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Hockey le Magazine has published a 260-page special edition devoted to the Canadiens' season. Highly recommended if you can read French, and worth having regardless just for the photos and statistics.

Cover shot is Alex Kovalev on his back with his legs in the air as Saku Koivu raises his arms to celebrate a goal in THE GAME, that Feb. 19 classic in which the Canadiens came back from 5-0 to beat the Rangers.

You'll find that on pages 142-143: another photo of Kovalev, a summary and detailed stats on the game, head shots of the three stars – Michael Ryder, who scored twice; Kovalev (two goals) and Jaromir Jagr (four assists).

There's a similar two-page words/stats/pics spread for every game the Canadiens played, from a 3-2 win in Carolina on Oct. 3 to the 3-1 conquest of the Leafs on April 5.

The magazine also includes single-page articles on playoff games, plus analysis and stats on each player's season. They call my man Josh Gorges "Monsieur Courage" and my other man Sergei K. "Serge le Terrible" (it's a compliment).

The writing staff includes RDS play-by-play man Pierre Houde, CKAC analyst Dany Dubé and La Presse beat guys François Gagnon and Pierre Ladouceur

The publication sells for $10 and is available on newsstands all over Montreal.

If you're outside Queebec, there's a web site for Hockey le Magazine.

Get out the brooms – maybe the ones that weren't used in Dallas last night.

Can the Flyers emulate the Stars by avoiding a sweep?

Do-able ... but not easy.

Pittsburgh is firing on all cylinders. And Philadelphia is not as good as Dallas.

Maybe the zebras will make things interesting by cocking up a goaltender interference call.

Whatever, it's just postponing the inevitable:

The Red Wings and Penguins will play for the Stanley Cup.

And the sooner they start, the happier we'll all be ... if only because CBC might be smart enough to assign Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson to the final.

Will Dallas win one game, just for pride?

REALLY hard to think about hockey today in Montreal. It's hot, temperature in the mid-20s. All the beautiful people are out preening downtown. You don't see many Canadiens' car flags.

• • •

Just for laughs: In the country where someone will win the Stanley Cup, this guy is regarded as a serious political commentator.

•  •  •

Vancouver front office gets a good man:

Scott Mellaby – very smart guy. I hoped CBC would hire him as their primary analyst, but they're determined to turn P.J. Stock into the next Don Cherry. 

Bit of a late post because our Gazette boss took the Habs I/O crew – me, Stubbs and Hickey (Mio was MIA), plus photographers and copy editors who work on the print pages – to lunch at The Keg.

I ate like a pig (as I always do when it's free), and I'm sitting here in a fair degree of gastric distress, waiting for the game to start. I think dinner will be a Bloody Caesar and some peanuts.

Even though I've never been there, I  don't like the city of Dallas.

This admittedly unreasonable antipathy is based on events that transpired in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. I was an impressionable 10th-grader, and it stuck with me.

The assassination of Robert Kennedy may have been the greater tragedy, but I harbour no enduring ill feelings about  Los Angeles. Maybe it was those Dallas cops in white Stetsons, escorting Oswald out to  a venue where Ruby could shoot him.

But enough about politics. 

I don't like the Dallas Cowboys.

I don't like the Dallas Mavericks.

I respect Brenden Morrow, Marty Turco and Sergei Zubov, but I don't like the Dallas Stars.

I want Detroit to win this series and take their dazzling skills to the Stanley Cup final.

I also wanted the Canadiens to beat Philadelphia. And as someone – either St. Thomas Aquinas or Mick Jagger – observed, you can't always get what you want.

But if you tune in TSN (yay!) at 8 tonight, you might get what you need: a decent Game 3 in the Western Conference final. 

Writing in La Presse today, Mathias Brunet heaps praise on Mike Ribeiro.

Brunet says he's been a Ribeiro backer since the early days of the player's career with the Canadiens. He says Ribeiro has rare vision, hockey sense – and attitude into the bargain.

Interesting story.

And in the Journal de Montréal, Ribeiro tells Pierre Durocher, to whom he's been whining about never being given a chance in Montreal, that Dallas ought to sign Michael Ryder.

Ryder and Pierre Dagenais were Ribeiro's linemates in Montreal. 

