Montreal Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens announced they acquired forward Phillip Danault from the Chicago Blackhawks via trade Friday.

The Canadiens also received a 2018 second-round draft pick from Chicago in exchange for forwards Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann.

Montreal general manager Marc Bergevin was an assistant GM with the Blackhawks when the team selected Danault with the 26th overall pick in the 2011 NHL draft.

"Phillip Danault is a young and gifted player who will be part of our core group of young forwards for many years to come," Bergevin said in a statement Friday. "I am very pleased to have him join our organization.” 

Arpon Basu of LNH.com believes Danault will make an immediate impact:

The Habs can put Philip Danault in their lineup right away. I don't think anyone expected them to get that between now and Monday. I didn't.

— Arpon Basu (@ArponBasu) February 27, 2016

Corey Pronman of ESPN.com gave his assessment of the player the Canadiens acquired:

https://twitter.com/coreypronman/status/703416682778333186

Montreal will pay 30 percent of Weise’s remaining salary, according to Chris Peters of CBS Sports. He and Fleischmann will both become unrestricted free agents in the summer. 

The Blackhawks are second in the Central Division at 38-20-5 and added the veterans Weise and Fleischmann a day after acquiring Andrew Ladd from the Winnipeg Jets. Chicago also acquired Christian Ehrhoff from the Los Angeles Kings on Friday, per SportsCentre.

Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times noted the Blackhawks are putting a premium on the present over future with their trade activity over the past two days:

Man, #Blackhawks really going all-in for this year, but giving up a fair amount of future pieces in the process. I liked Danault.

— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) February 27, 2016

The Blackhawks may be sacrificing their future with the moves they’ve made ahead of Monday’s trade deadline. But by doing so, they have enhanced their chances of winning their second consecutive Stanley Cup title and their fourth in seven years.

Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban is known for his kindness off the ice, but one of those gestures took an unfortunate turn Sunday.

According to Jordan Heck of Sporting News, Subban accidentally hit a one-month-old baby in the head while tossing pucks to fans at the Bell Centre in Montreal during an open practice Sunday. Heck passed along a Facebook post (in French) from the mother, who said her baby suffered a concussion from the blow and was taken to Montreal Children's Hospital.

Heck noted the baby is expected to make a full recovery.

The team visited the baby Monday, and Heck shared a quote from Donald Beauchamp, the Canadiens' vice president of communications, (via a translation of TVA Nouvelles): "Members of the organization went to meet the family on Monday morning. The players feel quite involved in an event like this. Whenever possible, they always try to be cautious when launching a puck into the stands."

While this one did not turn out as planned, this isn't the first time Subban has made headlines for an act of kindness. In September, Montreal Children's Hospital announced the Canadiens defenseman would donate $10 million to the hospital over seven years.

Subban is arguably the team's best player on the ice, having tallied a career-high 60 points last season with 15 goals and 45 assists. He also posted a plus-21 rating, per ESPN.com, which was the best mark of his NHL career. This year, Subban is in the midst of another impressive campaign with 46 points on five goals and 41 assists.

As a defender, he is always looking to push the puck into the offensive zone and set up his teammates for scoring opportunities. As of Monday, his 41 assists ranked fourth in the league.

The All-Star won the 2012-13 James Norris Memorial Trophy as the NHL's top defenseman and leads the Canadiens in points this season.

At 28-27-5, Montreal is outside the Eastern Conference playoff picture and needs a late-season surge. Subban likely offers his team its best chance at that with his leadership and sustained dominance.

DENVER — Not five minutes had passed since P.K. Subban had finished saying nobody with the Montreal Canadiens was pointing any fingers at anyone else over their monumental, ongoing meltdown. Then, Subban's coach, in two languages no less, pointed the finger solely at him over their latest loss, 3-2, to the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night.

"As a coach, I felt he could have had a better decision at the blue line," Montreal coach Michel Therrien said. "He moved the puck behind, and he put himself in a tough position."

In his native French tongue, Therrien's words cut sharper against his top defenseman, as longtime hockey writer Richard Labbe of La Presse translated, "A selfish play that cost us the game tonight."

In a 2-2 game with time running short in regulation, Subban did what Subban normally does. He tried to make an offensive play with the puck, cutting to his left after gaining the Colorado blue line.

Unfortunately for him, one of his skates did not take to the softer, late-game Pepsi Center ice, giving way and causing him to tumble into the boards without the puck. Seconds later, the puck was in the Montreal net, with 38-year-old Jarome Iginla tapping home Mikhail Grigorenko's crossing pass.

