Down on Habs Street…and other Canadiens news

Rue de La Gauchetière, scene of this Canadiens Foundation event in 2006, may soon be named Rue des Canadiens.

It looks like by Friday, the Montreal Canadiens will finally have a street, or part of a street, named after them. It’s something that should have happened years ago.

Hockey30.com reports that Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay will announce that all or part of rue de La Gauchetière, the address of the Bell Centre, will be renamed Rue des Canadiens.

City hall officials are on record that council had looked at ways to honor the Canadiens 100th anniversary, but nothing has been formally announced.

There will be some form of announcement by the Canadiens at week’s end though.

Team VP of Communications and Community Relations, Donald Beauchamp,did talk to The Metropolitan News.

"I'm going to just have you wait a little bit on this one because we're planning something very soon,” he said.”We're planning on doing something on Friday for a number of things but I won't tell you what.”

All we know, from Mr. Beauchamp, is that it involves something to do with the Centennial Plaza.

From a couple sources over the summer, I have an idea as to what one of the announcements may pertain to. But like Mr. Beauchamp, and in confidence, I have to keep it to myself.

What else is happening:

The Hamilton Spectator’s Gary McKay checks in on the sulking Belarusian known as Sergei Kostitsyn.

The H does not stand for Habs wants critics to lay off Kyle Chipchura

Yves on Habs looks on the Canadiens after the first three games.

CJAD’s Abe Hefter weighs in and feels coach Martin is going to have to keep Gomez, Cammalleri, and Gionta together.

The Daily Hab-it looks at the positives in the Canadiens first loss of the season.

Special ticket offer for Ottawa area Habs fans:

Purchase 2 tickets to the Sens vs. Pens game on October 12 at 7:30 p.m. and you'll get the opportunity to pre-purchase 2 tickets to watch the Sens face the Canadiens this season on Tuesday December 8 or Monday December 28.

Offer expires Monday October 12. Visit www.capitaltickets.ca/promo and reference the special pre-buy code: CROSBY

Habs Injuries: And now, there are three…

The Canadiens called up Yannick Weber to fill the team’s defensive injury woes.

The Montreal Canadiens infirmary added a pair of players after Saturday’s game vs. Buffalo.

First the team lost blueliner Ryan O’Byrne for up to six weeks with a knee sprain. The Canadiens then lost center Glen Metropolit with an upper body injury.

Metropolit is to be reevaluated in Calgary, and may have a rib injury.

The injury became apparent with his five straight losses in the faceoff circle in the first period of Saturday’s game.

The pair join Andrei Markov, who is out for four months with a lacerated tendon.

The Canadiens made one expected roster move Sunday by calling up defenceman Yannick Weber from Hamilton.

Coach Jacques Martin maintained after the loss of Markov, that the remaining defenders would have to work as a unit or step up in the all-star’s absence.

After O’Byrne’s injury, the remaining five players continued to do just that. With the exception of Hal Gill (19:40) the Canadiens defensive core all played over 20 minutes.

With Weber’s arrival Tuesday, that will add some puck moving skill, and a solid point shot that was lost with Markov going down.

If the team can continue to keep the opponents shooting outside the box, that should keep Carey Price happy. Price said Saturday that the high shot totals don’t bother him provided he has good vision. The Habs goalie praised the work done Saturday to do just that.

Kyle Chipchura will need to show what he’s made of now

Depending on the seriousness of Metropolit’s injury, it may now fall on Kyle Chipchura to show that he is the prospect that people have been told he is.

Recovered from shoulder surgery ,many feel that this will be a make-or-break season for the young forward in the Canadiens organization.

When I interviewed Habs’ assistant coach Kirk Muller over the summer, he even acknowledged that this should be Chipchura’s year.

It will be a true test on the remaining three games of this road swing, for the Canadiens, to see how the team handles these injuries.

Two of the three opponents (Calgary and Vancouver) are expected to be top contenders in the Western Conference and should give a better idea of how the team can perform over the coming weeks.

Free agency will be less of an issue in 2010

Criticized by many for not making the big off-season signing for the past several off-seasons, Bob Gainey may have silenced his critics this summer.

Going into the July 1 free agent deadline, Canadiens’ GM Bob Gainey had ten unrestricted free agents to deal with.

What did he do?

He blew up the team, essentially cleaning house of the supposed “cliques” and locker room problems that burdened the 2008-09 edition of the Canadiens.

Although he did offer contracts to notables such as Saku Koivu, Alex Kovalev and Mike Komisarek, those players elected to seek other pastures.

Gainey had been scrutinized in the past for allowing key free agents to walk away (Sheldon Souray in 2007 and Mark Streit in 2008), but this off season he made sure the gaps were filled.

