Habs Should Stick With Halak Until The Olympics

For the first time this season, Jaroslav Halak got a back-to-back start after sustaining a loss.

He did not disappoint, continuing the Montreal Canadiens “goaltending controversy” between him and Carey Price for yet another few days.

Halak may not be graceful, but he did what was needed with a 45 save performance against the powerhouse Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night.

That should keep the “he plays sub-500 teams” critics quiet for a day or two.

The win puts Halak’s record, after coming off a loss, to 5-2-1this season. By comparison, Price is 6-9-3 in his next start after a losing decision.

Until Tuesday, Canadiens coach Jacques Martin never started Halak after a loss, but why? In only three situations, the team had played back-to-back nights, and on two occasions Halak had been lit up pretty bad.

Martin may have finally realized that after each of Halak’s ten losses (eight in regulation), Price went 4-5-1, including a humiliating 7-1 loss back in October to the same Canucks team.

So Halak has proven he can bounce back immediately after a loss, so what now?

With the 2010 Winter Olympics approaching, and six games to play for the Canadiens, Martin should use Halak as much as possible.

If he gets thumped by the Bruins on Thursday (note: Price is 2-0 vs. Boston), put him back in against Pittsburgh. Give him that chance again to prove himself.

Price’s record against the remaining pre Olympic opponents is 4-3-1, so why not give it a shot?

Keep in mind too that Halak will be seeing lots of ice time in Vancouver as the number one goalie for Slovakia, so when the NHL starts up again on March 2, he’ll have seen a lot of rubber.

Price in the meantime, will have time to practice, rest, reflect/prepare for the remainder of the NHL season to prove himself again.

That is of course, if Bob Gainey doesn’t make a deal before the Olympics or the March 3 trade deadline.

Mike Komisarek: Or as a friend tweeted, Karmaserek…Out for the season with a shoulder injury.

Lorelei O’Byrne 1953-2010: Condolences to the family of Canadiens defenceman Ryan O’Byrne, whose mother Lorelei passed away January 28 after a long battle with breast cancer. A celebration of life will be held on February 16 in Victoria, BC.

The Canadiens had given O’Byrne time off, for the first three weeks of January, to be with his mother and family. Many feel he played his best game of the season on Tuesday, against his home-province team.

Gionta adds to Canadiens injury problems

Brian Gionta (seen here Oct 1) could be out up to five weeks – Reuters photo

If it wasn’t bad enough that the Montreal Canadiens (10-11-0) continue their season without all-star defenceman Andrei Markov, Wednesday’s news got no better.

It was announced by the team that forward Brian Gionta has a broken foot and is out indefinitely. Speculation is that it could be up to five weeks.

Gionta suffered the injury during a Nov 3 game against the Atlanta Thrashers. He managed to appear in the next four games, but was a last-minute scratch in  Saturday’s game against Nashville and sat out on Tuesday against Carolina.

“It’s frustrating,” Gionta said. “We’re trying to get things back on track but at this point, I can’t help the guys out.”

The 30-year-old winger has 13 points in 19 games this season and is arguably one of the Canadiens’ best two-way forwards.

"The players will have to raise their game to try to make up for it," coach Jacques Martin said. "It opens a door for someone. We've been waiting for that since the start of the season."

Martin also stated that he will use the forwards he has on the current roster to fill the void, and not make any call ups from Hamilton for the time being.

There was some good news on the injury front however as defenseman Ryan O’Byrne and forward Georges Laraque were cleared for game play.

O’Byrne will most likely dress Friday, against the Washington Capitals, while Laraque could be a game-time decision.

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.

Montreal Canadiens Training Camp: Day Two

Fans crowd the Brossard training centre for the second day of training camp Photo: Montreal Gazette

The Montreal area set a record for sick days from work, and truant officers were seeking out absent students as the Canadiens’ Brossard practice facility was filled again with fans for day two of training camp.

The fans were treated to a second two-period scrimmage in as many days, with today’s game featuring camp Teams A and C.

Habs hopeful Brock Trotter got Team A in an early lead with two goals on Curtis Sandford, and nearly had a hat-trick had it not been for a big stop by Sandford.

“I made good on the opportunity,” the 22-year-old forward said. “I took advantage of it last year, all the same I’m gonna try to keep rolling with that into  this season as well.”

“It's nice to see the progression from him,” noted head coach Jacques Martin on how the youngsters improvement during the second half of last season, in the AHL, is still carrying forward.

Team C would rally back in the second period. Josh Gorges would blast one from the point past Jason Missiaen, and was followed quickly by Tomas Plekanec.

“I liked it,” Gorges said, after the scrimmage, on playing on the point with Hal Gill. “He keeps the game real simple, but he communicates really well.”

Mathieu Darche would beat Missiaen. on a penalty shot, to put the C squad in the lead.

 Darche beats Missiaen  - Photo: Montreal Gazette

Glen Metropolit squared it up at three apiece, with a shot past Cedrick Desjardins, but Brian Gionta won it for Team C with 17 seconds left to play.

“It feels good to get out there and be a little competitive,” Gionta said.

Gionta played with Plekanec and Travis Moen, for the second consecutive day, and is not disappointed at not being reunited, straight away, with former teammate Scott Gomez.

“That never played into my decision for coming here,” he said. “I wanted to come here to be part of a wining team, and such a storied franchise.”

Ryan O’Byrne, who will have to fight for the final defenceman slot with the Canadiens, played an aggressive game. The 6’3” blueliner laid out some big hits on Matt D’Agostini and Gregory Stewart.

“Stewie’s one of by best friends,” O’Byrne said. “That’s the way it goes. There’s no friends out here anymore. That happened a little too much last year. There was too much hesitation and that’s no longer the case.”

O’Byrne is also aware of the prospect defensemen (Yannick Weber and P.K. Subban) that are looking to make a splash, at the camp, and that his roll is a physical one over flash. “My job is to make it hard for the opposing forwards,” he said. “This year I’m fighting for a spot.”

O’Byrne spent a lot of time focusing on his game, studied game tape, added muscle mass (eight lbs) and took boxing lessons in the off-season.

He knows to put last season’s upsets behind him and look forward.

“I lost confidence at times last year, I got it back and I lost it,” he said.

“Last year is behind me. It is what it is and that’s why I had a great summer. (I) just focused on being positive and keeping that confidence at all times.”

Two players, that are practicing with the team at camp, have yet to see scrimmage action. Both Kyle Chipchura and Sergei Kostitsyn had off-season shoulder surgery and are awaiting doctor’s clearance to play in the inter-squad scrimmages.

 Travis Moen and Paul Mara battle in out in Monday’s scrimmage – Photo: Montreal Gazette

Off to a confident start? : Goaltender Carey Price is off to a good start in the first two sessions of inter-squad scrimmages, allowing just 1 goal in 40 minutes.

Camp resumes again Tuesday from 10am to 1pm, with another intersquad game (B vs. C) at 11am.