Denis Savard wins his first game as head coach.

The Chicago Blackhawks have named Denis Savard as their new coach earlier this week. Savard played a number of seasons in Chicago as a player and became an icon in the windy city with his memorable spinorama. Traded to Montreal later in his career, he won his only Stanley Cup in 1993 as a member of the Montreal Canadiens, then was traded back to Chicago to end his career as a player.

Chicago is trying to shake off their bad start this season by giving Savard his chance as head coach, a position that he wanted for a long time. At his first start as a head coach yesterday, he was successful as the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Dallas Stars 2-1 with two 3rd period unanswered goals.

Congratulations and good luck Denis!

Fantastic Huet once again

The Montreal Canadiens and the Florida Panthers found themselves in a goaltender duel yesterday at the Bell Centre. After the 65 minutes of play the score was still 0-0. The shootout was then necessary and Christobal Huet got the better of Alex Auld, and once again Montreal won a game because of goaltending and took back 4th place of the Eastern Conference.

Next game for Montreal will be the Carolina Hurricanes.

Flyers defeats the Habs

The Philadelphia Flyers have defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 at the Bell Centre. Montreal only have themselves to blame after giving a good effort in the 1st period leading 1-0.

But the 2nd period letdown, maybe due to the fact of playing a 2nd game in 2 nights, ended up to be fatal... 3 unanswered goals from Philly as they cruised with the lead until the end.

Simon Gagné had a very good night scoring 2 goals, his 2nd one a shorthanded goal that finished up the local team hopes. Antero Nittymaki the winning goaltender, David Aebisher picked up the loss.

Souray at the last second

Again thanks to goaltender Christobal Huet who was superb...it was a 1-1 tie after Saku Koivu sent everyone in overtime in BUffalo, Sheldon Souray scored the winning goal at 4:59 of the Ot period, from Kovalev and Koivu. Yes, with only 1 second to go before the shootout. (Of course the shootouts are exciting but how about finishing it playing hockey!) Exciting stuff.

So the Habs wins a 3rd in a row for the first time of the season, giving the fans a nice promising season, a thing that they waited quite too long. Everything is possible, and that is fun to watch.

First loss for the powerful Buffalo Sabres leading after 40 minutes of play in a match. They still stand on top of the Northeast division and look like the logical choice to finish 1st of the Eastern Conference.

Habs record stands at 12-5-3. And now Huet looks like in his last season with the team...should he keeps focused for the rest of the way, this team will surely be a challenger.

Christobal Huet steals one

Montreal Canadiens' goaltender Christobal Huet blocked 34 of the 36 shots he faced and helped the team to defeat the Minnesota Wild by the score of 4-2. Alex Kovalev, Steve Begin, Radek Bonk and Mike Komisarek in an empty net scored the goals for the Habs.

After the game, everybody said thanks to the goaltender for stealing one for them. On the other side, Minnesota Wild head coach Jacques Lemaire didn't want to comment saying he was frustrated and didn't want to put himself in trouble.

The number 18 retired.

Serge Savard's number 18 was erected before the game yesterday. A nice elocution by Scotty Bowman who said he was very priviledged to coach such talented players like Denis Savard, Larry Robinson and Guy Lapointe.

Then ''the senator'' himself talked to the crowd of the Bell Centre, thanking his family and ex-teammates which without them he would never be able to win 8 Stanley Cups. Great class from ''the senator''.

Then for the game itself, the Habs looked inspired by the ceremony and played a very solid game against the Atlanta Trashers and won 3-1.

Lack of intensity

Playing yesterday a second match in two nights, the Montreal Canadiens suffered a 5-1 loss against the Florida Panthers. The whole team really lacked intensity and allowed too many good opportunities, and to make it even worse, goaltender David Aebisher looked like an amateur on at least two goals.

The Habs ended a 4-game road trip with 2 wins and 2 losses. Montreal's next game is on saturday night against the Atlanta Trashers. A special ceremony is planned before the game, the Montreal Canadiens will retire Serge Savard's jersey. Savard (a star defensemen in the 70's) was one member of the big three in Montreal, he also participated in the Canada-Russia series of 1972. He also became the team's general manager after his career as a player, and formed the last teams to ever win the Stanley Cup in 1986 and 1993.

Latendresse is on fire!

The Montreal Canadiens have defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-1 yesterday and registered their 10th win of the season. Defensemen Sheldon Souray scored 2 goals with 2 heavy shots from the blue line and now totals 8 goals, 7 of them were registered on the power play.

