Habs Report

It’s official: the puck has dropped on the Canadiens centennial season. Captain Saku Koivu and the troops opened the year in Buffalo last Friday with a loss in a shootout. In his first shift as a Canadien, centre Robert Lang scored the lone goal for the Habs after he slid the puck past Buffalo netminder Ryan Miller.

It’s official: the puck has dropped on the Canadiens centennial season. Captain Saku Koivu and the troops opened the year in Buffalo last Friday with a loss in a shootout.
In his first shift as a Canadien, centre Robert Lang scored the lone goal for the Habs after he slid the puck past Buffalo netminder Ryan Miller. The Sabres answered back five minutes later when Thomas Vanek went five-hole on Carey Price. The remainder of the game saw the Canadiens being somewhat weak on defence, forcing Price to stop 35 shots. Overall, it wasn’t a great performance by the Habs, who seemed uncoordinated and at times out-of-sync.
Saturday night reminded us all why the Habs finished first in the East last season. Donning their home jerseys on enemy territory, the Canadiens dismantled the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre in a 6-1 victory.
Newly anointed Canadien left-winger Alex Tanguay put up four points with a goal and three assists while the power play exploded, leaving Hab fans thinking “Streit who?”
Youngster Sergei Kostitsyn was all over the ice, scoring two of three power-play goals in the second period. Roman Hamrlik, Alex Kovalev and Guillaume Latendresse also scored for the Habs. Latendresse had a stellar night with a goal and two assists, including a sneaky cross-ice pass to Hamrlik for the first goal of the night.
Jaroslav Halak was between the pipes for the Canadiens and came just shy of a shutout, allowing only one power-play goal from Jason Blake on 25 shots. It was the first start of the season for Halak; he made some solid saves, leaving many to wonder who will get the start in nets throughout this week.
Monday night, the Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-3.
Andrei Kostitsyn opened the scoring, but the Flyers answered back with two goals in the second period.
Montreal then got goals from Hamrlik and Mike Komisarek 44 seconds apart in the third. Lang and Steve Bégin rounded out the scoring.
Carey Price made 29 saves.
The Canadiens will host the Boston Bruins in their home opener Wednesday evening. The Habs will then have a short break until Saturday when they are visited by the Phoenix Coyotes, the second in a string of five home games.

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