Paul Mara

• AUDIO: Jacques Martin | Brian Gionta | Michael Cammalleri | Roman Hamrlik

Michael Cammalleri returned to practice with his teammates today but will not play tomorrow in Toronto. Nor will rehabbing Marc-André Bergeron play tomorrow.

But coach Jacques Martin targets the return of both for the next week, the Habs embarking on an eight-day stretch that will see them play five games. Martin said he thought Bergeron could play Monday at home vs. Ottawa, with Cammalleri being evaluated daily.

Defenceman Paul Mara leaves Montreal this weekend for Boston and will undergo shoulder surgery next Tuesday, which pretty much spells the end of his season.

Mara has officially been listed as "did not dress" the past eight games and was listed as injured for 11 games before that. He is signed with the Canadiens only through the end of the season.

No words on Saturday's starting netminder. That should come during morning skate at the Air Canada Centre.

Gazette photo: John Mahoney

Over seven consecutive days, Pat Hickey and Dave Stubbs are introducing you to the seven new members of the Canadiens who joined the team during the offseason.

We began Saturday with Hickey's profile of Mike Cammalleri. On Sunday, Stubbs profiled Travis Moen. Yesterday, Stubbs looked at Hal Gill. Today, Hickey profiles Paul Mara, with the week continuing tomorrow with Jaroslav Spacek (Stubbs); then Brian Gionta (Hickey); and finally Scott Gomez (Stubbs).

Paul Mara invokes the words of American poet Robert Frost when he talks about taking “the road less travelled.”
Most young hockey players in the United States believe the road to the National Hockey League goes through a college campus. But when Mara was 16, he moved from a suburb of Boston to play for the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League.

“There aren’t many players from the Boston area who took the route when I took it,” said the defenceman, who signed with the Canadiens as a free agent in July. “In the mid-’90s, if you’re a high-school player, you want to go to B.U. (Boston University), B.C. (Boston College), Northeastern, Harvard. You want to play in the Beanpot.”

• Link here to today's profile of Paul Mara.

Three more weeks of training, but it will be tough to top this gem from Day One:

"Montreal has a better downtown than Buffalo, for sure ..." – defenceman Jaroslav Spacek, comparing the new place he plys his trade to the last one.

In a well-travelled career that has included stops in Chicago, Columbus, Florida and Edmonton the native of the Czech Republic has gained an appreciation of Canadien fans.

"They push me to do my best," Spacek said.

There were about 1,200 pushers on hand for the opening of training camp, including the heckler who bellowed "Gomez, you gotta wake up this year!!"

"Yeah, I heard him," Scott Gomez said. "He has every right to voice his opinion. That's what makes the fans great here. It shows you the passion.

Coach Jacques Martin said he would like to see his defencemen support the attack this season.

"Teams defend so well, there are few odd-man rushes," Martin said. One of the ways to create advantage is to have defencemen capable of becoming fourth attackers.

Martin repeated his "puck possession" mantra. He would like to see sound decision-making, tape-to-tape passing and a "shooting mentality", as opposed to excessively fancy playmaking.

Martin liked the work of all four goaltenders in today's game and singled out Guillaume Latendresse's physical play for praise.

The coach said given the number of new faces, training camp will afford the team an opportunity to forge an identity, which Martin hopes will be based "work ethic, commitment at both ends of the ice."

AUDIO: Scott Gomez  Paul Mara  Jaroslav Spacek  P.K. Subban  Jacques Martin (in French and English ... not a great recording ... hey, it's training camp)

Today's featured video: Paul Mara wears a microphone for a Rangers game. (Thanks, Xvache, for finding it.)

And today's featured shout-out is a hearty Happy Birthday to Harani, a great Canadiens fan who has contributed excellent Comments to Habs Inside/Out. As of today, she can legally buy a beer at the Bell Centre. You go, girl!

• Robert Sauvé, freshkly fired by Alex Tanguay, tells CKAC the Canadiens could have had François Beauchemin but chose Jaroslav Spacek instead.

• The Canadiens site has videos of Scott Gomez and Travis Moen "acting" (but, thanfully, none of Johnny Depp and Leo DiCaprio playing hockey.)

• Lions in Winter on the Tanguay schmozzle.

• Mathias Brunet, in La Presse, on why Ian Laperrière had no problem getting a contract at the age of 35.

• In The Hockey News, Ryan Kennedy writes about Rated Rookies, a Montreal clothing company that makes a "Die, Chara, Die" tee-shirt. The Milan Lucic model is next.

Today's featured attraction is another compilation from Watsatheo, this one featuring Paul Mara.

It was a tough call, because he (or she?) has done a nice one on Hal Gill, also. But Mara's includes a Darcy Tucker beat-down .... and a Michael Jackson classic.

• Video from the Canadiens web site of Scott Gomez, Mike Cammalleri, Brian Gionta, Travis Moen and Mara visiting the Brossard training complex. And some photos of the lads in their new unis, with Mara and Moen bookending the wee guys.

• Lions in Winter on Language and Hockey.

• The Globe and Mail's Stephen Brunt on Jim Balsillie and Eric Duhatschek on the Olympic Team.

• Jim Kelley of SI proposes new rules.

• William Scott Bowman only the seventh greatest coach of all time? Behind Don Shula? And Vince Lombardi? Really? And Red Auerbach won with only one great team, Bowman with three ... in three cities .... and he wasn't that shabby in St. Louis or Buffalo. I rate him 1-A with John Wooden.

• Five Who May Surprise includes Gomez, Gionta ... and Huet.

• From James Mirtle's web site, a list of Twitter accounts hockey fans should follow.

Paul Mara (left) and Travis Moen
Bruce Bennett/Victor Decolongon, Getty Images

Two new unrestricted free-agent signings – defenceman Paul Mara and forward Travis Moen – see the Canadiens as a way for them to challenge for the Stanley Cup. Both expressed eagerness yesterday to get to Montreal to get started. The two are the latest acquisitions of GM Bob Gainey, who has brought in seven and cut adrift 10 in less than two weeks, fully refacing the Canadiens for the 2009-10 season.