Rookie Guillaume Latendresse scored the third goal of the night for Montreal and is on an interesting streak. Since head coach Guy Carbonneau moved him on the first line, Latendresse has registered at least 1 point in the last 4 games.

French goaltender Christobal Huet was very effective once again, blocking Tampa's 15 shots of the first period, keeping the Habs ahead in the contest.

The team record is now 10 wins,4 losses in regulation and 3 losses in shootout for a total of 23 points in 4th place of the NHL Eastern conference.

Roy enters the HHOF

Patrick Roy was officially inducted in the Hockey Hall Of Fame yesterday. Considered by many as the best goaltender who ever played the game, Patrick Roy revolutionized his position using the now famous ''butterfly style'' and holds many NHL records.

Some of those records includes:

-Most regular season wins for a goalie (551)

-Most playoffs wins for a goalie (151)

Roy won the Stanley Cup 4 times, twice with the Montreal Canadiens and twice with the Colorado Avalanche. He also won the Vezina trophy ,the Conn Smythe trophy and the Memorial Cup last year at his 1st season as a coach.

Thank you for the memories Patrick! And good luck for the rest of your life.

Also tonight, the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Ottawa Senators 6-3 and coincidently Guillaume Latendresse scored 2 goals, both on the power play in a 30 seconds span to help Montreal win the game. After last week's war of words with Roy, the rookie picked his night to register his 1st multi-point game of his career!

Montreal Alouettes qualifies to the Grey Cup

The Montreal Alouettes have defeated the Toronto Argonauts 33-24 in front of 35 600 loud spectators at the olympic stadium and qualifies for the Grey Cup. The B.C. Lions will be the Alouettes opponents as they defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

This will be the 5th Grey Cup appearance for Montreal since 1999.

The Leafs by a mile

Yesterday, the Toronto Maple Leafs have defeated the Montreal Canadiens 5-1. The Habs were simply outplayed by the red hot Toronto team, who scored 3 power play goals on 8 occasions.

Defensemens Brian McCabe and Thomas Kaberle both had a superb game, McCabe scored 2 goals and added 1 assist while Kaberle scored 1 and added 1 assist. Only Saku Koivu of Montreal managed to beat Jean-Sebastien Aubin.

Later today is round 2 of the Toronto-Montreal weekend as the Montreal Alouettes face the Toronto Argonauts.

Montreal vs Toronto weekend

Saturday night the Montreal Canadiens visits the Toronto Maple Leafs in Air Canada Centre in Toronto. The Leafs have won 6 of their last 7 games, they are without a doubt a real test for the Habs who won 4 of their last 6 games. Patrick Roy will be honored before the game for his induction into the hockey hall of fame on sunday and will be on center ice to perform the ceremonial puck drop.

Yesterday, Roy said that he may have been too far on his comments about Latendresse and said that he does not wish to add any more comments on the subject. So it seems that the case is closed.

On sunday afternoon, the CFL's eastern conference final will oppose the Toronto Argonauts and the Montreal Alouettes at the Olympic stadium in Montreal. The Alouettes are favored by many experts to win the game even if the last meetings at the Olympic stadium were won by the Toronto team.

Fans from both cities will have their hands full of each other, may the best wins!

War of words

The Quebec-Montreal rivalry ashes are still hot.

Tuesday night, after Guillaume Latendresse scored his first NHL goal, Patrick Roy's Quebec Remparts defeated the Rimouski Oceanic 9-3 and Patrick Roy was late for post-game press conference. When he finally showed up he declared that he was late because he had to make sure that it was really Guillaume Latendresse that scored the goal. This comment made the press members laugh loudly.

Yesterday after the Montreal Canadiens morning practice, Latendresse replied to the future NHL hall of famer by saying that he was deceived of such comments instead of congratulating him for his first NHL goal. He was deceived that Roy was trying to step on him instead of being happy for him. He also said that he would try to be the adult in all this and didn't add other comments on the subject. (ouch, the 19-year old telling the 41-year old Roy that he would be the adult.)

Speculations say that behind the Patrick Roy's comments is deception about the Habs keeping him on the roster instead of sending him back to juniors, where the Quebec Remparts could make a trade to acquire him and sell more tickets at the gate. The Quebec Remparts did in fact lose a few good 19-year olds to the NHL this season. (Radulov and Vlasic only to name two.)

