February 20 will mark the day that the Calgary Flames will take on the Montreal Canadiens in the next Heritage Classic. The game will be played at McMahon Stadium and will be the first outdoor game to be played in Canada in seven seasons.

Flames president Ken King noted that the weather in Calgary can be unpredictable in the winter, what with the potential for warm chinook winds and other possibilities that could affect the ice in the outdoor venue. Nevertheless, it’s hard to contain the excitement for the event and King, for his credit, did say the organization had a “contingency plan.”

“You’ve got to be able to keep the ice in. What you want is a good mid-range temperature day. Let’s just assume we’re going to get a perfect day for a great game,” he said.

35,650 fit in McMahon Stadium for football games, but it is expected that extra seats will be added for the Heritage Classic.

“As everyone knows, the roots of our game are in Canada,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “And the roots of our game emanate from frozen ponds and backyard rinks in Canada. When you have a heritage as proud and as strong as we do, you want to celebrate it.”

The Habs will wear their current NHL jersey with a Heritage Classic patch, while the Flames will show up to the dance in retro jerseys honouring the Calgary Tigers.

The Calgary Hitmen will also get their own outdoor game this year at McMahon as they face off against the Regina Pats the day after the NHL’s Heritage Classic.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

Jaroslav Halak, the former Montreal Canadiens goalie, has signed a 4-year deal with the St. Louis Blues. The deal is worth $15 million.

Halak was acquired by the Blues last month in exchange for Lars Eller and Ian Schultz after the Habs decided not to go with the goalie who got them into Cup contention. In choosing Carey Price instead, the Canadiens had a lot of fans scratching their heads.

But now the 25-year-old Halak gets a shot at starting over and he seems downright pleased to have the chance in St. Louis. “I’ve been looking forward to playing in St. Louis ever since the trade was announced,” he said in a statement. “I believe in my abilities and hope to do some good things for the Blues.”

According to TSN, “Halak will earn $2.75 million in the first year of the contract, then $3.5 million in the second, $4.25 million in the third, and $4.5 in the final year of the contract.”

Halak posted a 26-13-5 during the regular season last year and was Montreal’s go-to guy for the post-season. He finished fourth overall in save percentage, posting a .940 and making good for ninth in goals-against average at 2.40. But it was his heroic efforts during the playoffs that put the improbable Habs in contention in the Eastern Conference far beyond where they deserved.

In any event, it’s good to see Halak getting the shot he deserves. Hopefully his play will elevate the Blues franchise so that they can take the next step as a hockey club by proving the Montreal Canadiens made a huge mistake.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

The Montreal Canadiens have traded goalie Jaroslav Halak to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for centre Lars Eller and Canadian junior right-winger Ian Schultz.

The move certainly settles the goaltending question in Montreal, as it’s clear that Pierre Gauthier has elected to stand by Carey Price. But it also seems somewhat strange, especially considering the goaltending performance Halak offered in the post-season. He was the key reason to the success the Canadiens were able to enjoy in the playoffs.

It is essentially a deal that puts long-term potential in front of rewards, though, and from that perspective it makes perfect sense. Gauthier went with the younger Price and sent Halak off to a club on which he’d see a lot of ice time, solving the problem of splitting the position in Montreal.

“I think they did the best thing they could do — keep one goalie and give the other one a chance to play most of the season,” Halak said. “It’s best for everyone that I was dealt and can start on a new beginning.”

St. Louis locked down Halak after telling goalie Chris Mason that he wouldn’t be signed to a new deal. GM Doug Armstrong was happy with the trade and wanted to ensure Habs fans that he didn’t get Halak for a mere song.

“When you look at the young defencemen and forwards we have, we feel we dealt for a young goalie who can fit in and grow with this team,” he said. “I think he’s excited to go to a team that will use him as a clear-cut number one. I think we gave up great value to get Jaro. It’s difficult for fans in Montreal because they haven’t seen Lars, but I think they’ll like him.”