Setting up the post early today so I can go spend some time with my dear 91-year-old mother.

Mike Ribeiro: Phone home. Whatever she tried to teach you didn't take.

Maxim Talbot will be back in the lineup for the Penguins for Game 2.

Hey, if Pittsburgh wins topnight can we proceed directly to the Penguins-Red Wings all skills/all the time final that we want to see?

That way hockey will be over before the end of the month and we can can get out and enjoy the sunshine. 

It's a beautiful spring evening in Montreal – much too nice to be indoors watching a game that does not feature the Canadiens.

When I was a wee lad Hockey Night in Canada (which it wasn't called then) didn't begin until an hour after the game started. That may be my approach today – I'll tune in at about 8 or 8:30 to see how many goals Detroit is leading by.

Did you catch the idiot Cherry trashing the Wings last night? He claims fans in Detroit are bored by all that great hockey. They miss Bob Probert, Cherry says.

Attendance for Game I was listed as 20,066. That's capacity at the Joe Louis Arena. Cherry showed a video clip of Kronwall's big hit and you could see empty seats in the background. But that was in the opening minutes of a game that started at 6:30 Detroit time, so some fans may have been running late.

Much and all as Cherry is probably Mike Babcock's guru, I don't think Aaron Downey will be dressing tonight.

The good news: Jim Hughson on play-by-play. Having not watched a single CBC game all season, I was appalled by how out of it Bob Cole was in Pittsburgh last night. Consistently behind the play, misnaming players – when he bothered to identify them at all. Brutal. If he works the Stanley Cup final, that network is officially the C.B.F.C.

Vent away, ladies and gents. I'll jump in later on.

Same deal as last night: feel free to vent if you're watching the game.

Let's hope the zebras do a better job. Bill McCreary was brutal. The 5-on-3 was ridiculous, the Holmstrom goal should have been disallowed.

That said, Dallas was exhausted and Detroit was .... well, Detroit.

Pittsburgh will be Pittsburgh tonight. But can Philadelphia, sans Timonen, be Philadelphia?

Pierre McGuire thinks the Penguins will go right after Braydon Coburn and R.J.F. Umberger.

Hope it's a decent game. I was watching a movie by the end of the second period last night.

Mike Ribeiro tells Pierre Durocher of the Journal de Montréal that he never got a fair chance with the Canadiens.

"I could never exploit my talennt to thhe fullest in MMontreal,"" Ribeiro told Durocher. "I wasn't centring the first line, a role that Saku Koivu held, and I wasn't part  of the first  wave on  the power play."

Ribeiro was singing a different tune in December, you may recall. When the Canadiens visited Dallas, Ribeiro was telling journalists that he bore no hard feelings toward the Montreal organization and felt he had become a more mature player and person with the Stars.

Bob Gainey readily admits he made a mistake by trading Mike Ribeiro. The Canadiens were banged up on defence heading into the 2006-'07 season, and Gainey thought Janne Niinimaa could help (he doubtless was scouted bby the same geniuses who recommended Sergei Samsonov).

On CKAC this morning, Martin McGuire was recalling that in 1998, Ribeiro's draft year, 35 of 40 scouts working the Q would not have touched him with a 10-foot pole, gaudy scoring stats in Rouyn-Noranda notwithstanding. Canadiens picked him in the second round, 45th overall.

The year before the lockout,  Ribeiro led the Canadiens in scoring with 20 goals and 45 assists. It's significant that Koivu was hurt anndd played 68 games that season. 

But there were off-ice issues. It  was common knowledge, among MMontreal's tightly-knit hockey community, that Ribeiro would blow off the workout regimen he was supposed to be following in the off-season.

Along with José Theodore and Pierre Dagenais, Ribeiro was a member of the Three  Amigos, young guys whose  party-animal habits did not sit well with a conservative organization that prefers players who are married at 22 and at home, in bed by 11 on school nights.

Blithe spirits tend to be traded out of this town. Ribeiro isn't even the most egregious example. Chris Chelios was a wild child whom the Canadiens exiled; and  18 years and two Norris trophies later, he's taking a regular shift and killing penalties for the Red Wings.