Let's see if any of the two parts will add oil on the fire. One thing is sure: we miss the Quebec-Montreal rivalry and comments like those always revive the fire that once burned.

On borrowed time...

The Montreal Canadiens have defeated the Edmonton Oilers in the shootout 3-2, but the big news came from the team's medical staff. The heart and soul of the Habs in this start of season, Chris Higgins will miss 4 to 6 weeks with a bad ankle injury inflicted by New-Jersey on last saturday night. In yesterday's game Guillaume Latendresse replaced Higgins and scored his very first NHL goal at the start of the 3rd period, resulting in a wave of frenzy among the crowd gathered in the Bell Centre.

Next game for Montreal is only next saturday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Brodeur and the referees halts the Habs

Martin Brodeur stopped 33 of the 34 shots directed by his opponents and helped the New-Jersey Devils to defeat the Montreal Canadiens 2-1. Only Chris Higgins managed to beat Brodeur on the power play, tipping the puck at the last second.

In yesterday's game the referees helped a lot the New-Jersey cause. After the halfway mark of the game, the referees hid their whistle in their pockets and didn't call a single penalty. New-Jersey understood this and started hooking and obstructing everyone in sight, making it look like a 1995 hockey game. Very sad for this sport.

This was the worse Montreal performance of the season, unable to work with cohesion against a very ordinary team.

Habs pulverize the defending Stanley Cup champs.

The Montreal Canadiens totally dominated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-0 yesterday in Raleigh. A solid performance from goaltender Christobal Huet in the 1st period paved the way to victory. This was the 12th career shutout for Huet.

The Habs went a perfect 8/8 on the penalty killing once again and even scored 2 goals shorthanded thru Mike Komisarek and Thomas Plekanec. The team is now totaling a league leading 6 SHG this season. Saku Koivu on the power play and Mike Johnson also scored 1 goal each.

The team record now stands at 7-2-3 well installed in 4th position in the Eastern conference.

Malkin ties a 89 year old NHL record

Pittsburgh Penguins' russian rookie phenom Evgeny Malkin tied a 89-year old National Hockey League record yesterday against the Los Angeles Kings.

Malkin scored at least 1 goal in each and every of his first 6 NHL games. The same performance happened in 1917-1918 by 3 different players (Joe Malone, Newsy Lalonde and Cy Denneny) in the very first NHL season.

Malkin did not break this record in his next game.

Lucian Bute: top rank

Interbox's romanian boxer now living in Montreal Lucian Bute will receive his new ranks shortly and the news are pretty good for him.

The WBC will rank Lucian Bute 2nd.
The WBA already places him 4th.

Everything points to a world championship bout in 2007 for him and all of the province of Quebec is pushing for the athlete. The last world champion residing is the province was Eric Lucas (defeated in a controversial bout in Germany against Markus Beyer a few years ago).

In 18 professional fights, Super Middleweight Lucian Bute's record is 18-0-0 (16 KO).

Trick or treat?

The Montreal Canadiens tricked the Ottawa Senators yesterday 4-2 at the Bell Centre. The crowd was mainly disguised in a mix of creepy monsters and were very loud for the whole lenght of the game. Montreal's goaltender David Aebisher treated the fans with a superb performance in goal as he made multiple difficult saves to keep the team ahead in the game.

Among the treats for the fans: Chris Higgins scored another shorthanded goal (leading the league with 3 SHG this season), and almost added another one seconds after during the same penalty. His goal totally broke Ottawa's rythm.

Montreal's penalty killing went a perfect 8/8 including a 3 on 5. Rookie Guillaume Latendresse almost scored his first NHL goal in the 1st period hitting the post on a powerful slapshot, but played his best game of the season distributing heavy hits during the whole lenght of the game.

***The Carbonneau effect part II***

Montreal's penalty killing is ranked 3rd in the NHL with 91.6% after 11 games. The 6-2-3 record is no surprise with performances like this. He also fixed the Habs 2nd line by putting Alex Kovalev in the center of the line. The russian line formed of Samsonov-Kovalev-Perezhogin did well for a second game in a row, scoring an important goal in the 2nd period to put the game away from the Sens. With only 11 games at the head of the team, he shows that he knows what ice hockey is all about and makes sure that his team works hard game in and game out.

Next game for Montreal will be on the road against the defending Stanley Cup champions Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.