Habs Face Tough Two Weeks as The Next 100 Years Begin

With the Montreal Canadiens Centennial completed, the new Habs may have inspiration to carry out the start for the next 100 years of history.

For those who missed the Centennial Ceremony, the Canadiens site has some excerpts available here.

The "New Habs" have battled injuries and identity to start the season, struggling to carry the tradition of their predecessors.

I don't think they have the skills/depth that people think they have," said Patrick Roy on Friday night citing injuries plaguing the team. "Gionta made a difference at the start of the season, and he has been a huge loss."

"They've got to write their own story," said Ken Dryden. "It's time now for the second 100 years to begin, and for this team to begin it. The celebrations belonged to the past. It's their team now. It's not Patrick's team, or Guy's team."

"They gotta start a new season, " added Guy Lafleur. "After what they saw tonight, maybe they will realize how important the Montreal Canadiens are to Canada."

The team must have taken the legends' words to heart, on Friday night, thrashing the Boston Bruins 5-1.

They will certainly to carry the inspiration over the next two weeks as they play a series of games, alternating home and away.

The first week begins Monday when they face the Philadelphia Flyers, who were embarrassed 8-2 Saturday night by an Ovechkin-less Washington Capitals team. Not a great start for new coach Peter Laviolette.

Tuesday puts them in Ottawa against Alex Kovalev and the Ottawa Senators. A quick shout out to a small bunch of regulars from HabsInsideOut.com, who are headed to Kanata for the game.

The week closes out back home to host the Stanley Cup Champion Penguins, who have dominated the Habs in their first two meetings this season, and back on the road Saturday in Atlanta.

Week two sees the Sabres, who embarrassed Montreal last Thursday, roll into town.

Then it's off to New Jersey on Wednesday before welcoming back Guillaume Latendresse and his new team, the Minnesota Wild, the following day.

That week concludes on Long Island, against the Islanders, kicking off a seven=game road trip to close out the month.

A couple interesting points to the schedule:

After this week, the Habs play no Tuesday night games until January 5th, which is great for me because I always miss the end of the game to play in my pick-up league.

The second, which is really weird, is that the Canadiens do not play another Saturday night game at home until January 9th!

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