All Posts by Sam Malhotra

After many weekss of speculation, the Montreal Canadiens finally decided to hire Marc Bergevin as their 17th General Manager and Executive Vice President replacing Pierre Gauthier, who was released by the team on March 29.

After making a coaching change on Friday night, the Leafs paid a visit to the struggling Canadiens at the Bell Center in Montreal.  The Leafs were facing a few struggles of their own to get back in the playoff hunt.  After holding a playoff spot for good part of the season, their recent streak of 10 losses in their last 11 matches put them out of top 8 and in a difficult situation.  Brian Burke, after supporting Ron Wilson, with whom he shared a good relation over the years, finally was left with no choice and replaced him with Randy Carlyle, fired by the Anaheim Ducks earlie

Fifteen years after leaving the province of Manitoba for the desert heat of Arizona, the Jets found their way back to Winnipeg.  The fans longing for a NHL team since its departure packed the arena and the streets, joined by the Prime Minister Stephen Harper, celebrated the return of hockey in this Atlantic province.  The Montreal Canadiens, a team with countless fans in Western and Atlantic Canada, were invited to be part of this historic moment marking the return of the Jets.  While we are used to seeing the Canadiens being cheered west of Toronto, this game gave a feeling

With all the talk about the Canadiens GM Pierre Gauthier being in Bratislava and how the Habs have full intentions to sign their prospect Alexei Yemelin, Gauthier surprised everyone by signing the Swiss defender Raphael Diaz to a one-year two-way contract.

In recent years, the Canadiens have looked towards Switzerland to sign some good offensive minded defencemen.  After signing Mark Streit in 2005, the Habs drafted another Swiss defenceman Yannick Weber in the third round of the 2007 draft.  Weber is eligible to become RFA this off-season.

Once again the Montreal Canadiens had their backs against the wall.  Once again the Canadiens were facing elimination against a stronger and favorite opposition.  This script had been written before in last year’s playoffs more than once.  A couple of overtime losses including a double overtime loss in game five in Boston put the Bruins in the driver's seat.  But instead of rolling over and handing the Bruins the keys to the Conference semi-final, the Habs fought and fought well to force a game seven tonight in Beantown.

If people felt that the Boston Bruins were under huge pressure to win the first game, imagine the pressure to win the second game on home ice after you are down 1-0 in the series.  Both teams got some bad news coming into game two at the TD Garden.  Andrei Kostitsyn was out with a foot injury, surely the result of that Zdeno Chara shot he absorbed in the first game.  Yannick Weber replaced Kostitsyn in the lineup.  Boston had a big hole in their lineup after their captain; the Monster Chara was forced to sit out for this important matchup.  Chara was hospitalized wi

Finally the curtains came down on a long and grueling 82-game season in Hogtown.  Many before the season had predicted that the Habs won’t make it to the post season this year after going through a superb run in last year’s playoffs.  Many had written them off after they had traded their Playoffs hero Jaroslav Halak in favor of their so-called "thoroughbred" Carey Price.  It feels like it was only yesterday that Price had told the fans at the Bell Center to ‘chill out’ after the first exhibition game.  Price carried his team into the pla

“Tonight we did a good job of getting back on track”, those were the sentiments of Canadiens’ Captain Brian Gionta after the 3-1 win against the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center.  With the last few days filled with speculation about Montreal losing their plot and doubts about the team making the playoffs, Jacques Martin’s Canadiens finally showed up for a very crucial game.  Not only did Montreal play a solid road game stealing a page from the New Jersey Devils’ hockey, they did it in a city where they haven’t had an easy time in recen

A game with so much hype, a game that we had talked about all week, a game that was supposed to bring out the best in the Canadiens, a game that we were supposed to win to revenge the hit by Zdeno Chara on Max Pacioretty.  On a Thursday night in Boston, the Canadiens fans kept waiting for that game, the game that never happened.  The Habs delivered their worst effort of the season and the big bad Bruins walked all over them crushing them 7-0.  Tim Thomas made 24 saves for probably the easiest shutout of his career.

Following an all-star performance against the Minnesota Wild last night, rookie P.K. Subban received further good news when he was picked as the third star of the week by the NHL.  Joe Pavelski of the San Jose Sharks and the goaltender Ray Emery of the Anaheim Ducks were chosen as first and second stars respectively.

Subban finished the week with six points in four games, collecting four goals and two assists.  In addition, he recorded 11 shots on goal and 5 hits while averaging 23:18 ice-time.  He finished the week with +3 on the plus/minus charts. 

A depleted Montreal Canadiens' team got further bad news when Tomas Plekanec, Jeff Halpern (out with lower body injuries) and Hal Gill (flu) were unable to play against the Tampa Lightning at the Bell Center.  To fill the void, the Canadiens recalled Aaron Palushaj and the recently acquired Nigel Dawes from the Bulldogs.  Dawes made his Habs debut while Palushaj was playing in his first NHL game.  On the other hand, the veteran Roman Hamrlik was participating in his 1300 career game and his 301st game in the Habs' uniform.

In the second game of the back-to-back Super-Bowl matinees played at the Bell center, the Devils' super-star Ilya Kovalchuk scored twice for his team and once for the home team, deflecting a P.K. Subban shot past his goalie Johan Hedberg to record an unofficial hat-trick.  The Devils came to the Booth playing their best hockey of this season, losing only once in regulation during their eleven previous games.  Montreal also had a successful week following the All-Star break winning all three contests.