Trailing the play, along with Subban, was Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty. Subban stood and faced the media after the game. Pacioretty did not. Therrien talked with the media, but a few feet away, Canadiens' bearded general manager, Marc Bergevin, paced grimly back and forth, avoiding reporters' glances.

It has turned into one big muddled mess in Montreal. Everyone among the huge, passionate Canadiens fanbase has a blaming finger to point at someone over a season that started with nine wins in the first nine games. Only two other teams in NHL history have started seasons with records of 9-0 or better (Toronto in 1993-94 and Buffalo in 2006-07; both 10-0), and they each made it to the conference finals before losing.

Montreal would become the first to not make the playoffs at all after such a start, and the fans want someone to pay.

"I've never seen the fans of the Montreal Canadiens as upset as I have in the last couple of months," Tony Marinaro, a veteran radio talk-show host with TSN 690 in Montreal and host of the Montreal Forum, said. "A lot of fans thought this might really be the year that the Stanley Cup returned to Montreal, and instead, they probably are not going to make the playoffs. It's been stunning, really."

Who is to blame? Who should be held accountable for a team that was 9-0 and 13-2-1 after the first 16 games but has gone 14-25-3 since?

Blame the $8 million-a-year Subban and his league-leading 85 giveaways, some say. Blame captain Pacioretty for not showing enough leadership, including his ducking of the media in Denver.

Blame Therrien and his conservative coaching philosophy, others say. After Wednesday's loss, "#FireTherrien" was a top trending topic in Canada on Twitter, according to Trendsmap Canada. Blame GM Bergevin for not anticipating potential weaknesses should injuries strike and for giving Therrien an undeserved blanket vote of confidence for the rest of the season while speaking to the media prior to a Habs game on Dec. 28.

The one thing everyone in Montreal can agree on: The continued, lengthy absence of Hart and Vezina Trophy goalie Carey Price to injury has been catastrophic. He is not only the Canadiens' best player but their most calming presence on and off the ice.

Price has not played since Nov. 25, after a Habs win over the Rangers that improved their record to 17-4-2.

Nobody expected the Canadiens to be as good once Price went down. Nobody expected everything to get this bad, either.

After the loss to Colorado, Bleacher Report asked Subban whether any chemistry problems had developed in the Canadiens dressing room.

"I don't think that's it, no," Subban said. "Obviously, there's going to be a lot of people dissecting everything in the room and on our team because we're losing, you know? But in this dressing room, we're not pointing fingers at each other. We know we all have to be better."

Irony came when Therrien singled Subban out minutes later. Not only did he call Subban's play "selfish" and the difference in the outcome, but he benched him for the final two minutes and three seconds after Iginla's goal.

Subban, mind you, is the Canadiens' leading scorer with 44 points. That set the fans flocking to Twitter and Internet message boards to vent their grievances at anyone and everyone associated with the Habs organization.

As Marinaro tweeted after the game:

10am can't come soon enough #TSN690 https://t.co/UpcJAoIwVq

— Tony Marinaro (@TonyMarinaro) February 18, 2016

Subban said he just flat-out "lost an edge" on the losing goal.

"Going down the wall, I had full possession and I crossed over and just lost an edge and went down. It doesn't happen to me too often, but it sucks that it's the winning goal," Subban said. "If I don't lose an edge, I take it down the wall and probably create something...but it doesn't really matter. You've got to get the puck in deep."

It was too late to get a follow-up reaction from Subban to Therrien's comments. One can be sure the large Montreal hockey media contingent will be camped out at his locker at the next availability, however.

As someone who watches every game, Marinaro said there is plenty of blame to go around, starting with Bergevin, who he said on the air recently "was a top-three GM in the National Hockey League last year but has been a bottom-three GM this year."

"If you take a look at his body of work in the last calendar year, he's made some real bad moves," Marinaro said. "They've gotten terrible goaltending since Price went out, so he didn't address that.

"Mike Condon wasn't good enough, and by the time he decided to make a move for another goaltender, he got Ben Scrivens and he hasn't been earth-shattering, either. He got Alexander Semin as an unrestricted free agent and then bought him out very early on.

"He traded Brandon Prust for Zack Kassian, and Kassian never played a game for the Montreal Canadiens."

Marinaro said Therrien shouldn't get any passes, either, saying he didn't adjust his team's style enough to compensate for Price's absence.

"They really didn't have another system to fall back on. They played every game the same way, and that was 'Price stands on his head, we get a 1-0 lead and try to shut it down, and if we get another goal, the other team knows there's no way they can score three goals on Carey Price,'" Marinaro said.

