Robert Lang

Robert Lang celebrates one of his 18 goals scored in 50 games last season.

Robert Lang, whose season was ended prematurely last season by a sliced Achilles tendon, has agreed to contract terms with the Phoenix Coyotes contingent upon his passing a physical.

I always enjoyed listening to what Lang had to say in the dressing room in Montreal – a learned guy with a great insight into the game. He certainly was one of the team's most pleasant surprises before he went down in a collision along the Bell Centre boards vs. Boston on Feb. 1.

Every fan should torch their horizontal-striped barberpole jerseys to rid the team of that curse; Guillaume Latendresse blew out his shoulder in the same game, wearing that same gruesome sweater.

Here's hoping that Lang, who was injured when he was leading Canadiens scoring, will land on two strong feet in Phoenix. He deserves to be playing in the NHL.

Saku Koivu – Our Captain. The 34-year old Finn is a stalwart of leadership, determination and perseverance. He’s battled through adversity both on and off the ice. He deals well with fans and with the media. He’s made Montreal his home. Unfortunately, he is also a reminder of our failures and our short-comings. We’re an under-sized team and during his tenure, we haven’t made a convincing run in the playoffs.

Saku’s best numbers were in 2006-07 when he notched 22 goals and 53 assists for 75 points. He also had a +/- of -21.
Critics point out that he’s not getting any younger and he’s never been the big number one center that we need. In Koivu’s defense, he’s never claimed to be.

If Gainey doesn’t ink Koivu – and we don’t trade for Lecavalier – then who do we sign to replace him? We could go after Henrik Sedin, but he’s a package deal with Daniel. The purported salary demands of the twins don’t appear exorbitant, but 12-year deals? That’s a long time.

...Robert Lang is skating in equipment, shooting the puck, and he's wearing a grin a mile wide. Andrei Markov is on Bell Centre ice, as well, both guys firing on Concordia goalie Maxime Joyal.

Canadiens centreman Robert Lang is cast, so to speak, as a rehabilitating Hab on Tuesday at the Bell Centre.
John Kenney, Gazette

DAVE STUBBS
The Gazette

Here are five good things that have happened recently to hobbled Canadiens centreman Robert Lang, who’s been out of action since Feb. 1 with a severed Achilles tendon:

• He’s not set one foot in Montreal snow – “I go from my garage at home to the Bell Centre garage to the garage at the Brossard rink.”

• He’s not put on weight “because I’m watching my diet, just trying to keep it a little bit trim.”

• In a foot-to-mid-shin plastic cast, Lang has reduced his amount of laundry (not that he does it), “only getting one sock dirty at a time.”

• He’s avoided virtually every household chore – “I’m semi-dependent on my wife and everybody else. I’ve basically gotten out of everything because I’m a self-proclaimed cripple,” he joked. “I may keep the cast in the closet for awhile (after he’s fully healed).”

• And with no effort of his own, he’s become only the second-oldest player on his team, 18 months younger than relative fossil and friend Mathieu Schneider, the newcomer and former Detroit Red Wings teammate who turns 40 in June.

Robert Lang is helped off Bell Centre ice Sunday afternoon by Graham Rynbend, the team's head athletic therapist.
Christinne Muschi, Reuters

Robert Lang's first season with the Montreal Canadiens is over.

The announcement:

Forward Robert Lang underwent successful surgery to repair a severed Achilles tendon on his left leg. The 38-year-old forward is presently recovering from surgery and will be out indefinitely.

Lang suffered the injury during the third period of Sunday afternoon’s game against the Boston Bruins, at the Bell Centre. He was transferred to the Montreal General Hospital where surgery was performed on Sunday night.

Lang leads the team in goals and power-play goals, with 18 and eight, respectively. His 39 points are second to Andrei Markov's 40.

Lang's career has been characterized by consistency – 20 goals or more in seven of the last nine seasons – and durability, even into his late 30s: 76 games last season in Chicago, 81 the year before in Detroit.

Robert Lang's 10 goals lead the Canadiens headed into tonight's Bell Centre game against the Buffalo Sabres.
André Ringuette, NHLI via Getty Images 

Robert Lang might or might not have seen Friday's greeting taped up by a fan in the windows overlooking the Canadiens' practice rink in Brossard, three squares of cardboard inked in heavy black:

"Happy Birthday/Robert/20." That would be Lang's uniform number, of course, not his age.

