The Canadiens look to put a stop to their winless streak tonight at home against the Panthers. They will have to do it without sniper Alex Kovalev, Jan Bulis and Radek Bonk.

The good news is it’s the Florida Panthers who are visiting and they come in with an 8 game losing streak. A walk in the park? Not really, any team losing 8 straight has got to break out of that skid sooner or later. The Panthers also traditionally play the Habs very hard. Montreal escaped with a miracle comeback for a 5-4 victory against the Panthers earlier this month.

Jose Theodore gets a rest tonight as Yann Danis comes back into the lineup for his 3rd start after playing 3 games for Hamilton. If anything he should be sharper and ready to go. Roberto Luongo will be on his A game as he always is in Montreal, and the Panthers will need him to be strong should they hope to steal a road win.

Alexander ‘Perogie’ Perezhogin has been the favorite to replace Kovalev on the top line and is expected to start alongside Koivu and Zednik.

Habs Blog will be recording a Kovalev’less Habs win/loss chart to see just how big of an impact player he is.

The Montreal Canadiens star sniper will undergo arthroscopic knee surgery tommorow in Pittsburgh. Kovalev is 2nd in Habs scoring with 7 goals and 12 assits.

Don’t push the panic button just yet. Let’s look at the positives first. At this point Kovalev is expected to miss a month. This is not a Bobby Orr or Cam Neely situation here.

“Arthroscopy has revolutionized the treatment of joint injuries.
In the past, treatment of orthopedic injuries involved extensive surgery, including large incisions, a hospital stay, and a prolonged recovery period. But today, with the help of an arthroscope, today’s orthopedic surgeon can easily examine, diagnose, and treat problems in the joint that previously may have been difficult to identify.”

The surgeon inserts the arthroscope into the joint through a tiny incision (about 1/4 of an inch) called a portal. Two or three incisions may be made for portals. Other portals are used for the insertion of surgical instruments, such as the probe shown above. Typical incision sites and sizes for knee arthroscopy are shown at left. These incisions result in very small scars which in many cases are unnoticeable.” (source: SCOI)

I would rather this happen now in November than in April – and I’m sure Bob Gainey agrees. A setback yes, but a temporary setback that could be a blessing in disguise. As long as Kovalev makes a full recovery – this could make us even better.

Kovalev spot on the top line will no doubt allow some of our new young talent considerably more playing time. Perezhogin, Higgins and Plekanec will be seeing a lot more ice. Perogie having already made an impression when playing on a top trio. This will further develop our younger guys and all signs point to them being ready for the challenge.

In past years, any of our offense going out for a month meant seriously bad news for the Habs. We have a much deeper team now and should be more able to handle setbacks such as this.
Of course I’ll be keeping my Kovalev game counter on too see how we fare without him in the lineup.

It’s time for our depth guys to step up.