"When they fell behind 1-0 or 2-0 without him, they didn't know how to adjust. They never modified their system, never tweaked anything. One of my biggest beefs about the Canadiens, even when they had Price, was that they played 82 games the same way every year."

Nick Kypreos, a former player who's now an analyst with Sportsnet, has been shocked at how far and how fast the Canadiens have fallen.

"Everything has gone south," Kypreos said during Wednesday's Hockey Central at Noon. "It hasn't just been losing Carey Price, but special teams, putting the puck in the net...they lack any type of gumption. They lost all their confidence. It was like the perfect storm [of] going south."

The storm may still be gathering.

Adrian Dater covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him, @Adater.

Montreal Canadiens center David Desharnais injured his foot while blocking a shot in the team's 6-2 loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Feb. 15. It's unclear at this point when he'll return to the ice.

Continue for updates.

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Latest on Desharnais' Playing Status

Friday, Feb. 19

The Canadiens announced that Desharnais will miss three weeks with a broken foot.

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Desc arnais a Solid 2-Way Contributor for Canadiens

Desharnais, 29, has scored nine goals and added 17 assists in 57 games this season. His production and ice time are down in general this year, as his average ice time has decreased by roughly one minute per game and he is minus-six on the year after finishing plus-22 in that regard last season.

While he may yet meet last season's scoring pace (14 goals), it's unlikely he'll get anywhere near his impressive 34 assists from the 2014-15 campaign. 

Desharnais had been showing nice chemistry with Max Pacioretty and Sven Andrighetto, so this injury will be a setback as that trio attempts to grow more comfortable together.

Though the injury doesn't appear to be serious, the Canadiens will be hopeful that further tests confirm as much as the team tries to make a late push for a playoff berth.

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.

The Montreal Canadiens (23-18-3) are hoping a return to the road will help them get back on track in the first of two games against Central Division opponents, when they visit the St. Louis Blues (25-15-7) on Saturday.

The Canadiens find themselves as small 23-20 road underdogs (+115, bet $100 to win $115) at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark versus the Blues, who are 20-27 home favorites (-135, bet $135 to win $100) and looking to win for the third time in four games.

Montreal is coming off a 2-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday as a, 11-10 (+110) home underdog and will be visiting the Windy City in a rematch at the United Center on Sunday.

However, first the Habs will take on a St. Louis team that will be playing the third game of a four-game homestand after splitting the first two against the New Jersey Devils and Carolina Hurricanes.

The Blues are 14-8-3 on home ice this season and surprisingly lost to the Hurricanes, 4-1, on Thursday, with goaltender Brian Elliott making 21 saves before giving way to rookie Jordan Binnington in the third period. Binnington, a third-round pick of St. Louis in 2011, stopped three of the four shots he faced in relief.

Center Jori Lehtera tallied his fifth goal of the year for the team’s lone score, marking the third straight game he has notched a point.

The Canadiens are 11-10-1 on the road and have really struggled overall since the beginning of December. They are just 4-14 in their last 18 games, according to the Odds Shark NHL Database, with three of the wins taking place in their past seven.

Offense was a problem for Montreal during its recently completed three-game homestand, as the team scored only four goals and lost twice. The total went under in all three games and is 11-5 in the team’s previous 16.

Fortunately for the Habs, they are playing an opponent they have enjoyed some success against recently. They have won the past three meetings, with each of them decided by three goals.

The Blues had won the previous five games between the teams, two of which took place at home. Montreal won the most recent meeting at the Scottrade Center, 5-2, last February 24 and followed it up with a 3-0 home victory on October 20.

Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price has been on the shelf since November and will not return this season.

Continue for details.

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Price Shut Down for Remainder of Season

Wednesday, April 6

The Canadiens announced Price will not play in any of the team's remaining games after discussions among the team and its medical staff.

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Price Comments on Recovery

Friday, April 1

Price told Sportsnet's Arash Madani that there's no timeline for his return, but he hopes to return by season's end. Price added that he doesn't have full range of motion but is hoping to play for Team Canada in the World Cup of Hockey.

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Latest on Price's Practice Status

Thursday, March 31

John Bartlett of Sportsnet passed along word that Price was participating in Montreal's morning skate, his first practice since suffering the injury.

Carey Price skates in full equipment https://t.co/xvYteTcx22 pic.twitter.com/W1LzC45pB3

— theScore NHL (@theScoreNHL) February 29, 2016

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Bergevin Comments on Price's Playing Status

Thursday, Jan. 21

Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin said Price is progressing slower than expected and could remain out between another three weeks and a month, according to John Lu of TSN. 