Everybody makes misteaks.

Chelios would be great wherever he played. It's far from certain, however, that Riibeiro would have blossomed had he stayed in Montreal.

What I'll do through the Canadiens-less – boo-hoo-hoo! – remaining playoff rounds is create a venting post for each game.

I think both series have the potential to produce some great hockey.

A Pittsburgh-Detroit final would be a terrific clash of skills, and that's the matchup I'm predicting.

On the other hand, marty Turco is the best goalie still standing and Brenden Morrow is Studus Maximus.

As for the Flyers .... well, the last two teams that eliminated the Habs went on to win the Cup. But I can't see Martin Biron baffling Crosby, Malkin, Hossa, Staal et al.

Do you suppose this latest contagion of madness in Toronto may spur Mats Sundin toward seeking greener pastures?

Like at this end of the 401?

The firing of Paul Maurice – weeks after the season ends, months before a new general manager has been hired – is a wacky move, even by Leafs' standards. With the draft, the June buyout window and free agency approaching, the Toronto organization has no coach and is being run by an interim GM who'll be 73 in August.

Sundin will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

Yes, he's 37. But he had 32 goals, 42 assists and was plus-17 on a crap hockey team.

Yes, Canadiens fans hate the big lug – like those of us who are old enough hated Frank Mahovlich.

Sundin is a righthanded centre. He's got size, skill and a mean streak.

Any questions?

You didn't really think Ol' Velcro Lips would start name-dropping, did you?

True to form, Bob Gainey said much, revealed little. Using the brief time that's elapsed since the abrupt end of the Canadiens' season as an excuse, Gainey said it was too soon to begin talking about specific players or changes or his shopping list for 2008-'09.

Know what?

I think the process of strategizing for the centennial season was well underway long before Mike Knuble popped that empty-netter Saturday night.

In the brutally competitive, salary-cap NHL, you snooze, you lose. And  Gainey  doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who takes naps.

Toward the end of their 50-minute season review/look ahead, Bob Gainey and Guy Carbonneau were asked whether two goaltenders could be kept happy next season.

"Happiness," Gainey replied, his habitual sly smile playing at the corner of his lips, "is an unattainable state."

Well, how about contentment?

Gainey was too diplomatic to reveal the degrees to which he was satisfied or dissatisfied with his hockey club. But the Canadiens GM bristled when it was suggested that some deemed the team too soft for the playoffs.

"A lot of people think alot of things," Gainey said, his tone leaving little doubt what he thought of the general expertise level of vox populi. The Canadiens, he added, are built on "speed, quickness, intelligence and opportunism."

"We want to play a fast game," Gainey said. " We're quick, we're exciting. We're going to play to score, and we're going to play to beat you, within the rules."

Any suggestions for Bob Gainey?

Puck-moving defenceman?

More sand on the back end? It sounds like a proctological affliction, but Pierre McGuire thinks it's what Canadiens need.

A big centre?

A take-no-prisoners power forward? 

I won't bring your ideas up at the press conference, but let's turn on the heat and get the pot boiling.

I'll post a few of my own half-baked opinions later today, after I've heard Gainey and Carbo. 

Is Montreal a great hockey town or what?

Two days after the Canadiens were eliminated from the playoffs, there were eight TV cameras in the Bell Centre recording Andrei Markov's every move.

He was autographing jerseys, signing his name in the upper right-hand corner of the CH logo., and multi-tasking by talking on his cell phone.

Big news, right?

Just outside the Canadiens' lockerroom, there were several tables laden with material to be auttographed for chairty auctions and golf tournaments this summer: jerseys, hats, sticks, golf bags, tee shirts – even Carey Price bobbleheads.

The latter were overstock from Carey Price Bobblehead Night in Hamilton this season – a great evening marred only by the absence of the honuree: Price had been recalled to Montreal.

So here's the news summary:

• Andrei Markov and Saku Koivu have decided to play in the World Championships.

• Mike Komisarek was hobbled a torn muscle in his back and a hip pointer.

• Any more Bobblehead Nights will have to wait until the end of summer. Carey Price is tired and plans to get away from hockey.

• Michael Ryder and Mathieu Dandenault are talking like they're outta here.

