Have you heard that Halak is playing tonight? TSN has Price starting in their ice chips. Andrei Kostitsyn and D’Agostini are in and Laraque and Stewart are out.

I really hope Gainey puts Kostitsyn with Plex and Higgins. There is no time left to juggle. You have to put your best players out in the position to win. I can’t imagine Montreal looking at this game as anything but a must-win. They can put 7th place on lockdown with a victory tonight. They need to get skating early and put the pressure on the NY defense. Yes we’re banged up, but NY is also very fragile on D. Its time to be the hunter tonight instead of the hunted.

I’m less inclined to believe that Price should have sat out last night, even though I was really disappointed with the result. Here is why. Halak played the night before. He was alright, but didn’t steal the game. Price was coming off of stellar play even though he had missed games because of the flu. Gainey is looking, at this point, to do anything that will shake up the lineup enough to give his team back the confidence it had before the injuries. Had Price stepped in last night and stole the game we’d all be talking about how 7th is locked down and how Price gives us the edge we need in the playoffs.

Unfortunately Price was rusty. When combined with his defense, his blunders were crippling. Even so, as Senet1 pointed out after the game last night – if it wasn’t for a couple crossbars in the 3rd, we may have won the game.

At this point, it is still likely that we make the playoffs. At this point if we are able to get a single point out of Boston (who seem to like 1-0 and 2-1 games at this point), or Pittsburgh we are in. More important in my eyes is figuring out our defensive problems. It all starts with puck movement. Given that Markov has a strained knee it is safe to assume he’s probably out 2 weeks at the minimum (3 is what everyone says, although if Markov is willing to pay through pain he could cut down on the time he’s on the shelf). Given that it is playoff season, he won’t want to miss time if he’s able to skate. That being said, Montreal needs to come up with a solution to their defensive problems. In a perfect world Bouillon would return and pick up at least some of the slack. Until either Markov or Bouillon return, I think Gainey has to move Dandenault back on D. Given his speed and ability to pass the puck, he is WAY more valuable as a defenseman than a forward.

Komisarek – Dandenault
Hamrlik – Gorges
Brisebois – Janik/O’Byrne

Its not pretty, but at least Dandenault best replicates what Markov was capable of doing getting the puck to the forwards.

Moving Dandy back to defense would open up a slot on forward. I thought Stewart did a great job in giving the Habs the type of toughness with speed they need on the 4th line with Metro. I also think Sergei is still a better option than D’Agostini or Higgins for the Plekanec line and the stats don’t lie about that. He’s the one guy that can get Plex
and his brother in position to shoot, and stop the 1 on 5 madness that Higgins brings to the line. We’ll need him back healthy for that though. They need to settle down and regain the swagger.

Tanguay-Koivu-Kovalev
Higgins-Plekanec-Kostitsyn (pass the puck boys you can’t do it alone)
Kostopoulos-Lapierre-Latendresse (read above)
Stewart-Metro-Laraque (hit somebody)