Capitals

Cristobal Huet, a Forum ghost on his mask now partially covered by the Capitals logo, is ready for action against New Jersey.
Bruce Bennett, Getty Images

It's nice when good things happen to good guys.

Former Canadiens goalie Cristobal Huet, traded Tuesday to the Washington Capitals, earned an 18-save shutout tonight – the 16th of his career and third this season – in his debut with his new team, a 4-0 decision over the New Jersey Devils.

Huet's performance surely didn't hurt the Canadiens, who beat Buffalo 6-2 Friday night. Montreal faces New Jersey Saturday at the Bell Centre, and with a victory will pass the Devils for the Eastern Conference lead. An action photo of Huet is below.

Former Canadiens goalie Cristobal Huet, now a Capital, reacts this afternoon to the trade that sends him to Washington. Apologies for the low volume.

There was a time – within the living memory of some of us – when supersatrs wearing the red, white and blue of the Montreal Canadiens would go out and smoke their hapless opponents.

That was then.

Alexander Ovechkin is now.

Last night, the Canadiens were the smokees.

Hey, stuff happens. Ovechkin is a monster. Four goals, crushing hits given and taken (apparently the Francis Bouillon check broke his nose).

It's too bad the most dynamic player in the NHL has to weave his magic in a half-emty arena.

Great seems somehow insufficient.

Four goals – including the winner in overtime.

Canadiens came back from 3-0 and 4-2 to steal a point in a game Washington dominated.

The Brothers K scored in the same game for the first – but not the last – time in their careers.

Guillaume Latendresse had two.

But on this night in his home rink, the NHL's most exciting player was not to be denied. 

Over men and horses hoops and garters

and lastly through a hogshead of real fire

In this way Mr. K will challenge the world

Coach Guy  Carbonneau said you could count on the fingers of one hand the number of bad games Alex Kovalev has played this season.

Actually, you could probably count them on the sore (but, let us pray, not broken) thumb of Mr. K. He is having a career season, and Kovalev has become the darling of the Bell Centre.

For all the car races and kissing contests and lame-ass promotions the Canadiens run to keep 21,273 fans amused, the crowd reachest fullest and most authentic frenzy when Kovalev has the puck.

And he has it a lot. If the NHL kept Time of Possession stats, Kovalev would lead the league's forwards.

Although he shrugged off the notion of cranking it up because Alexander Ovechkin was in town, you'd best believe the aging superstar – snubbed by the Russian hockey federation for its national team – wanted to show the young pup he's still got some game.

(My God, that sentence ran longer than one of Kovy's shifts!)

Links updated Wednesday at 6:58 am

Canadiens' Sergei Kostitsyn converts a Tomas Plekanec pass for a first-period goal against Washington Capitals goalie Brent Johnson.
Christinne Muschi, Reuters

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Those fans hoping the Canadiens would pick up where they left off last week – a marvelous come-from-behind victory over the nearly invincible New Jersey Devils – are not disappointed tonight.

The Canadiens returned to action following the NHL's annual all-star break with first-period goals by Mark Streit, Sergei Kostitsyn and Saku Koivu, then shut down Washington superstar Alex Ovechkin with perfect Cristobal Huet goalkeeping until Alex Kovalev netted a final-minute goal to record a 4-0 triumph over the Capitals at the Bell Centre.

Alex Kovalev had a request for the horde of cameras, microphones and notebooks surounding him in the winning dressing room.

"Don't ask me about Ovechkin," said the Russian sniper, whose 22nd goal capped a 4-0 Canadiens win.

"Talk about our team. We played great."

He had a point. The Canadiens got a solid effort from all four lines, the defence was outstanding and Cristobal Huet was brilliant, earning his 15th career shutout with 35 saves.

Ovechkin – OK, we have to talk about him a little – had four shots. But he was controlled in one-on-one situations by Mike Komisarek and Josh Gorges, both of whom contributed to a team defensive effort.

"I know he's scored a lot of goals, but we do our job and it doesn't matter who they have on their team," Kovalev said before he declared a moratorium on Ovechkin assessment.

Kovalev was impressed by Canaadiens' effort in the second period, which has tended to be a team weakness this season.

"We're learning from the past," he said. "We had a good second period, played 60 minutes and it paid off."

Kovalev said he may have sustained a broken thumb, but "I still have four fingers left."

Canadiens scored two power-play goals, one shorthanded and another at even strength. Kovalev said the team has taken "a long journey to get to the point where the guys are more confident with the puck."

"Sometimes we have to dump and chase," he added. "But I see a lot more guys who are comfortable, moving the puck around, making passes and making plays.

"When you have to skate hard for 60 minutes, you can get tired annd make mistakes. If you control the puck 60, 70 per cent of the time, it's definitely a lot easier to play the game."

A brief post-mortem today because I'm still reeling from the sudden, if not unexpected, passing of my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers.

Ben Roethlisberger's season is over. Carey Price will soldier on.

I'm not going to crap from great heights on a 20-year-old goaltender. But Price was not good against Washington, and his poor performance raises some interesting questions, the most basic of which is – drum roll, please – should he be in Montreal?

Links updated Sunday 6:50 a.m. 

