's been a bit up and down, but thankfully it looks like things are settling into place and the team is adjusting to the new lineup (a usual exercise in Montreal anyway).