We'll have a whole summer to get used to the idea, and it may take that long:

The beter team won the series.

Not the luckier team. The better team.

Because as Christopher Higgis and Josh Gorges have been saying, you make your own luck. The great golfer Ben Hogan put it another way:

"People say I'm lucky. But it's funny: the more I practice, the luckier I get."

Philadelphia's superiority manifested itself during the second period last night.

After Christopher Higgins beat the suddenly-beatable Martin Biron with the kind of short-side laser that had been eluding Carey Price, the Canadiens led 3-1. Minutes later, they killed off a 5-on-3 Flyers power play and everyone in the Bell Centre was thinking the same thing:

"Back to Philadelphia!"

Everyone, that is, except the guys on the visitors' bench. They were going back to Philadelphia, all right – but not for Sunday night hockey.

From the Canadiens' PR department:

Translated: "We expected more. We went  deep into the playoffs and acccomplished many things. Sometimes when you lose a game, a series like this it helps you make progress."

Translated: "We would have liked our goaltenders to be better, but in a few weekks there will be 29 teams saying the same thing."

Translated: "You have to give the Flyers credit. They took advantage of their chances, the bounced and the breaks." 

“The
fourth (goal) really hurt us. Actually, every goal hurt us. We played
five games against them. They took advantage of all their breaks.”

“They took care of their business, and we didn’t get a chance to take care of our business.”

“This is probably our worst game in the playoffs against Philly.”

“Umberger… Everything he touched turned into a goal.”

Courtesy of the Canadiens PR department:

“It’s
pretty rewarding for us to see our players be that excited, to see
everyone in our organization moving on against a team like Montreal.
What a great team, and a great year.”

“Wow…
(Umberger) was a possessed man. We moved him around and he didn’t even
bat an eye. He just wanted to play. He went from right side to left
side… He’s just been a force.”

“It was a pretty
intense environment coming out there. The crowd here is terrific. We
had the ability to settle down and get things back on track. I think
our guys really wanted this game.”

“Our leaders led the way and our young players grew up in a hurry.”

Take the flags off the cars.

Wash the red, white and blue out of your hair.

No more Olés.

No more hockey in Montreal, until the Canadiens' centennial season begins in the autumn.

"Daddy, you're all done with the season," said one of Bryan Smolinski's kids, walking into the Canadiens' somber room on either side of their Dad.

"All done," said Smolinski. "You guys want a drink? Let's get you a drink."

Let's all have a drink. It was helluva ride, from read-leaved October to the darling buds of May.

Canadiens fans saw more hockey than we thought we would when the season began. So let's not mope unduly about aa fairly igominious exit by the hometown heroes.

"Obviously, I'm disappointed," said captain Saku Koivu, who described the five-game loss to Philadelphia as "frustrating."

"I thought we outplayed them, definitely in the first four games," Koivu added. "To come up with one win, you hav to give a lot of credit to their team. They did a lot of things right and found ways to win games."

This they did. The Flyers came back from a 3-1 deficit wih three unanswered second-period goals, then took conntrol of the game after Andrei Kostitsyn briefly brought the crowd to life by tying it early in the third period.

looking at the season in perspective, Koivu said "you have a lot of ups and a lot of downs, but you always remember the last night."

Koivu said the season had produced "a lot of great things, a lot of positive meoments" to be savored once the pain of tonight's loss diminished.

That will take time.

"For the next little while it's going to be tough," said Josh Gorges. "These things happen. Only one team can win every year, and this year it's not us. We have to learn from our mistakes.

"We got a young group of guys. We'll soak up a lot of what we went through together in these playoff series. In a month or so when we're at home we'll think about this series and what we could have done diffrently and what we can do differently next year."

Christopher Higgins, who was devastated after the final-game loss knocked Canadiens out of playoff contention last April, said tonight's loss felt worse.

"We got a taste of what it was like after winning one series," Higgins said. "After you win one it's kind of addictive. You want to go on and on and see how far you can take this thing." 

Gorges said Carbonneau told the team he was proud of them, that no one had given the Canadiens a chance this season but they'd stuck together from Day One and played hard for each other.