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Condon's Play Has Eased Blow of Price's Absence

Mike Condon has been solid in Price's absence with a 20-25-6 record, a 2.72 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage, but Montreal has fallen to seventh place in the Eastern Conference's Atlantic Division with 78 points after a red-hot start to the season.

Price has appeared in just 12 games this season, as he was out with a lower-body injury prior to aggravating it in November.

The Vancouver, British Columbia, native has been fantastic in limited playing time, though, with a 10-2 record, 2.06 goals-against average and .934 save percentage.

He was even better in 2014-15, as his 44 victories and minuscule 1.96 goals-against average earned him the Vezina Trophy and the Hart Trophy as the NHL's best goaltender and most valuable player.

Price often masked some of the Habs' flaws last season, and they have been far more apparent without him in the lineup in 2015-16.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

A game between the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins doesn’t generally need profound storylines or even the spectacle of an outdoor game to be compelling.

Friday’s contest between the two clubs had both, with the surging Bruins and faltering Habs duking it out in front of more than 60,000 people for first place in the NHL’s Atlantic Division.

Announced crowd is 67,246 today

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) January 1, 2016

It was a chance for Boston to establish itself as the divisional power after a controversial summer and tough start to the year, and a chance to twist the knife into a Montreal team that squandered much of its fine work early in the year with a brutal December.

Instead, the Canadiens delivered a statement with a 5-1 victory. Montreal isn’t going to meekly fade away. There’s fight left in this team.

It’s easy to overstate the importance of any single regular-season game, and it’s worth remembering that this win gives Montreal the same two points that any other win would have. Having noted that caveat, there’s also something to be said for taking away a division lead from a historic rival in front of a massive audience both at the game and on television around North America and the world.

The way the Canadiens won is important, too.

Montreal dominated early, building up a 3-0 lead and controlling puck possession. Boston went 15 minutes between shots in the first period, and early in the second, NBC’s broadcast team noted a 12-0 edge in scoring chances for the Habs.

Not only did the Canadiens control the game early from an analytics perspective, but they also did the gritty things that convert shots and scoring chances to goals.

That 3-0 lead was built entirely on goals scored from point-blank range, as Montreal’s small forwards charged the net. From 5’7” David Desharnais to 5’8” Paul Byron to 5’9” Brendan Gallagher, the Canadiens’ forwards showed that it isn’t necessary to be big to win battles around the crease.

Gallagher, who hadn’t played since November, was an important addition for Montreal. He showed his grit on the 3-0 goal and his skill on an assist on a pretty 4-1 goal by Max Pacioretty.

Even before he had a point, though, NBC’s Pierre McGuire was proclaiming his importance to the team. “He makes the Canadiens instantaneously better because of his courage,” McGuire said. It’s a quality which was reflected throughout the Montreal lineup on Friday.

Another absence that has badly hurt the Canadiens during their slump is that of 2014 Hart Trophy winner Carey Price.

Mike Condon has struggled filling in for the star goaltender but was tested in the back half of the game and came through with shining colours. A last-second save on Ryan Spooner in the second period was perhaps pivotal in preventing a Boston comeback.

https://twitter.com/myregularface/status/683036636976918528

That combination of quality goaltending and converting on shots has been a long time coming for Montreal.

Reflecting on the then-upcoming Winter Classic in late December, Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty described it to NHL.com’s Arpon Basu as an opportunity to show the hockey world that Montreal could succeed even without Price:

That's a big stage and people are going to have their opinions about our team and the way we play. We've got to get some confidence going before that and hopefully going into that game it would be nice to show the world what we're capable of and the way we're capable of playing. People who don't watch our games are going to assume we're a one-player team, but if you look at 5-on-5 scoring chances, you look at shots and offense generated, and we've been up there every game. To not have the results is definitely frustrating, but we want to show people what we're capable of doing and that is definitely the main stage to do so.

It’s safe to say that the team obtained its objective, and now the task will be to build off this performance and not allow it to be a one-off victory. This December slump has put Montreal’s command of the Atlantic in peril, and the coming months will be about rebuilding the club’s lead on first place.

Improved goaltending is one reason for optimism. Condon didn’t just make big saves. He had perhaps his best game of the season, with his .964 save percentage being the best mark he’s managed in any 60-minute game.

For the short term, he’s finally going to have some competition for starts in the form of newly acquired goalie Ben Scrivens.

That duo just needs to hold the fort for a few more games, as general manager Marc Bergevin recently told Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette that Price would be back in mid-January.

