Komisarek

Canadiens defenceman Mike Komisarek will face two former teammates – Sheldon Souray and Mark Streit – and the human cannon Zdeno Chara in Saturday's Cisco NHL Hardest Shot contest, one event in the 2009 Honda/NHL SuperSkills competition.

Komo will also take on Shea Weber and Vinny Lecavalier in the contest.

Alex Kovalev is entered in the Scotiabank NHL Fan Fav Breakaway Challenge, while Andrei Markov will take part with his three Canadiens teammates in the Gatorade NHL Elimination Shootout.

Goalie Carey Price will play the first period for the Eastern Conference in Sunday's 57th NHL All-Star Game.

Story and Stubbs column from today's Canadiens practice in Brossard:

• Healthier bodies a pleasant dilemma for Carbo
• All-star Price ready to face NHL rubber

And some audio:

• Goalie Carey Price on being ready to return to action, and this coming weekend's All-Star Game in Montreal;
• Winger Christopher Higgins on his rehab, trade rumours (he's not happy with them, and makes that clear, but seems resigned to them in Montreal), and on cracking the lineup again. That's Maxim Lapierre, by the way, who cries out his love in the background;
• Defenceman Mike Komisarek on the frenzy of all-star week and on turning 27, which he did today without a pie in the face from Alex Kovalev;
• Head coach Guy Carbonneau on the newly healthy players for whom he'll have to find room, Price and the all-star game, and the character of a team that has won games of late that it probably had no business winning.

Audio gathered after this morning's Canadiens practice in Brossard:

• Defenceman Mike Komisarek expects to get medical clearance Thursday morning to play against the Flyers. The pause in the audio: Komo is ducking socks being thrown his way by Georges Laraque.

• Goalie Jaroslav Halak about the challenge of a not-huge goalie playing a team like the Flyers, with large guys crowding his crease.

• Centre Tomas Plekanec on being reunited with Alex Kovalev and Andrei Kostitsyn, and how the Canadiens must first improve as individuals before line combinations will have an impact.

• Head coach Guy Carbonneau. In English, and in French.

A not-serious shoulder injury, as it was first reported, will keep Canadiens defenceman Mike Komisarek on the sidelines for another month.

Komisarek has missed the past four games since he was injured fighting the Bruins' Milan Lucic in Boston.

More details to come.

From the Canadiens dressing room this afternoon after a spirited midday practice, the final practice (thankfully) before the team gets down to business Friday in Columbus and Saturday in Toronto:

• Christopher Higgins on playing with Saku Koivu and Alex Tanguay, etc.;
• Mike Komisarek on slow starts after a long break (remember Anaheim?), etc.;
• Josh Gorges on being rassled WWE-style to the ice by Koivu, and on being off the hook for a rookie dinner that can't be held without any rookies;
• Head coach Guy Carbonneau's daily briefing in English and French.

The Canadiens were in the gym today, having enjoyed a day off on Sunday with Tuesday through Thursday to prepare for back-to-back games Friday and Saturday in Columbus and Toronto. Some audio from the Bell Centre:

• Georges Laraque on the team, fighting and politics;
• Christopher Higgins, an American, on not voting in Tuesday's presidential election;
• Higgins countryman Mike Komisarek on the same election topic;
• Carey Price on the wild night on Long Island, finally a 5-4 Canadiens win, and more.

Defenceman Mike Komisarek returned to Canadiens practice in Verdun today after having taken yesterday off for treatment. Forward Christopher Higgins remained out, however, missing his second straight day. Higgins has been troubled by a wonky groin this training camp.

Guillaume Latendresse, in Higgins's place, was skating with Saku Koivu and Alex Tanguay. Kyle Chipchura was used in that slot yesterday.

No word yet on the waiver status of D Alex Henry and G Marc Denis. NHL clubs had until noon today to claim either. If they were untouched, they were headed to the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs.

Canadiens captain Saku Koivu faces the media today during the first day of his team's training camp.
Dave Sidaway, Gazette

The Canadiens began their 2008-09 training camp today with medicals and a plethora of fitness tests, and Inside/Out's Dave Stubbs and Mike Boone burned out their mp3 batteries (seriously, Stubbs did) to bring you the audio bonanza that follows.

No need to describe in a nutshell what the players have to say. You'll no doubt listen to every word. But all are insightful and a little something to slake your thirst before the Habs hit the ice in Pierrefonds on Saturday morning.

Here's who we met near the dressing room today:

• Captain Saku Koivu. Clip runs 15:45
• Alex Kovalev. 16:44
• Christopher Higgins. 14:48
• Mike Komisarek. 16:33
• Carey Price. 6:49
• Alex Tanguay (French and English). 6:59
• Georges Laraque. French runs 8:20
• Laraque. English runs 3:26

A few of your Canadiens snapped outside the Ferrari garage and in the Paddock Club during the Grand Prix of Canada on the weekend. We're betting that they didn't pay for a ticket.