"I think we grew as a team," Gorges said. "It's a tough time because not everybody will be back next year. You never know. Hopefully everyone is back because we have a great team, a good group of young guys. We'll learn from this." 

 "We proved a lot of people wrong," Koivu said. "We were really consistent as a team and that's something to be proud of.

"I strongly believe especially in the NHL you don't become a winner overnight,"  Koivu added. "It takes a lot of work, huge steps. It's not going to be any easier next year. But we can keep improving as a team and the future will be good for us.

"That's the mentality I hope everyone takes home for the summer and gets ready for the next training camp." 

Four Habs Fans, one of the best Canadiens sites around, has a fan's harrowing account of his visit to the Wachovia Centre.

Parental discretion is advised.

•  •  •

I've been on Michael Ryder's case and I think I've cracked it.

Those weren't paper airplanes he was floating out of the pressbox during Game 4.

They were CV's.

OK. have another drink and start posting.

He's rested.

He's ready.

Carey Price has a new glove, a new blocker – and a seemingly carefree atitude toward his biggest start of the season.

"Three broken fingers, on each hand," Price grinned, waving his digits at the media horde after a late-afternoon practice today.

But seriously folks ...

Price is fine. And he's known for 48 hours that he'd be the Game 5 starter.

"Coach told me after the last game," Price said. "He said prepare for the next three games. It's going to be a war."

It better be. Canadiens, down 3-1 in the series, are fighting for their lives.

Does Alex Kovalev need new linemates who were his old linemates?

Canadiens' leading regular-season scorer has done squat since Game 1 of the Philadelphia series. There are suggestions that as a player who needs the puck, Kovalev cannot function on a line with Saku Koivu.

Kovy was at his best this season when playing with Tomas Plekanec and Andrei Kostitsyn. A renuon may be called for – except Plekanec and the Brothers Kostitsyn  were Canadiens' best line in Game 4.

One thing Guy Carbonneau can do, with last change tomorrow night, is try to keep Kovalev away from the Flyers' shutdown defensive pairing of Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn.

•  •  •

François Gagnon of La Pressse reports that while his teammates were losing Game 3, a seemingly carefree Michael Ryder was chatting on his cellphone in the pressbox.

Then during Game 4, the Canadiens' erstwhile 30-goal scorer amused himself by making paper airplanes and floating them down into the Wachovia Centre stands.

He is so out of here.

•  •  •

The unsung hero of the playoffs is a guy you've never heard of:

Hakan Andersson.

He's director of European scouting for the Detroit Red Wings.  Based in Sweden, Andersson has found a succession of gems,  including Johan Franzen, whom the Wings drafted as a 24-year-old defensive centre, grabbing him in the third round, 97th overall in 2004.

Franzen, nicknamed The Mule, goes 6-3, 220 and is making a cap-friendly $950,000 this season. He scored six game-winning goals in March and nine in the sweep of Colorado – including two hat tricks (last night's were scored on the PP, shorthanded and even-strength). Both achievements broke team records set by Gordie Howe.

Michael Farber of Sports Illustrated has told me whoever takes over in Toronto should make Andersson his first hire. But it might be difficult to lure him away from the Red Wings.

A couple years ago,  Farber said, Detroit wanted to pay Andersson a bonus. He politely declined, saying he made quite enough money to live comfortably in Sweden.

Don Cherry is right: these Europeans are ruining hockey. 

Post away!

• Steve Bégin gets the homeboy penance. Three Hail Marys, an Our Father and don't do it again, ya crazy monkey! If it were Bryan Smolinski taking that penalty, he'd be drawn and quartered in Place Jacques Carter.

"For Bégin's penance," says my Opus Dei friend, "he should crawl to the Holy Land on his knees."

Which he looked like he was doing after that shot rung the berries. 

• Hands up everyone ready to give Mark Streit a three-year, $8 million  deal.

• The old "broad side of a barn door" metaphor seems somehow inadequate to describe his situation. Christopher Higgins couldn't hit an elephant's ass with a banjo. 

• Sorry, Matt D'Agostini. The team has enough small skill guys. Let's hope that Gregory Stewart and/or Max Pacioretty can play.

• Gazette colleague Don Macpherson says: "This is all Carey Price's fault. He hasn't scored a single goal on the power play."

