Another Year...

...and another quiet deadline for the Canadiens pending some sort of late-breaking activity. It'll be interesting to see what Bob Gainey has to say in his upcoming press conference, which is scheduled for 3:30 from Brossard.

With trade talk now firmly behind them until the offseason, the Canadiens can turn their focus to the Buffalo Sabres (who they'll face tonight at the HSBC Arena). The Habs put their four game winning streak on the line, and are expected to start Carey Price in goal with Jaroslav Halak forced out of the lineup on account of the flu.

Many fans will be disappointed by the lack of trade activity from the Canadiens today (and the inevitable indictment by the TSN crew during the broadcast of the game tonight will do nothing to improve the situation), so hopefully the team can pull out a victory to ease at least some of the sting.

Streaking Habs Meet Surging Sharks

Big game tonight in Montreal, as the Canadiens (winners of their last 3) face off against San Jose (victories in 5 of their last 6) in what many people thought might be a Stanley Cup preview back at the start of the year. While the Sharks have managed to live up to those lofty expectations so far this season (not that regular season success is anything new to them), the Canadiens have taken a slightly rougher road through their first 62 games. After a prolonged Western slump the Habs seem to have things back in order though, and look to keep it going tonight against one of the top teams in the league.

Key to the recent success has been the resurgence of the once vaunted powerplay with the acquisition of Mathieu Schneider, who tallied two points on the PP last night including the game winner in OT. Jaroslav Halak has also become a stabilizing presence in goal, and Tomas Plekanec has been absolutely on fire with 9 points (6 goals) in the 5 games played since returning from his 2-game suspension. Alex
"L'Artiste" Kovalev has been equally hot of late, totaling 7 points in the three games back after his team-imposed exile.

With the deadline looming it will be interesting to see how management decides to go about tinkering with the roster, since the quality of play lately has been very solid. With Alex Tanguay and Guillaume Latendresse due to return before too much longer there will also be improvements available from within the team itself, although that hasn't stopped people from talking about the availability of Keith Tkachuk and Olli Jokinen to fill some needs up front. Needless to say it should be an eventful few days leading up to the March 4 deadline, and we'll do our best to keep you completely up to date on all of the important news.

Enjoy the game tonight everybody!

Ten days to go

The trade deadline is 10 days away, next Wednesday, March 4. First time it has not been on a Tuesday that I can remember.

Will Bob make another move? What do the Habs need? Who is likely to come and go? The Doc and I will have our trade preview snippets up in the next few days. Essentially, a summary of what may happen in Montreal by next Wednesday.

Until then, we'll keep on keeping on with normal Habs and NHL updates. Renney fired today, Tortorella looking hired, and rumours of Kaberle to *shudder* Boston. That would not be good for Les Canadiens. 

For your viewing pleasure...

There were rumours that Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke was "twittering." Obviously, to anyone who'd read about it, it was a hoax. But apparently, some people actually believed it was Burke. Well, Burke confirmed today it was not him. But some twitter's were humourous. Here's my favourite, from last night.