Tonight the Habs are at home to take on the visiting Atlanta Thrashers. The Canadiens recent struggles and the Thrashers just being the Thrashers leads one to expect a snorefest similar to the Canadiens 2-0 victory early in the season. Atlanta’s explosive offense is always in danger of erupting but more often than not lies dormant. It’s unsure exactly who will be playing where as the Canadiens are still a little battered in every position.

Alex Kovalev is recovering from knee surgery, he was hobbling around the Bell Centre yesterday doing interviews while on crutches. Prognosis is good but it will still be several weeks before he can even get on skates.

The real show tonight should be the Pittsburgh/Washington game where rookie sensations Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby go head to head for the first time ever. A lot of pressure is being put on these kids being called the Lemieux and Gretzky of today’s generation. Both are extremely skilled and extremely competitive and exciting to watch. They will no doubt be in high gear tonight trying to out shine each other and give their struggling teams a win.

Amid the everpresent goaltending controversy, Fox Sports had a good short interview with Canadiens goaltending prospect Carey Price.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/story/5095354

I didn’t know Olaf Kolzig was mentoring Price, which is good news for Habs fans. Kolzig is similar in size and style to Price and despite being on an awful team he can still manage to save games like this weekend in Montreal.

Francis Bouillon is questionable to start tommorow’s game against Atlanta. This could be bad news with our already lackluster defence. Anything that increases Mark Streit’s chance at more ice time is worriesome.