The trade doesn’t change the fact that Halak is up for free agency on July 1 and that he has the right to arbitration if the Blues can’t sign him to a deal that works. Having earned $800,000 in the 2009-2010 season, it’s fair to say that Halak will probably earn a bit of a pay raise. The whole controversial offer sheet scenario could also technically come into play, so Halak’s future with the Blues isn’t set in stone just yet.

As for Price, he’s set to become a restricted free agent in the summer but he won’t be eligible for salary arbitration yet. He’s the top dog in Montreal now, whether fans like it or not, and Gauthier made no bones about his faith in the goalie by trading Halak. The only thing to settle now is who’ll back up the youngster. Gauthier has hinted towards scouring the free agent market for that position.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

Much to nobody’s surprise, the Montreal Canadiens and enforcer Georges Laraque have parted ways. The Habs have bought out the remaining year on Laraque’s contract, ending a relationship that has often been difficult for both the player and the hockey club.

Laraque had a year to go on his $4.5 million three-year deal. The buyout is worth $1 million and spreads out over the next two years, putting the Canadiens on the hook for a $500,000 cap hit each year.

Plans to buy out Laraque have been in the works since January of 2010. They had banished the popular enforcer from the team by then, stating that he had become something of a distraction. He was a part of the roster “officially,” but was not seen at games or practices for the rest of the season.

The plan in 2008 was for the Habs to add toughness, but when Laraque started to take away from the focus of the game through various incidents, it was clear that his impact was debatable. He rarely did the jobs assigned to him, dropping the mitts only sparingly, and became a problem to deal with for management and the coaching staff.

Many argue that the era of the enforcer is over in modern hockey and they may well have a point. The inability of Georges Laraque to become anything other than an enforcer speaks to his singular dimension as a player and the Habs, looking to add toughness in the right moments, were unable to find more use for him.

Laraque might find work on another NHL team soon enough, as some teams do still consider a role for an enforcer as an integral part of a successful franchise. But today’s enforcers need to do more besides drop the gloves, I think, and Laraque’s rare offensive success and his overall lack of speed may be more problematic than many purists would like to admit.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

The Philadelphia Flyers will face off against the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Flyers bumped off the feisty Montreal Canadiens in five games, finishing them off in style with a 4-2 victory on Monday night.

The Habs were climbing uphill throughout the whole playoffs, bumping off the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins in a pair of grueling playoff rounds that captivated the hearts and minds of the whole country. Unfortunately, the Canadiens ran out of gas against the Flyers and had difficulty putting the puck in the net, going scoreless in three of the series’ five games.

It was discipline that made things count over the long haul for the Flyers. Not only did the club author a history-making comeback against the Bruins, they took it to the Canadiens with an unproven goaltender. Philadelphia’s club snuck into the playoffs with a shootout victory in its final game of the regular season, but they sure as hell looked impressive throughout the post-season.

Before the 2009-2010 regular season started, many fans and pundits had picked the Flyers to go the distance. The club’s acquisition of Chris Pronger was, for many, a turning point in the history of the team that would push them back to the Cup. But injuries and sloppy regular season play soon changed the minds of many, while true believers stuck it out with their team until the ultimate payoff.

As for the Habs, they’ve got a lot to be proud of. Nobody expected them to make much of an impact this season. Questions in goaltending were constant, although Jaroslav Halak’s heroic post-season performance seems to have quelled the beast for now. Still, GM Pierre Gauthier has a lot of decision-making to do in the off-season and he’ll have to decide between Halak and Carey Price. Both are restricted free agents.

So while the Canadiens look to retooling and building on the momentum from the 2010 playoffs, the Flyers now look ahead to a tough challenge in the Chicago Blackhawks. The Blackhawks are a quicker team in a lot of ways and they, like the Flyers, have the ability to agitate their opponents while making them pay on the power play.

The series will be a tough one for the Flyers, but their legions of orange-clad true believers will be with them every single step of the way.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

As the NHL’s post-season rolls closer and closer to its finale, it looks like the San Jose Sharks and Montreal Canadiens could find themselves on the outside looking in. Both teams are one game away from elimination after action on Saturday and both teams have barely shown up to play thus far.