And what a job he did, landing Mike Cammalleri, Brian Gionta and Scott Gomez with contracts that will keep them, barring trades, in  the bleu-blanc et rouge until the 2013-14 season is over.

Jaroslav Spacek, Travis Moen, Hal Gill and Paul Mara were then picked up on the cheap for three,three, two and one-year deals respectively.

He then re-signed restricted free agents Kyle Chipchura, Tomas Plekanec and Guillaume Latendresse for one-year terms.

Curtis Sanford was grabbed to be the bridge goaltender between Hamilton and Montreal.

Based on data from  nhlnumbers.com that leaves $3.2 million and change left over that will likely go to resigning Matt D’Agostini and Gregory Stewart.

Prospect P.K. Subban is signed to a 3-year entry level deal, but it has yet to reflect on the cap.

So what was a panic situation by many, on June 30 at 11:59 pm, now appears to be a well balanced group of players with a new head coach in Jacques Martin and a revamped coaching staff (with the exception of assistant coach Kirk Muller) at both the NHL and AHL level.

What’s good for Gainey is that at the end of the 2009-10 season, he will have 16 signed players in the organization, seven restricted free agents (all of whom are making less that $1 million this season) and five unrestricted free agents.

The principle free agent next season will be goaltender Carey Price.

Pending his performance, we can expect “The Franchise” to sign to a long term extension sometime this season.

In all likelihood, Jaroslav Halak could be moved at the trade deadline. The kid is too talented to remain a backup, unless he and Price go the Hayward/Roy route for another two or three seasons.

With long term signings in place, and a good crop of young players signed and in place, it’s safe to say that come June 30 2010, Canadiens fans will be chewing their nails a lot less than this year .

Not to mention that we won’t be worrying about a #1 or #2 d-man walking away next summer.

A great chat on the course with Captain Kirk

I had a great opportunity to talk with Montreal Canadiens’ assistant coach this week after he finished his second round at the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic in Thornbury, Ontario.

The complete interview, that runs 10 minutes, can be found here.

Though he doesn’t play in as many tournaments as he used to and tries to keep his travelling close to home, the Kingston native tries to play once at week at home but still enjoys the opportunity to play with the pros on occasion.

Unfortunately for Kirk, his team missed the cut to continue into the third round.

I asked him about the Montreal Canadiens on a variety of subjects from the development camp, the hiring of Jacques Martin , Saku Koivu’s departure and the look of the team this upcoming season.

Muller had a chance to check out the development camp on Monday.

The camp was something that Muller thinks is great for the up and coming players, but was glad he didn’t have it when he was a draft pick.

“I was watching some of the drills they’ve been doing and was like thank God I didn’t have to do it. I probably wouldn’t have been drafted as high as I did,” he said.

On new coach Jacques Martin, Muller feels he is a good choice and that he’ll be able to stay level headed and stick to his guns in the tough Montreal hockey market.

He feels this will be a strong puck possession team under Martin this year and hopes the team can bounce back from a disappointing 100th season hampered by injuries and a group of pending free agents.

“We’re looking forward to bouncing back", he said after.

Muller also feels Guy Carbonneau will be back as a head coach in the NHL.

On Saku Koivu’s departure, Muller feels the move will be a good change for him.

“Sometimes in a career like that it’s nice to do a change and rejuvenate you a little bit,” he said. “I think he’ll do well out there.”

Muller felt that Koivu did a great job handling the pressure of being captain of the Canadiens. He should know being a former captain in New Jersey and Montreal.

He feels early captaincy candidates could be defenceman Andrei Markov and possibly newcomer Scott Gomez.

Despite what is generally thought, the decision on who becomes the new captain isn’t always voted on. Muller said that Jacques Martin could decide for himself or allow the players to vote.

Recently signed prospect P.K. Subban can really benefit with time in Hamilton, according to Muller, and that Ben Maxwell could be one of the next big players in the system within a year or two.

He also thinks this could be a pivotal year for Kyle Chipchura, who just signed a one year deal as I typed this.

On any holes in the team, Muller said that GM Bob Gainey has done a good job so far, but felt that additional help on defence might be looked at.

As we spoke on Friday, the Canadiens had just signed defenceman Paul Mara as well as forward Travis Moen.

With the departure of Mike Komisarek and Alex Kovalev to division rival Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators respectively, Muller thinks that it definitely creates a stir with the rivalry.

I asked him about the retirement of Joe Sakic, who he described as one of the best players in the league in the last few years.

“He’s a really good quiet leader that went out, did his job went out and played his job consistently,” he said.

On any rule changes that he could make, he feels the no touch icing should be looked at, but that there should be more freedom in front of the net for defencemen.

His choice for the Hall of Fame: Doug Gilmour

I'll have talks with Brett Hull, Nick Kypreos, Darren Pang and Cassie Campbell up soon!