Canadiens goalie Carey Price dives in vain for the overtime goal of Washington's Mike Green, bottom right.
Christinne Muschi, Reuters

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On the day last January that Canada was winning its third consecutive world junior hockey championship, goaltender Carey Price was on his way to victory and being named the tournament's most valuable player.

Chances are Price wouldn't necessarily have minded being in the Czech Republic today, wearing a Team Canada sweater as his country again won gold.

The Canadiens, with the 20-year-old rookie in their Bell Centre net, dropped a 5-4 decision in overtime to the Washington Capitals this afternoon, defenceman Mike Green taking advantage of confusion in the Montreal zone to whip home the winner at 1:27.

Not with a bang but with an OT winner by Washington defenceman Mike Green.

5-4 Capitals in a ding-dong game in which Canadiens blew a 2-0 lead, then fought back from 3-2 and 4-3 deficits to earn a point at the halfway pole.

When it was over, Carey Price sat at his cubicle waering a baseball hat, his white goalie pads and the doleful expression of a man-child who's had better days in his short career.

"I had to play better than that," Price candidly admitted. "The guys played hard in front of me. They earned a point."

Price was asked if rust was a factor. He hadn't played since the Dec. 23 Dallas Debacle.

"A little bit," Price said. "But that's not an excuse. There's no excuse for not being ready and not playing well."

There were scattered boos after Capitals' goals, and Price heard them.

"It's deserved," he said. "I wouldn't be happy if I was watching that.

"I got my chance and I blew it," Price added. "That's what's disappointing. Definitely we had a good game as a team. We should have won it."

"I don't think he had a good performance," Guy Carbonneau said of his goaltender, "but he's not the only one."

The coach said gaining a point was the only positive he could derive from a game in which his team stopped working after the first period, as had been the case against Tampa Bay.

"We talekd about it before the game, we talked about it after the first period," Carbo said. He lamented too many plays that were "lazy" and listed a litany of sins: "penalties in the offensive zone, not covering the guy, losing faceoffs."

Questioned about his decision to play the Kostitsyn brothers in OT, Carbonneau pointed out that five seconds before Green's winner, Andrei K had nearly converted a pass from his brother at the other end.

"I would have been a genius," Carbonneau noted, with chagrin.

• • •

Captain Saku Koivu, assessing the last 41 games, said there had been "a lot of good things" during the first half of the season.

"We've been pretty consistent," Kovu said. "We have a lot of young players, and their adjustmen has gone fairly well.

"But the first half is behind us and we have the same number of games in front of us. The real battle starts now, and every point counts."

With two games to play before Dec. 25, it might be too early to dust off the hoary "Christmas came early" cliché.
But you had to think that a fat guy with a white beard made a pre-emptive stop in Washington last night.
Your Montreal Canadiens scored on their 5th, 6th and 8th shots. By the time the chost Capitals built a 22-8 shots advantage, Canadiens led 3-1.
Good goaltending, a few lucky bounces and what the heck, the road trip starts with a W.
Last season't holiday road trip produced one win in four games. The season before it was one in five.
So to be 1-0 heading to Atlanta ... hey, we'll take it.

And there were some positives. Cristobal Huet came back very strong after a seven-game absence. Guillaume Latendresse had two goals and worked hard all night. Sergei Kostitsyn got the first goal of what should be a really good NHL career. Maxim Lapierre played another strong skating game.

It's a young team. Every win is a character-building exercise. So is every loss.
But as bad as things were in early December, maybe a Christmas swoon can be avoided this season.

Canadiens are sitting in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, one back of those amazing Boston Bruins. With the exception of Ottawa, no one looks capable of pulling away.
That early Christmas gift – two points Canadiens didn't deserve last night – could be crucial in early April.

Links updated at 6:58 am ET

Canadiens' Guillaume Latendresse (centre) celebrates the second of his goals with teammates.
Molly Riley, Reuters

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Guillaume Latendresse returned to the Canadiens lineup with a vengeance last night, and in so doing got his team’s six-game road trip off to a winning start.

Latendresse, a healthy scratch the past two games, scored his eighth and ninth goals of the season to help lift the Canadiens to a 5-2 victory over the Washington Capitals at the Verizon Centre.

Big marks, too, to goalie Cristobal Huet, who made 35 saves while making his first start in the last seven games. And a tip of the helmet to Canadiens veteran Mathieu Dandenault, who earned an assist in his 800th NHL game.

Latendresse got the Canadiens on the scoresheet first with a power-play goal at 18:15 of the first period, converting a pass from behind Capitals goalie Olaf Kolzig’s net off the stick of captain Saku Koivu.

At the beginning of the week, Cristobal Huet and Guillaume Latendresse weren't happy about not starting against Florida at the Bell Centre.

In Washington tonight, Latendresse scored twice and Huet made 35 saves as Canadiens began a six-game road trip with a 5-2 conquest of the Capitals.

It was a good night for the Kiddie Corps: joining Gui! on the scoresheet were Tomas Plekanec and Sergei Kostitsyn.

And Mark Streit's third-period clincher came off some industrious play by Kyle Chipchura.

A dozen Canadiens figured in the scoring, including Maxim Lapierre, who won a draw cleanly back to Gui1 for his second goal.

With a W in the bag, Canadiens have matched their total on last season's holiday road trip.

Next stop: Atlanta on Saturday night.