Montreal Sports - Montreal Canadiens

The Canadiens are looking for an identity. The fans are also looking for an identity for the Canadiens as well. Who is this team who faces insurmountable odds against the Canucks and the Penguins, and beats them both? Who is this team that, a week earlier, losses against the Panthers, the Lightning and the Senators pushing them to 12th in the Eastern conference.

But, with a 3 game winstreak in place and the Boston Bruins coming into town, the Canadiens now find themselves in 6th place. The Bruins are winless in their last 10 games, and will find themselves in 12th place if things continue the way its going for them. However, it has not been for lack of trying. 3 of the Bruins last 4 games ended in a shoot out loss. In their last 3 games, they have averaged 44 shots against their opponents.

The Canadiens have won all three games against the Bruins so far this season. As far as shots against, the Bruins have also averaged 42 shots per game against the Canadiens.

The Canadiens IR has been growing. In addition to Andrei Kostitsyn, Paul Mara and Michael Cammalleri, Marc-Andre Bergeron and Benoit Pouliot have been added as well.

Does Coach Martin turn back to Carey Price, who does have a great record against Boston, or does he continue to ride the hot Halak? Martin has been one to rely heavily on statistics, and Price is the only one who has experience against the Capitals (1-1-1, 2.95 GAA) and the Flyers (1.00 GAA).

Brian Gionta scored the game winner in their last meeting, and is hot after scoring 2 goals and 1 assist in their win on Saturday against Pittsburgh.

Out of the 5 players called up from the Bulldogs (Darche, White, Desharnais, Trotter, Maxwell), only Darche picked up any points against the Penguins (1 goal), however the blogosphere was abuzz with the strong play of each of them. In fact, #Darche was one of the leading trends on Twitter.

Tags: Bergeron \ Boston Bruins \ Cammalleri \ Darche \ Desharnais \ Halak \ Hamilton Bulldogs \ hockey \ Kostitsyn \ Mara \ maxwell \ Montreal Canadiens \ NHL \ Pouliot \ Price \ Trotter \ White