Saku Koivu

Saku Koivu was absent from practice in Verdun this morning.

The early word on Koivu is he's having a treatment day but the club hasn't said what he's being treated for. He didn't play during the OT last night.

Koivu missed most of training camp with a foot injury he sustained playing in Finland during the summer.

In the absence of No. 11, Christopher Higgins centred Alex Tanguay and Guillaume Latendresse this morning

Audio:

• Brisebois on Chicago's firing of Denis Savard;
• Laraque on fighting;
• Carbo on Savard and players coming back.

•  •  •

Canadiens have sent Kyle Chipchura to the Bulldogs.

The team announcement:

Forward Kyle Chipchura has been assigned to the AHL Hamilton Bulldogs. He will report to Hamilton tonight.
Last season, the 22-year old centreman compiled 11 points (4 goals, 7 assists) and 10 penalty minutes in 36 games with the Canadiens. He finished the 2007-08 campaign with Hamilton, posting 21 points (10 goals, 11 assists) and serving 27 penalty minutes in 39 AHL contests.

Chipchura did not dress for any of the four games the Canadiens have played this season.

Yesterday we posted an image from pratice and asked for your thoughts on whether or not Saku Koivu beat Carey Price with his move.

In this photo, the next one in the sequence from our photographer, you see the end result of the play.

Congratulations to all those of you that got it right.

Not-yet-captain Saku Koivu takes a breather during the 1996-97 season, his sophomore year in the NHL. He was voted captain by his teammates on Sept. 30, 1999.
Denis Brodeur, NHLI via Getty Images

This could be an historic season for the Canadiens and their captain Saku Koivu.

Expectations are high for the club in their centennial season, having won the Eastern Conference championship last season and gone two rounds deep in the playoffs.

This is the ninth season (10th, including the lockout of 2004-05) that Koivu has worn the captain's C, second in service only to the great Jean Béliveau. And it's a contract year for Koivu, with no guarantee that he'll be back with the club next year.

The 33-year-old native of Turku, Finland sat alone on Wednesday with The Gazette's Dave Stubbs at the Bell Centre, a day before the Canadiens broke training camp, for a 45-minute talk, on and off the record, about his past, present and future with the Canadiens.

Here is nearly 30 minutes of their conversation and the feature that runs in today's Gazette.

At practice in Verdun on Thursday, Saku Koivu went in alone on Carey Price, with the veteran forward putting the moves on the young goaltender.

We're going to try something a little different here today. The next picture in the sequence, which shows whether or not Koivu manages to put it past Price, will be posted on Friday before the game against the Sabres.

For now, we want to know what you think: Does Koivu score or not?

Post your comments here and visit tomorrow to find out if you were right or not.

Georges Laraque was the first casualty of camp, suffering a slights groin injury that the team says is not serious. We will update the situation as we find out more.

Also, captain Saku Koivu was kept out of the afternoon scrimmage as a precaution as he continues to mend a foot injury.

The usual suspects – 110%, the Journal de Montréal – have slammed Saku Koivu for missing the Canadiens golf tournament.

In The Gazette today, Dave Stubbs slams back. 

"Come April," Stubbs writes,"when the Canadiens expect to be setting off into a long playoff run, fans (and media) won't probably care much whether Koivu carded a birdie or a double-bogey on Sept. 2 at Laval-sur-le-Lac.

"A captain's leadership on and off the ice means more than reading a green.

"That Koivu didn't shoulder his golf bag will be a dozen Canadiens controversies, real or manufactured, in the past. And merely a footnote next to his unrestricted free agency next summer, when you'll wonder whether a man who, indeed, is in the line of great Canadiens captains will decide whether a change of address might not be a bad thing."

Canadiens captain Saku Koivu had been in a prolonged slump before scoring a pair against the Maple Leafs on Saturday night, and they couldn't have come at a better time, The Gazette's Pat Hickey writes.

WIth the team's Christmas party being held on Sunday and Koivu's parents in town to watch the game, Captain K timed his goals perfectly.

"It's big, there's been a lot of talk about (the slump), but it's even bigger that we got this win at home," Koivu said. "It's not just the two points; it's the way we played. We played a good 60 minutes defensively. We brought that good road game to home ice and it worked."

The Gazette's Pat Hickey writes from Ottawa that Canadiens captain Saku Koivu had a few near misses in Ottawa on Saturday, some luckier than others. The first near miss resulted in Andrei Markov's goal when the puck took a Habs bounce right to the defenceman at the blue line for a one-timer.

There was disappoitment in the third period when Koivu came in on Senators goalie Martin Gerber, but was unable to beat the netminder with a backhand that went off the post.

And then there was the near fight with Patrick Eaves. Despite dropping the gloves, neither player received a fighting major and that kept Koivu's record unblemished. Throughout his NHL career, the Finnish player has never received a fighting major.