Montreal Sports - Montreal Canadiens

The Canadiens have once again climbed their way back to playing .500 hockey. This time they did not need to go to a shoot out to beat the Carolina Hurricans, like they did on November 17th. All they needed was the league's best power play on the road to score 4 out of their 5 goals to beat the Hurricans in Caroline by a score of 5-1. The fact that the power play has been so hot on the road comes at no better time, since the Canadiens still have 4 games to play away from home.

And we are not finished. Tomas Plekanec went into the game tied for 2nd in the league for assists, behind Joe Thornton, once again dominated the game with 3 assists on the night. With St-Louis getting only 1 assist tonight, Plekanec now has sole possesion of 2nd place in that category, 5 behind Thornton who was idle.

But we are still not finished. Marc-Andre Bergeron, who got an assist tonight, is tied for the league lead in goals by a defenseman. While he may be a defensive liability at times, he has helped breath life into this team on power play situations.

And are the Canadiens still desperate for a "top 6 forward", now that Andrei Kostitsyn has scored a total of 9 goals in December? Remember, Gionta is still injured, but should be on his way back.

And yes, many many eyes were on Pouliot today. The people who did not watch the game will look at his 2 shots in just over 13 minutes and start crying for Guillaume Latendresse, but those who watched the game had to be impressed with his charge to the net style and passing ability. Ok, he had a really bad turnover at one point, but he is new to the Canadiens, new to this system, and missed quite a bit of time due to an injury.

And don't think that Halak's strong play isn't doing anything but increasing his trade value. The consensus is that Bob Gainey will not be able to land more than a draft pick for Jaroslav Halak, but with the way he is playing lately, you have to think that it won't take that much more to package in a player or two and get a good young impact player from a struggling team going into the trade deadline.

TSN full game review.

Habs Inside Out game review

Tags: Carolina Hurricans \ hockey \ Montreal Canadiens \ NHL