12/14/2007

News for Friday, December 14th

The Gazette's Pat Hickey is relieved to be able to write good things about the Habs ... it's been awhile. He calls particular attention to the work of Carey Price, who was a flukey (if not quite illegal) power-play goal off Mike Knuble's foot away from his first NHL shut-out. Price is now 8-5-2 overall, 7-3 on the road.

The Canadian Press looks ahead to tomorrow's game against the hated Toronto Maple Leafs, setting it up as more of a struggle of the Canadiens against themselves and their horrid home record than against the Buds. The Canadiens could unofficially tie a club-record for consecutive home losses if they drop their seventh straight at home on Saturday. It would be nice to say they've deserved a better fate, but they would probably be the first to tell you that their play at home as been every bit as bad as their record suggests. The old Forum was said to have ghosts who helped the Habs along. Apparently, someone forgot to tell them the team was moving. If the Bell Centre has a spirit realm, it can only be inhabited by bitchy, Hab-hating poltergeists. In the bad news department, the article mentions that Andrei Kostitsyn (who scored a goal against the Flyers) and Guillaume Latendresse are hurting, and are questionable for tomorrow night's game.

The Fourth Period smells a trade cooking. It states that Edmonton has been scouting Montreal games of late, most recently on Thursday in Philly. It suggests that Montreal may be trying to make a deal for disgruntled Oil winger Raffi Torres, but doesn't mention which Montreal players would be going the other way. The obvious call would be Michael Ryder ... except he has been a healthy scratch in two of the past three games. If the Oilers are scouting someone who has been playing - as one would suppose - the deal will come as a surprise. The Habs need pure scoring more than anything else, so it's hard to imagine the appeal of a Torres deal to Bob Gainey. If they want to deal Ryder, and can't get a scorer in return, it would make more sense to deal the struggling Newfoundlander for a pick or a prospect.

The always astute Spector shoots down Oilers-Habs trade talk. He is correct in noting that the only Oilers who would really interest the Habs are Shawn Horcoff and Ales Hemsky, and neither is available.

Check out this excellent article on the recent Habs-Sharks rumours.

Eyes on the Prize has an interesting article on the Kostitsyn brothers. Going against other sources, he claims that the Kostitsyns are the 15th, not the 13th set of brothers to play for the Canadiens. He also has lots of nice pictures!

Lions in Winter has a new five-game evaluation of the Habs here.

Habs Blog has a link to a hilarious story from 2006. It's still good for a laugh.

And congrats to PK Subban, who made Canada's 2007 World Junior team.

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