The Canadiens' most senior player turned 38 Friday, and that's not merely a politically correct way of defining the centreman's years. Simply put, Lang is playing much younger than his birth certificate.

For those who think that Robert Lang was just the consolation prize in the sorry Mats Sundin Sweepstakes, think again. Lang is leading the Canadiens in scoring, and he's a precious commodity on the ice and in the dressing room who quietly is proving to be a fine acquisition for a team that grew wearing of waiting for you-know-who to make up his mind. Here's Stubbs's take on Lang, who tonight plays in his 905th regular-season NHL game.

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.

How do you spell relief?

OK, maybe not L-A-N-G. But no one is going to miss the Sundin soap opera, which dragged on way past its best-before date.

Let us rejoice. This was a good week for your Montreal Canadiens.

Patrick Roy, Robert Lang, Patrice Brisebois ... all good moves.

And to top it for the guy who signs the cheques, George Gillett was in the director's box at Anfield today, watching Liverpool beat Manchester United 2-1.

•  •  •

OK, I'm flip-flopping on Roy. When his number was first mooted as a retirement candidate, I thought Roy's method of leaving the team disqualified him for the honour.

I was wrong.

Robert Lang: He and Alex Kovalev made beautiful music together in Pittsburgh in 2000-01.
Bill Smith, NHLI via Getty Images

DAVE STUBBS
The Gazette

The Canadiens’ 11-week, casually serious courtship of free agent Mats Sundin last night reached the dead end most expected it would when the club announced the acquisition of centreman Robert Lang of the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Canadiens also announced the re-signing of veteran defenceman Patrice Brisebois to a one-year deal.

Montreal sends a second-round, 2010 draft pick to Chicago in exchange for Lang, 37, that selection acquired in July from the Toronto Maple Leafs with defence prospect Greg Pateryn for forward Mikhail Grabovski.

Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey said on a conference call that Sundin, an unrestricted free agent, no longer is on the team’s radar.

The deal for Lang, who will earn $4 million in 2008-09, moves along the strategy the team had developed as it waited for Sundin to make some kind of decision on his NHL future, assuming the fence-sitting Swede chooses to have one at all.

“It’s not been a rollercoaster at all,” Gainey said of the team’s pursuit of Sundin, a view probably not shared by those fans who have figured the former Maple Leafs captain was a lock to come here, given the Canadiens’ exclusive, if brief, negotiating rights for him secured in June and subsequent simmering discussions.

Cue the Stones:

You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes well you might find
You get what you need 

I like the move.

Lang is big, good on faceoffs and a righthanded shot. He and Kovalev played well together in Pittsburgh.

And as the pic suggests, he has the kind of dark, brooding good looks that have been missing since José Theodore was traded. 

Robert Lang isn't Mats Sundin. But as that sorry soap opera has played out, maybe Plan A was never meant to be.

Canadiens enter the season with three solid centres  and brisk competition between Maxim Lapierre and Kyle Chipchura for fourth-line duty.

Pat Hickey, on the DL rehabbing his new knee, says "Once again, the Canadiend prove to be masters of the late Friday afternoon news release.

"Now, I'm hoping that every team runs out of money and the Swede has to sign with Atlanta or the Kings. This is a good deal which turns out to be Mikhail Grabovski for Lang and prospect Greg Pateryn. Hope people focus on that and not harp on Gainey letting another one get away." 

Robert Lang doesn't make the Canadiens the powerhouse that Sundin would have.

But like Mick says ...

And let's add a Stephen Stills line:

If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with ... 

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

And the Mats Sundin story gave Canadiens fans something to talk about through the dog days of summer.

Yogi Berra said it ain't over till it's over, but he was a baseball guy.

When a hockey man like Ol' Velcro Lips says he's "not optimistic" about signing Sundin – as Bob Gainey did yesterday at Guy Carbonneau's golf tournament – you know that the Rubenesque soprano is clearing her throat and approaching the microphone.

Which brings us to Plan B. The Canadiens still need a centre – preferably a big lug who can win faceoffs.

Jean Béliveau is too old to come out of retirement, so any suggestions? 

Eric Engels at Hockeybuzz likes Michael Nylander as a possible acquisition. 

A terrific analysis by Daniel Tolensky.

And the new kid on the blog, freelance journalist Arpon Basu, has launched his Daily Hab-it by making a strong case for Robert Lang (that's him in the picture, channeling Colin Farrell.) 

More later.