Gallagher’s combination of fire and finishing ability will be a boost to the forward corps, too. His quality as a player is well-established, but what he showed in the Winter Classic is that he’s ready to help immediately.

He’s not going to take weeks to recover his scoring touch, and he’s not going to show any hesitation going to the tough areas of the ice. One game into his return, he’s already back to being the kind of player he was before getting hurt.

Montreal’s ready to turn the page on a tough month, to show that it is a top team in the Eastern Conference and a credible threat for the Stanley Cup.

The team’s performance at the Winter Classic was the best possible start to those efforts.

Now it’s just a matter of following through.

Statistics courtesy of NHL.com.

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.

Montreal Canadiens star P.K. Subban checks in on his way to the Winter Classic at Gillette Stadium against the Boston Bruins.

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Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price aggravated a lingering knee injury on Nov. 25 against the New York Rangers and faces a multiweek recovery timeline, but he will not require surgery to repair the damage. 

Continue for updates.    

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Price Comments on Status 

Tuesday, Dec. 15

"I am feeling well just to get the elephant out of the room. The time line remains the same to return," said Price, per Brian Wilde of CTV, who added the goalie confirmed surgery wouldn't be needed. 

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Price's Recovery Timeline Revealed

Monday, Nov. 30

The Canadiens announced Price will "be out for a minimum of six weeks" with a lower body injury, adding the goaltender will not require surgery.

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Price's Injury Issues Reportedly Stem from October Warm-Up

Sunday, Nov. 29

"This all began on Oct. 29 in Edmonton," Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said (h/t Ian McLaren of the Score). "Price stepped on a puck in the warm-up, and all the injury problems have come from there."

McLaren noted Price played in that game before his first absence with the injury.

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Price Placed on Injured Reserve

Thursday, Nov. 26

John Bartlett of Sportsnet reported the roster move.

"We don't know how long Carey will be out but for us it's business as usual. We're focusing on tomorrow's game," Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien said, per the team's official Twitter account. 

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Mike Condon Replaces Price

Wednesday, Nov. 25

Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports confirmed Price was taken out of the game in favor of Condon. 

Dan Rosen of NHL.com reported the injury was the same as the one Price suffered earlier this season. Rosen noted the goalie wouldn't play Friday, but wasn't scheduled to anyway, and Price's status is unknown going forward. 

Hockey writer Ryan Biech had footage of the injury:    

https://twitter.com/ryanbiech/status/669700409104031744

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Price Vital to Canadiens' Hopes 

This is a difficult setback for Price and the Canadiens if the 28-year-old is forced to miss significant time, especially since he dealt with injuries earlier in the season.

The four-time All-Star is well-established as one of the top goaltenders in the league, and he is fresh off an incredible 2014-15 campaign. He won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league’s Most Valuable Player and the Vezina Trophy as the top goalie in the NHL. He also led the NHL with 44 wins and posted a save percentage of .933 and a goals-against average of 1.96.

With his extensive postseason experience and his incredible 2014-15 campaign, Price was one of the main reasons the Canadiens had Stanley Cup title aspirations heading into the season.

Fortunately for Montreal, backup goaltender Condon filled in admirably for Price earlier in the season when the starter went down with injury. The team got off to a red-hot start, and Condon looked comfortable between the pipes for a championship-contending group.

Montreal will likely ask the 25-year-old to shoulder the load again until Price returns.

The Montreal Canadiens and Marc Bergevin, the team's vice president and general manager, agreed to a contract extension through the 2021-22 season, the team announced Wednesday. 

“Marc is an excellent general manager who quickly made an impact in the league with his leadership skills and his ability to identify the needs and find the personnel to assemble a championship team," said Geoff Molson, the team's president. "I am very pleased with his work and the results he has achieved since his appointment as general manager."

Bergevin, 50, took over as the general manager in May 2012. After missing the playoffs in the 2011-12 season, the Canadiens have reached the postseason in three consecutive campaigns and finished with 110 points in the regular season last year, second only to the New York Rangers (113). It was the second year in a row the team eclipsed 100 points. 

Expectations are now high for Bergevin and the Canadiens, though the general manager is hardly resting on his laurels. As Pierre LeBrun of ESPN wrote Tuesday:

But I can tell you one thing about Bergevin: He is among the more active GMs in the league again this season in terms of reaching out to his fellow GMs around the league. And he does so in a very methodical way, every single week talking to a number of teams just to catch up and stay informed on where those teams are. He tries never to go more than three weeks without circling back to almost every team.

That diligence has certainly aided the Canadiens to this point. It appears that the team is in good hands and should continue to be a contender for years to come with Bergevin at the helm.