• Total hits by the Andrei Markov-Mike Komisarek pairing last night: 0.

• Shots on goal by Alex Kovalev: 3 Giveaways: 3 

• Canadiens were badly prepared for Boston and it nearly cost them. They are badly prepared for Philadelphia and facing elimination. Both opponents have nullified the power play, clogged the passing lanes, pressured the Canadiens' D and substantially neutralized Kovalev.

Guy Carbonneau has been outcoached by Claude Julien and John Stevens, tacticians whom no one has ever mistaken for Scotty Bowman.

I'm no Xs and Os guy, but do you suppose Bob Gainey should be taking a hard look at his pro scouting staff? 

Tried the goaltender switch.

Didn't work.

Tried the lightning strikes/deficit-erasing/momentum-changing comeback.

Didn't work.

Tried playing Alex Kovalev with Maxim Lapierre.

Didn't work.

Nothing works. Your Montreal Canadiens are Sisyphus on skates.

On the evidence of this grim playoff series, in which they find themselves one loss away from the first tee, Canadiens have somehow offended the Gods of Hockey ... and I don't mean Gary Bettman and Bill Daly.

Was it hubris?

All those bloody flags. The "Drive for 25"? The tin foil, thoroughly Torontois Stanley Cups? Red Fisher's Canadiens in five prediction.

Whatever. This team cannot catch a break.

Snakebit? That doesn't begin to describe it. Canadiens have been swallowed by an anaconda, and the whole team is headed toward the southern end of the digestive tract.

Maybe Carbo should fling a virgin into a volcano.

Any volunteers?

Does the R. stand for Rocket?

R.J.F. Umberger: The first goal and the last, an empty-netter. He has six in four games against the Canadiens.

In between, Scott Hartnell created the Flyers' customary 2-0 lead before Tomas Plekanec and Saku Koivu beat the unbeatable Martin Biron in the span of 37 seconds to make it a new game with seven minutes left.

That's when Steve Bégin took what might have been the worst penalty of Canadiens' soon-to-be-completed season:

A mugging of Sami Kapanen, who didn't have the puck. Even in a 2-2 game, the refs had to call it.

(Fans with long memories may recall the Bégin penalty that let Toronto back into that fateful April 7, 2007 game.)

On the ensuing power play, Daniel Brière tucked in the winner.

Guy Carbonneau did not like the call. When asked to comment, his reponse was:

"I don't want to get fined. You watch the whole hgame and tell me after. You know what was written in the paper today ..."

That was an allusion to the Flyers whining about Canadiens getting all the calls. Each team had four penalties tonight

I thought the Bégin play was blatant. In a tight game, he cracked a guy into the boards for no obvious reason. It had nothing to do with the flow of the play. 

Canadiens come home down 3-1 and reeling.

Once again, they outshot and substaintially outplayed the Flyers.

And once again, Martin Biron was a brick wall long enough – 28 saves through 40 minutes – for his teammates to get the lead.

Flyers got two goals on four power plays.

Canadiens went 0-for-4.

So my colleague Alan Hustak is interviewing fans outside the Bell Centre yesterday when he's approached by one who asks "Are you from The Gazette?"

After Hustak replies in the affirmative, the fan asks for an autograph. 

Hustak signs.

The fan examines the signature and exclaims: "Oh f., you're not Mike Boone!" 

Hilarious.

Best I can gather, he needed 10 Mike Boone's to score a Dave Stubbs. 

Post here if you want to vent.

I'm watching Penguins-Rangers. 

Of the Canadiens last night: "It was not one of their more cerebral games.".

On the inability to retrieve power-play shoot-ins, McGuire suggested Canadiens either "had no plan" or were "cramping up mentally." The number one priority on the PP is winning faceoffs. Number two is getting into formation, which involves fluidity and a lot of movement in the Canadiens' PP.

On Carey Price: "He's gotta be a lot better. If he's not, they won't win. It's very simple."

On the chances of a goaltending change: No way. It would be a sign of panic. "You're basically telling your players this is our Game 7." 

Keys to Canadiens winning: The PP. Better puck movement by the D. Better support for Kovalev. Better goaltending.