Guillaume Latendresse

Earlier today, I visited the Minnesota Wild dressing room where Guillaume Latendresse was the centre of attention from the assembled media - lots of them.

To read what he had to say, go here.

• Maxim Lapierre is in good shape but still feeling a little discomfort after summer surgery to clean up his right ankle (that part's not on the audio). He spent a month in Ottawa doing some high intensity training with Canadiens' new strength and conditioning coordinator Lorne Goldenberg.

• Guillaume Latendresse, who worked out with Lapierre in the nation's capital, appears to be in superb shape. He jokes that he and Lapierre, with Georges Laraque the only francophones on the team, will be enlisting a few English-speaking players on the club to learn French to give the trio a break with the francophone media.

We're 36 days into free agency, and Mathieu Dandenault is still looking for work.

In La Presse, Mathias Brunet looks at Dandy's dilemma and points out that five other Canadiens' UFAs remain unsigned: Alex Tanguay, Robert Lang, Mathieu Schneider, Francis Bouillon and Patrice Brisebois.

Tell me again: How good was the team Bob Gainey blew up?

To be fair, players of a certain age carrying a significant price tag are going to have a tough time in the current market. The unsigned list includes Todd Bertuzzi, Mike Comrie, Petr Sykora, Brendan Shanahan, Miroslav Satan, Emmanuel Fernandez, Philippe Boucher, Denis Seidenberg, Mike Grier and Chris Chelios.

Oh yeah, and a certain big Swedish centre who looked very attractive a mere 12 months ago.

• You read it here first: Patrick Eaves will have a career renaissance in Detroit. Ken Holland doesn't make many mistakes.

• Pat Hickey on the Phoenix mess.

• Watsatheo Theatre: Guillaume Latendresse highlight reel, Tomas Plekanec laying out James Sheppard and Rick Nash with nifty hip checks.

• From the Canadiens site, Brian Gionta likes country music (Carey will have company). Favourite Seinfeld character: Kramer.

• Will the Sharks make a trade? Good analysis from San Jose blog.

• The NY Post's Larry Broooks dissects the Nikolai Zherdev situation.

• The terrific Lions in Winter site has a look back at Gary Leeman's contribution to the 1993 Cup win.

• Stephen Brunt on Gary Bettman.

• James Mirtle on the Islanders' problems.

• Russian journalist interviews Alexander Ovechkin, whose voice is hilariously dubbed into English.

• Today's featured video: We'll miss you, J.R.

• TSN has unearthed a video of Red Fisher talking to Dave Hodge about the Canadiens' move from the Forum to the Bell Centre. It's in colour. And there's sound! And U2!!

• Stephen Brunt on the mess in Phoenix. How about they just fold, hold a dispersal draft and send Shane Doan to the Canadiens?

• The Hockey News Fantasy Poooler doesn't think much of our new-look team. He rates the Canadiens a C+, down from A- a year ago.

• Lions in Winter, a Canadiens blog we really like, has interesting pieces on Guillaume Latendresse, Jaroslav Spacek and the genius of Scotty Bowman.

• Robert L. writes about a Canadiens' prospect with a funny name.

• Big shout-out today to the blogger's muse. The bodacious barrister is getting married this morning – not, as she would have liked, at centre ice of the Bell Centre with 21,273 singing Here Comes the Bride, but in the wedding pavillion of Disney World. Warmest congrats to the awesome avokitten of Section 301 from all of us (and one of us in particular) at Habs I/O.

Willy Latendresse is indeed in uniform here at Scotiabank Place.

Hopefully he and older brother Olivier (also here) will get to play together - Mom and Dad will be bursting with pride - the culmination of 15 years of getting up at the crack of dawn to drive one, or both, to practices.

OK, bag the groin pull jokes.

This isn't funny anymore.

The latest victim: Alex Tanguay. He joins Alex Kovalev, Georges Laraque, Roman Hamrlik and Patrice Brisebois.

Guillaume Latendresse is hampered by a hip problem.Robert Lang and Christopher Higgins are also banged up.

Your Montreal Canadiens, who skated through the 2007-'08 season with no significant injuries – are being decimated in training camp.

The lineup (subject to change after morning skate) for tomorrow night's Bell Centre game against the Senators: 

jaroslav Halak and Marc Denis

Shootout hero Andrei Markov, Ryan O’Byrne, Josh Gorges, P.K. Subban, Alex Henry, Yannick Weber

AK46, SK74, Tomas Plekanec, a recovered Kovy, Max Pacioretty, Ben Maxwell, Gregory Stewart, David Desharnais, Matt D’Agostini, Steve Bégin, Max Lapierre, Tom Kostopoulos

The Pleks-Kovy-AK46 line will be back together tomorrow night. SK74 will play with Max-Pac and B-Max.

The Canadiens most potent line has been broken up – at least to start the exhibition season.

When the Canadiens take on the Boston Bruins Monday night in Halifax, Tomas Plekanec will still have Andrei Kostitsyn on his left wing. But coach Guy Carbonneau says Sergei Kostitsyn will play RW on the line.

Has Alex Kovalev been placed on waivers?

Of course not. Kovy will make his exhibition season debut Wednesday night in Detroit, Carbo  said, with the linemates who joined him at this morning's practice: Robert Lang and Guillaume Latendresse.

Another new line that Carbonneau will try Monday: Prized acquisition Alex Tanguay with two rookies: Ben Maxwell and Max Pacioretty.

This is what training camp is for. Carbonneau, an inveterate line-tinkerer, can really go to town.

Guilaume Latendresse will be coming to camp with wings on his skates.

OK, that might be a slight exaggeration.

But his stride looks fluid in that souvenir photo, and Gui! spent time this summer at skating school. Paul Lawson, a friend of Trevor Timmins who coached at the Canadiens development camp, worked with Latendresse and his brother Olivier, as well as Pavel Valentenko and Cody Hodgson,who was Vancouver's first round draft choice.

Latendresse, who's been a father for eight weeks, also did some off-season work on diet and nutrition.

•  •  •

Hawks coach Denis Savard told Marc De Foy of the Journal de Montréal that Guy Carbonneau will like Robert Lang. 

Savrd describes Lang as "low-maintenance" – a desirable quality in cars and hockey players. 

"He's easy to coach," Savard added. "Carbo will like him. He's a good guy who never caused me any problems.

"He can give the team 50 to 60 points. Plus, he understand the game." 

Savard also said Vancouver and Toronto were interested in trading for Lang before Bob Gainey scooped him up.

Maïka Desnoyers (that's her  in the pic), Guillaume Latendresse's partner, gave birth to the couple's first child on Saturday morning.

Hayden Latendresse weighed six pounds, eight ounces.

The proud parents are young – Latendresse turned 21 in May, Desnoyers will be 22 in September –  but she told the Journal de Montréal  they're ready for the adventure.

"This doesn't scare us," Desnoyers said. "We're past our stage of going to bars. We're two serious people and our relationship is going super-well.

"This is a normal step in our relationship. We're happier than ever."

Desnoyers, who represented Quebec in the 2006 Miss Universe Canada contest, is a real estate agent.

The couple chose the name because they wanted something different.  Desnoyers said they had a short list, but when they saw the baby's face she and Latendresse knew Hayden would be right.