The Montreal Canadiens cannot wait for the Olympic break, not only do they have a goaltending controversy but Bob Gainey just stepped down as general manager. They have also been bitten by the injury bug going into a game against league leading Washington and two against a Philadelphia team that trails them by one point in the standing, making them a danger to people doing NHL betting
Gainey announced on February 8 that he would be vacating his position in a surprise move citing that he was not planning on re-signing, when his contract runs out in June, and wanting the new GM to be able to make the trades at this deadline that will affect the team next year.
The Canadiens also announced on Monday that Marc-Andre Bergeron (knee) and Benoit Pouliot (shoulder) would be sidelined until March. This adds to the growing list of long-term injuries that now sits at five and takes two of the better offensive players out of the Habs line-up.
Bergeron leads the defence with 10 goals and 28 points including 20 on the Montreal powerplay that ranks second in the league. Pouliot has played very well after coming over from Minnesota earlier in a trade for Guillaume Latendresse; scoring 11 goals and 14 points in just 20 games.
They will join leading goal scorer Mike Cammaleri (knee), Paul Mara (upper body) and Andrei Kostitsyn (knee) in the press box until at least their March 2 game following the Olympics. The game against the Bruins kicks off a tough four game road trip that starts in Boston and heads to the opposite coast for games against Western Conference leading San Jose, Anaheim and Los Angeles.
Sitting at 62 points, the Canadiens are third in the Northeast division and sixth in the conference but cannot afford to start losing as there are six teams within five points of them in the standings. Having gone 7-7-3 since New Years, they will need to come together as a team to keep in the playoff hunt; which will be hard to do with the locker-room rift caused by the goaltender battle between Jaroslav Halak and Carey Price.
