Mike Boone's Online Eeee-mail

The Canadiens are in New York and I'll be in my basement, tuned to RDS and trying to catch up with what's going on.

I gather Carey Price is out right through the Washington game ... at minimum. But he doesn't have mono.

Jaroslav Halak, who's been shaky, gets the start tonight.

The Maxim Lapierre line may be used on the power play. And Yannick Weber could get a start.

Check back later for more pre-game and live blogging.

Inside/Out's Mike Boone returns to his blogging and commentary duties on Wednesday when the Canadiens take on the Rangers in New York.

In the meantime, he invites his readers to use this space today to vent, praise or anything in between before, during or after the Canadiens-Florida Panthers game, a 2 p.m. start at the Bell Centre.

Big thank-you to my colleague and friend David Stubbs for keeping everyone up to date on what was going on with me.

Thanks also, from my daughter and me, to  everyone in the Habs Inside/Out family who was kind enough to extend condolences.

My dear mother was quite special. If she'd played hockey, Mum would have been Tom Kostopoulos.

I don't think she ever grasped exactly what "live blogging" meant. But she thought it was kind of cool that her son got to spend a lot of time at the Bell Centre.

I'm planning to resume my duties for the Wednesday road game against the Rangers.

Does anyone think Jaro Halak will get the start?

Inside/Out's Mike Boone will not be blogging tonight's Canadiens-New Jersey Devils game, mourning yesterday's loss of his mother, Frances. He will return to his game blogging and commentaries soon.

In the meantime, we invite Mike's readers to use this space today and tonight to post their views on the Habs-Devils game.

Mike Boone will remain out of action for tonight's Canadiens-Tampa Bay Lightning game, tending to family matters.

Again, he invites one and all to use this space to serve up their comments before, during and after the game.

Colleague Mike Boone will not be live-blogging tonight's Canadiens-Panthers game, the grave illness of his mother keeping him away from his laptop and TV.

In his absence, he invites his readers to feel free to use this space to comment on the game as they wish. Mike will be back as soon as his situation permits.

Thanks for your understanding.

This is the time of year when everyone is looking back and tallying up the pluses and minuses of 2008.

Canadiens fans should be turning their gaze in a different direction.

Last night in Pittsburgh, we saw the future.

And man, it looked sweet!

Andrei Kostitsyn's first career hat trick.

Tomas Plekanec plays his heart out and dominates the faceoff circle.

Oh, did I mention Carey Price ....? 

From all of us at Habs Inside/Out ...

(OK,  just from me)

To all you loyal Canadiens fans who have made thw web site a success ...

(Actually, just to those of you I like ... you know who you are):

All the best of the holiday season.

In the words of my guru, Pierre McGuire: Be safe and enjoy your families.

Also enjoy this Christmas classic and lose yourself in this cool pic for a while.

No hockey till Saturday. You're not even allowed to think about it.

Hey, did you hear the Kovalchuk rumour ...

GOTCHA!

It's the Carolina Curse.

Michel Therrien's mustard-coloured jacket.

Justin Williams sticking Saku Koivu in the eye.

11 penalties.

Two goals disallowed.

With the Hurricanes, it's always something.

What it is mainly, as Mke Komisarek said last night, is a Carolina style that contests every inch of the ice. A team that doesn't match their work ethic has a problem.

One consolation: Canadiens don't play them again for the rest of the regular season.

Another consolation: It's the Christmas break. The team is idle until Saturday, and Guy Carbonneau has given them four days off before they travel to Pittsburgh and practice on Boxing Day.

So in keeping with the holiday spirit, let's try to be of good cheer.

Three of eight possible points in four games with the Hurricanes.

For play-by-play, cue the Beatles:

For the benefit of Mr. Kite
there will be a show tonight on trampoline
The Hendersons will all be there
late of Pablo Fanques' fair, what a scene

Over men and horses hoops and garters
and lastly through a hogshead of real fire
In this way Mr. K will challenge the world

And there's a good chance the celebrated Mr. K will perform his feats on Sunday as well, with Carolina at the Bell Centre.

Let's go to replay:

Saku Koivu suffers an injury.

Canadiens put the "C" on Alex Kovalev's jersey, and the riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a enigma comes to life, scoring goals and carrying the team on his broad back.

Coincidence?

The Artist took two minor penalties and then scored with 25 seconds left in overtime to give the Canadiens a morale-boosting W.

First star: Sergei Kostitsyn. Two goals and yeoman work on the power play.

The Canadiens bombarded Ryan Miller with 46 shots – six in OT.

And the power play produced two goals, including the OT winner.

Man, I would have bet my house on the lead-pipe certainty that Philadelphia Flyers was going to beat your Montreal Canadiens last night.

In fact, I did.

This edition of About last night ... is being filed from a park bench in downtown Montreal where the dog and I spent the night, sleeping under a pile of m erroneous predictions.

Fortunately, there's WiFi.

And I understand they're serving humble pie for breakfast at the Salvation Army.

Do the Canadiens play to the level of their competition?

That's the way the season is unfolding.

Check the main site for post-game audio.

This column I wrote about Earl Knipfel – "ebk" in his Habs Inside/out Comments – appeared today in the Gazette's Hockey Inside/out supplement.

That's Earl's stepson Zach in the photo.

What can be said about that surreal hockey game?

Guy Carbonneau liked his team's effort.

Visibly seething with barely-suppressed anger, Carbo said the Canadiens worked hard, skated well and played one of their better games.

In 5-on-5 situations, Carbonneau added. "we were all over them ... they had nothing going."

Refusing to directly criticize the officiating, Carbo said "you saw the game .. you can write or say whatever you want."

