"If I'm not signed by July 1, I don't think I'll be back in Montreal"

So the rumour has it right now... (and let's be clear here, this is still classified as a rumour. Because I trust Russian sports newspapers about as much as I trust 2 month old milk) ... is that Alex Kovalev will be handed the captaincy of the Montreal Canadiens and that Saku Koivu will be sent packing.

TSN.ca reports on the details from the story:

A Russian sports newspaper reports that the Montreal Canadiens have offered the team's captaincy to pending unrestricted free agent Alex Kovalev and that Saku Koivu is no longer in plans for the team.

According to Sovietsky Sport, the Canadiens don't intend to re-sign Koivu and would opt to re-sign Kovalev to a one-year deal worth between $6 million and $7.5 million. The story also claims that Kovalev would be awarded the captaincy.

After the Canadiens epic failure of a season, followed by their inevitable playoff loss to the Bruins there was lots of rumours swirling around about big changes within the organization.

This is definitely not one of the things I anticipated.

The big changes I anticipated might have sounded more like "Montrealers have giant street party after Canadiens fire GM Bob Gainey"

But instead they've awarded the captaincy to someone who seems to be unable to lead a pack of lemmings over a cliff. Someone who has been rumoured to have been unable to play well unless he has a fancy "C" on his shirt.

Boy-oh-boy, if this rumour is true, the Habs are going to have to hire one helluva coach.

Shakes head in dejection.

I was all ready to defend the lack of trade deadline movement by the Canadiens at around 6pm yesterday.

Deadline had passed and I had a few hours to absorb the day and I decided that Bob Gainey's move to pick up Mathieu Schneider a good tweak to fix the powerplay.

I had thought over what exactly the Canadiens would give up for players that they actually wanted to fit into the lineup.

The team does have a dynamic. If you send Chris Higgins away, which was a likely trade bait it's likely that Mike Komisarek would follow in the off-season. And Komisarek is a playoff performer. He's a checking and shot-blocking specialist. It's in the Canadiens interests to keep Komisarek. Bob Gainey said he likes his team.

So I was sitting there rationalizing things about team chemistry that only someone on the inside can truly know.

And then the Canadiens/Sabres game came on TSN.

And the Canadiens dominated the first period. They had 16 shots on net. Had some near misses.

And I almost started writing.

And then the goals started coming. 1... 2.... 3.... 4... oh did Carey Price realllllly just let that one in? .... sigh.... 5.


Not a good first "post-trade-deadline" game.

Did someone do a roll-call on the team plane when they arrived in Atlanta? Carbo looked so mad it's quite possible he may have murdered one of the players.

It's not panic time yet. And it's possible Gainey is right not to shake up the entire team (like the Rangers). But they definitely can't keep dropping games 5-1 to teams like the Buffalo Sabres.

Yuck.

I've seen Montreal play better.

They played the Philadelphia Flyers tonight. The final, 2-1, was much closer than the play actually was. Montreal forgot how to do that thing where the puck leaves one stick and ends up on the other.

The ice did seem abnormally bouncy, which puts a fast skating, passing team like Montreal at a disadvantage to a team that basically tries to skate directly through you. But nonetheless, much of the time it looked like the Flyers had a powerplay.

Alex Tanguay finally got the goal for the Canadiens, but not until midway through the third period. And they couldn't muster up much in the final half of the third to tie it, even with a man advantage with a few minutes left.

Mike Komisarek is out with a shoulder injury from the fight with Lucic on Thursday. There was a fight tonight, and it's the only thing Montreal won. Georges Laraque taught Josh Gratton a thing or two about fighting.

But if you're a Montreal fan and you're feeling sad, just think, you could be a Senators fan.

On Tuesday, after losing 5-0 to the Canadiens, I remember the TSN announcers saying, "well the good thing is, the Senators now have a home and home with the Islanders."

piece of cake, right?

Wrong. The Senators lost tonight, and they lost on Thursday. To the Islanders. I won't say anything else.

Don't worry Senators fans, I realize you need cheering up as well. Toronto lost to Vancouver 4-2. And here's a few duthie-isms from the Hall of Fame induction ceremony:

9:50—Post-show party. A guy asks me (and many others) to sign his dress shirt. I have two thoughts on this:
1. I hope it came from Winners and not Hugo Boss.
2. Why do women never ask me to do these things?

10:37—I am eating tofu (the buffet was bare) with Steve Yzerman, talking about women’s lacrosse.
My world is a strange, wonderful place.

Komisarek out 3 weeks

Shot-blocking and hitting specialist Mike Komisarek is out "at least 3 weeks". This is not good news for the Canadiens going into the playoffs, when a commodity like shot-blocking and hitting goes up ten-fold.

Canadiens defenceman Komisarek out three weeks with lower body injury

4 hours ago

MONTREAL — Defenceman Mike Komisarek will be out of action for at least three weeks with a lower body injury, Montreal Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau said Saturday.

Komisarek was injured in the first period of Montreal's 4-2 victory in Boston on Thursday.

"Mike has a lower body injury - that's all I can tell you - and he's going to out a minimum of three weeks," said Carbonneau. "We hope that after two weeks we can evaluate him and go day-to-day after that, but it's going to be in that vicinity."

Josh Gorges will move into Komisarek's spot on the top defence pair with Andrei Markov. Mark Streit will move back to defence after playing left wing for most of this season.

Left-winger Guillaume Latendresse was also to sit out a game Saturday night against the Bruins with spasms in his neck from a check he received during the game in Boston. His injury is considered day-to-day.

Komisarek has not missed a game this season. He is the team leader in hits and blocked shots.

Update on Komisarek

I found an update on Mike Komisarek's condition after leaving the game Thursday against the Bruins. Sportsnet is reporting that Komisarek did not practice today. There are no quotes from Canadiens brass:

Sportsnet.ca -- The Montreal Canadiens could be without bruising defenceman Mike Komisarek for the second half of their home-and-home series with the Boston Bruins on Saturday.

Komisarek did not skate with the team in practice on Friday. The team's hit- and shot-blocking specialist left Thursday night's game and did not return after getting hit by Milan Lucic of the Bruins. The Canadiens would only specify that it was a lower-body injury.

Wingers Christopher Higgins and Guillaume Latendresse also missed Friday's practice due to various ailment, but aren't expected to miss any playing time.

With Thursday's 4-2 win over Boston, Montreal moved into first place of the Eastern Conference with 92 points. The New Jersey Devils are second, one point back with two games in hand.

Kovalev is #%*^ ING ridiculous.

Alexei Kovalev made the Bruins defence look even worse than Sheldon Souray. Kovalev scored the Canadiens first two goals of the night in jaw-dropping fashion, both were defense-splitting, soft-handed, make-Tim-thomas look simple type of goals. Those goals started the Canadiens toward their seventh straight win this season against the Bruins, with their final game of the season series on Saturday evening in Montreal. Should the Bruins lose that game on Saturday it could put their playoff hopes in jeaprody, especially the way that Washington is coming on.

There was a playoff atmosphere in Boston, as a hourd of fans travelled from Montreal for the game and made people notice them throughout the game.

Mike Komisarek left the game in the first period, with an injury which appeared to have to do with his knee or hip. It didn't look like much, just a bump with another player off the faceoff, but he hobbled off the ice favouring his knee. I haven't been able to find any word about the extent of his injury.

This win puts the Canadiens in first in the East, but the New Jersey does have 2 games at hand.

In other news, the Crosby-less Pittsburgh Penguins put up another notch in the win column against the Tampa Bay Lightening.