The Hamilton Bulldogs are doing just fine, thankyou.

So. The Montreal Canadiens are missing, Georges Laraque, Mathieu Dandenault, Christopher Higgins, Saku Koivu, Carey Price, and Alex Tanguay. I know, I know. Hardly ANY of their good players.

The Canadiens have had their fair share of the injury bug this season. Only five players have played all 41 of the Habs games this season.

No problem.

Since Christmas, the Canadiens have won seven games. They only played eight.

Screw it, who needs those guys. I'm actually a bit concerned about having those players return to the team and throwing off the time-space continuum, or whatever governs the chemistry of a hockey team.

The Hamilton Bulldogs are winning in style. (Must be the effects of having Kovalev as a captain). Last night they broke a 4-4 deadlock with 25 seconds left to take the win over the Washington Capitals.

Max Pacioretty (or as I prefer... MAXPAK!) is averaging just under a point per game. And Matt D'Agostini has six goals and two assists since being called up in late November.

I think there might be something to this. I mean, really, nobody really wants to get sent back to the AHL. But NOBODY wants to get sent back to the AHL, when your AHL team is in Hamilton. Keep it hangin' over their heads Carbo.

The youngens have gelled and have started to pull the deplorable performance of the Canadiens' powerplay out of the cellar (they're now 25th!). They even scored a shorthanded goal!

And those youngens have also ruined Carbo's vacation plans... the nerve.

MONTREAL – Guy Carbonneau can officially put away his sunscreen. Behind the bench is where he will be spending NHL All-Star Weekend.

Thanks to the Habs’ 5-4 win over the Capitals on Saturday night at the Bell Centre, the Canadiens leapfrogged past Washington in point percentage, .683 to .662. That slim margin was enough to earn Carbonneau an invite to NHL All-Star Weekend, to be held at the Bell Centre on January 24 and 25.

“I hadn’t reserved anything yet, but I had been looking at my options,” admitted Carbonneau, who only narrowly missed out on heading to Atlanta for last year’s midseason classic. “I was considering heading to Florida to spend some time on the beach and work on my tan.”

A much paler Carbonneau will instead be front and center as top stars in the NHL invade Montreal.

“Without question, getting to experience it in Montreal will be nothing short of amazing,” said the Habs' bench boss. “I never got to play in an All-Star as a player so it will be a special experience to be around the best players and coaches in the league.”

Carbonneau will ironically assist head coach Claude Julien of the top-ranked Bruins in a strange twist of fate that did not go unnoticed in the Canadiens’ dressing room.

“Let’s just say it will be interesting to see Claude Julien and Carbo side-by-side behind the bench together,” said Tomas Plekanec with a smile, after potting a pair to help send his coach to the All-Star Game. “We all couldn’t be happier for him, though. Carbo really deserves it and we’re excited that he’s going to be there along with Kovy and the guys.”

And now I leave you with this.

Let the Sunday night drinking games begin.

Welcome to the 100th season, Montreal.

Jean Beliveau

Ooooh, they blew the 3-0 lead on purpose so that they could have a dramatic shootout victory at their first home game of their 100th season. I get it.

Canadiens legends Elmer Lach, 90, and Emile Bouchard, 88, two of the oldest surviving Canadiens alumni dropped the puck on the Canadiens season at the Bell Centre. They were joined by ten other Canadiens Hall of Famers: Jean Beliveau, Dickie Moore, Henri Richard, Yvan Cournoyer, Guy Lafleur, Bob Gainey, Guy Lapointe, Steve Shutt, Larry Robinson and Dick Duff. It's one of the truly nice things about Original Six teams like Montreal, they have this immense history and their former players are more than willing to come back and share.

Emile "Butch" Bouchard (#16) greets Elmer Lach (3)

The Canadiens built up a 3-0 lead by the end of the first period, with goals by Saku Koivu, Alexei Kovalev and Maxim Lapierre. But it slowly began to unravel, and silly old me thought that the Canadiens were going to blow it completely and lose. But all they wanted to do was have a thrilling finish. Ya gotta spot the other team some goals for fun, right? I mean really, what's the fun in destroying a team 6-1? (editors note: actually it's really fun, especially when it's Toronto on the wrong end of that score) Boston's David Krejci scored the first goal in the second period to get it rolling for Boston.

Carey Price had a bit of a bad bounce when he wandered behind the net. It was also extremely poor timing — there was 48 seconds remaining. As Price came to get the puck it took a strange bounce, hit the back of the net, squirted out front, and landed on the stick of Marc Savard. Price dove back at the net in a futile effort to make himself look like he tried. Savard also had the Bruins second goal of the night.



Price redeemed himself by stopping Patrice Bergeron, Phil Kessel and former teammate Michael Ryder in the shootout. And Alex Tanguay helped save the day by scoring the only goal for the Canadiens. Quebec boy does good.

Montreal has nine points of a possible ten this season. Boston continues its road to being not very good.

Alex Tanguay after scoring the shootout winner

E.R.

Scary Carey. Cardiac Canadiens. 1-0 win over the Bruins.

Awesome.

Game four of the Canadiens and Bruins is tied 0-0 in the first intermission, but I had had had to post this video. I cannot believe this has made a comeback. I'm not sure if it is broadcasting nationally on CBC but we have witnessed it a few times since the playoffs started. Watch and be in awesome awe.