OK, I'll avail myself of that stirring defence of a free and vigorous press. 

I wasn't at the RBC Centre. But watching RDS in my cozy suburban basement, I didn't see your Montreal Canadiens playing one of their better games of the season.

Did the better team win?

Who knows? The game was too weird to draw rational conclusions about either Carolina or the Canadiens.

Very strange game.

Once the Canadiens avoided penalties and got some 5-on-5 time, they exerted a measure of pressure on Cam Ward.

But it was too late – and Ward stopped everything.

So another one-goal loss.

NOTE ON THE LIVE BLOG:  The chronology is all balled up. I have no idea why.

Maybe René Descartes should play the right point.

Guy Carbonneau describes the Canadiens' power play as "non-existent".

The PP went 0-for-8 last night, including a full four-minute opportunity while Alexander Ovechkin was off for high-sticking.
In almost 13 minutes with the man advantage, the Canadiens mustered six shots.

Last season, this team had the NHL's most efficient power play: 24.2 percent.
To date, the PP is "clicking" at a woeful 13 per cent.

The Canadiens have gone from first in the league to 29th.

Descartes, the French philosopher, wrote: "Je pense donc je suis" and, in a later work, "Cogito ergo sum."

Translation: I think, therefore I exist.

So on this fine Sunday morning, let's put on our thinking caps and analyze a PP that doesn't exist.

Guy Carbonneau descrbed his power play as "non-existent".

Great.

A goaltender and five imaginary skaters.

Among the blessings visited upon your Montreal Canadiens last season was a mass contagion of good health.

No important player was sidelined for any signficant amount of time.

Guy Carbonneau was able to keep everyone fresh by rolling four lines, and his team rolled to first overall in the Eastern Conference.

That was then.

This is now: In the course of an embarrassing loss to the worst team in the NHL, the Canadiens most consistent player in 2008-'09 sustained another foot injury.

Or maybe it's Saku Koivu's ankle. We'll find out today ... maybe, if the Canadiens deign to provide an injury update, which the Kremlin still hasn't done in the case of Christopher Higgins.

This much we know: Mathieu Dandenault has a broken arm.

Oh, we also know this: your Montreal Canadiens have an inordinate amount of difficulty winning games that should be easy.

Game lost to the 30th-place team in the NHL.

Captain Saku Koivu lost to injury.

Any glass-half-full fans out there?

Check the main site for very subdued room audio. 

No Martin Straka, but Alex Tanguay will do nicely.

The Canadiens newest line collected seven points last night: Robert Lang had two goals and an assist, Alex Kovalev, his old Pittsburgh RW, had two assists, as did Tanguay (who would have added a goal but for a brilliant glove save by Mikka Kiprusoff).

Playing together for the first time in the Canadiens' 27th game of the season, the Lang, Tang and Kovy looks like a keeper.

Lang's 10 goals put him on pace for 30 this season. Tha would be the most since he scored 32 with the Penguins in 2000-'01 – the same season his linemate Kovalev bagged a career-high 44 and Straka got 27.

With the continued exellence of the Saku Kovu line – was the Matt D'Agostini goal a beauty or what? – the Canadiens would seem to have a Top Six that compare to their main Eastern Conference rivals: Boston, Washington, Philadelphia and the Rangers.

It's the composition of the third and fourth lines that's going to be interesting.

Against a tough opponent ... while losing two starters to injury.

See main site for game story and audio from the room.

Sitting in the press room after the game, looking over the stat sheet and waiting for Guy Carbonneau, a few of the beat guys were moaning about how boring it would be to cover the New Jersey Devils.

"If I had to watch that team play 82 games, I'd open a vein" said Marc-Antoine Godin of La Presse, feigning a slicing motion on his left forearm.

No one asked Carbo what it's like to watch Alex Kovalev play 82 games.

The coach might have pretended to slit his own throat.

Zach Parise's 15th goal of the season was scored on a 4-on-3 power play in overtime.

Outshot 13-7 in the first period and trailing 1-0, the Devils dominated the latter 30 minutes of the game.

Carey Price, beaten between his pads for the tying goal, made several spectacular saves to keep it 1-1 and was named the game's first star.

The good news: Andrei Markov, who took a deflected puck in the face and went down like he'd been shot, was not seriously injured.

The Canadiens' best defenceman has a stitched upper lip and is short a tooth. Markov will miss the team's Metro grocery public practice on Sunday.

You hate to bring up a negative note after the Canadiens' most impresive win of the season, but the team faces a personnel problem:

What are they going to do with Guillaume Latendresse, Sergei Kostitsyn, Ryan O'Byrne .... and Doug Jarvis?

Mike Komisarek is 3-0 behind the bench.

Jarvis returns to the team today after taking time off to be with his father, who has passed away. But Guy Carbonneau said he may be assigned to doing his assistant coaching from the pressbox.

It was nice to hear Carbo joking. The kindly old coach has been a tad stressed out this week – as has George Gillett.

But Carbo might be superstitious about keping Komo behind the bench when the New Jersey Devils visit tomorrow.

Why break up a winning combination?

IScoring from all four lines.

Powerful visitors held to 20 shots and two goals. 

And a young player who isn't going back to Hamilton.

The 100th year starts well. 

Other than the lottery ticket purchases that have become my retirement strategy, I'm not a gambling man.

Nor do I usually offer advice to those who enjoy wagering on sports.

But here's the tip of the day, a lead-pipe cinch:

Bet your children's college money that Georges Laraque won't be playing against the Rangers tomorrow night.

Andrei Kostitsyn saved the season.

And who thought Robert Lang's empty-netter would be the winning goal?