And here's Mike Komisarek talking about the spectacle of F1 racing.

Canadiens defenceman Mike Komisarek hasn't wasted energy feeling sorry for himself during his rehab. He hasn't had the time.
Eliot J. Schechter, NHLI via Getty Images

Mike Komisarek clearly remembers being 100 per cent healthy this season.

“First game of the year,” the Canadiens defenceman joked, or didn’t, on Sunday during a 30-minute chat. “Since then, it’s just been a laundry list of bumps and bruises that are part of the game. Every player fights through things all season that few people beyond our training staff know.”

Today, Komisarek will lace up skates for the first time since a couple of awkward checks banged up his hip and knocked him out of the March 20 Canadiens-Bruins game in Boston, ending his consecutive-game streak at 196.

He'll work out on Bell Centre ice before his teammates practise for tomorrow's game in Ottawa, continuing to round himself back into shape to be in peak form for the playoffs.

“We feel the whole city behind us," Komisarek said of playoff fever that's sweeping through Canadiens fans. "But no one in that dressing room is content just making the playoffs. Now we want to make a big statement. A big splash.”

Read also Komisarek's take on the injuries that have touched his teammates of late, a product of players sacrificing their bodies with the playoffs on the horizon.

While we wait for news Monday about the Canadiens' limping wounded, defenceman Mike Komisarek will skate tomorrow for the first time since his March 20 hip injury suffered in Boston.

Komisarek said in a half-hour chat today that he's feeling good, mending all the bumps and bruises a rugged player picks up through a season, and guarantees he'll be ready to go for the start of the playoffs. Better than new, in fact, having gotten more rest and consumed a better diet than had he been playing.

Full stories here in the morning.

In keeping with an NHL directive that is supposed to prohibit teams from listing vague, sometimes fictional reports on a player's health, the Canadiens this afternoon said that defenceman Mike Komisarek is out of action with a hip injury.

The rugged defenceman left the Canadiens' game in Boston last Thursday after just four shifts, the injury rumoured to be to the groin or lower back, though the Canadiens announced it broadly as a "lower-body injury."

Tonight marks Komisarek's third consecutive game missed, the original prognosis calling for roughly a three-week absence.

The physical presence and leadership of Mike Komisarek will be missed.
Len Redkoles, NHLI via Getty Images

Canadiens defenceman Mike Komisarek is sidelined for three weeks with a lower-body injury suffered against the Bruins in Boston on Thursday.

Forward Guillaume Latendresse also won't play tonight in the Bell Centre rematch against the Bruins, suffering from neck spasms. Look for Bryan Smolinski and Steve Bégin to be in uniform, and Mark Streit likely pushed back to defence.

"Mike has a lower body injury, that's all I can tell you, and he's going to out a minimum of three weeks," head coach Guy Carbonneau said of Komisarek after this morning's game-day skate. "We hope that after two weeks we can evaluate him and go day-to-day after that, but it's going to be in that vicinity."

This will put Komisarek out of commission for the balance of the regular season and possibly the start of the playoffs. He's been enjoying a breakout season as a physical presence and a leader of the Habs on and off the ice, through 75 games having scored four goals and 13 assists with a +9 ranking, usually paired with Andrei Markov on the blue line.

This morning's NHL statistics have Komisarek leading all NHL defencemen in categories of hits and blocked shots.

Canadiens defenceman Mike Komisarek today will be named the Canadiens nominee for the Bill Masterton Trophy, an annual award under the trusteeship of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association and is given to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. The winner is selected in a poll of all chapters of the PHWA at the end of the regular season.

A grant from the PHWA is awarded annually to the Bill Masterton Scholarship Fund, based in Bloomington, Minn., in the name of the Masterton Trophy winner.

The trophy was presented by the NHL Writers' Association in 1968 to commemorate the late William Masterton, a player for the Minnesota North Stars, who exhibited, to a high degree, the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. Masterton died on Jan. 15, 1968, after an injury sustained during a hockey game.

Pat Hickey has this profile of Komisarek in today's Gazette, and see below for the Canadiens' release.

Canadiens sniper Alex Kovalev says the Canadiens must tighten up defensively and stop coughing up so many goals. And defenceman Mike Komisarek, used sparingly Saturday against Columbus, knows he's a better player than he's shown in recent games.

Canadiens defenceman Andrei Markov might be the Hab headed to next weekend's All-Star Game in Atlanta, but fellow blueliner Mike Komisarek is making a name for himself as a commanding physical presence. This is proving to be a breakout year for the big No. 8, among the NHL's league-leaders in hits and blocked shots and certainly the one Canadien you'd not wanting to be messing with.

Canadiens teammates Christopher Higgins and Mike Komisarek,  fellow Long Islanders, are featured today in the New York Times as the team prepared to face the New York Islanders in Uniondale.