That’s not to say that their opponents don’t deserve any credit, of course. The Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers have played some excellent hockey over the last few days, but the Habs and Sharks haven’t exactly been clicking on all cylinders.

The Blackhawks find themselves in the surprising position of being able to sweep the Sharks on Sunday afternoon. Dustin Byfuglien was the hero of the day for Chicago fans after potting the overtime winner on Friday to give the Blackhawks a 3-0 series lead. To say that the Sharks have had trouble containing him and his teammates would be an understatement, as Captain Serious Jonathan Toews has lead his team as well as any young captain ever has.

Chicago’s Antti Niemi has been spectacular in goal, too, making 44 saves in Friday’s game to help his team to victory. He’s been able to get a fairly good look at the puck throughout the series due to responsible and physical play from his defencemen.

The Sharks will now try to find some strength in the story of the Flyers and their comeback from a 3-0 series deficit, but it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see two of those historic turnarounds in one season’s playoffs.

The Flyers, meanwhile, have been successful in handling the attack of the Montreal club. They’ve also received incredible goaltending from Michael Leighton and have managed to take advantage of some bad luck from the Canadiens, including a skate issue with Josh Gorges that led to a Claude Giroux goal during Saturday’s contest.

The Flyers took a commanding 3-1 series lead thanks to Saturday’s 3-0 win and managed to keep the Habs off of the scoreboard for the third time in the series.

Of course, the Canadiens and their fans will be relying on the fact that they’ve gone 5-0 when facing elimination in the post-season thus far. Statistically they stand a better chance at coming out of this than the Sharks do, but they’re facing a tough and hungry Flyers team and they’re in tough offensively.

It’s probably a little early to start gearing up for a Blackhawks vs. Flyers Stanley Cup Final, but I don’t think it’s that unlikely.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

Montreal Canadiens defenceman Andrei Markov won’t be able bail his team out of trouble any time soon. The club announced on Wednesday that he underwent successful knee surgery, which is the good news. The bad news for Habs fans is that one of the team’s top defenders will be missing six months of action.

Markov did take a light practice skate last week, but it turned out that he suffered a tear of the anterior cruciate ligament of his right knee.

Markov suffered the injury in a collision with Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguins during an April 30 playoff game.

The defenceman hasn’t had the best of seasons for the Canadiens, going through quite a bit of bad luck throughout the regular season only to have it continue in the post-season. Markov suffered a cut tendon on his left foot in the very first game of the year and was out of action until December 19. He made it back in time to join the Russian team for the Olympics.

Perhaps predictably, the peanut gallery of many sports websites features commentary about Markov’s injury prone nature and how he lacks heart (see the CBC Sports article on this injury for proof). While it’s never surprising to see hockey fans bail on players and teams at the slightest hint of adversity, the critique of Markov is pretty hollow.

In any event, the Habs will and do miss Markov’s presence on the blueline. He is an elite player in the National Hockey League and most Habs fans will have to agree that the timing on this could not have been worse.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

The Montreal Canadiens looked slightly better in their Tuesday night effort against the Philadelphia Flyers, but they were still unable to crack Michael Leighton and wound up being shut out again 3-0 to go down two games in the series.

As of now, the Eastern Conference Final looks like a shockingly one-sided series.

Leighton made 30 saves in Tuesday’s effort and became only the second goalie in Flyers history to notch two back-to-back shutout performances. Only Bernie Parent has had back-to-back shutouts for the Flyers and when he blanked the Maple Leafs in 1975, Philly went on to win the Cup.

Leighton’s put the Flyers two wins away from heading to the Stanley Cup Final, but the series now moves to Montreal and the Habs should be raring to go in front of their home fans. It’s still an uphill climb, but they’ve got a big chance to make a go of it on Thursday.

Strangely, the Canadiens are actually 0-5 in the post-season when the manage to outshoot their opponents.

Another problem for the Habs lies with special teams. They’ve really struggled against the Flyers’ power play, with Danny Briere and Simon Gagne both scoring goals on the man advantage on Tuesday.

The main problem for the Canadiens will be confidence going into Game 3. They’ll need to prove early that they can still put the puck in the net, even if Leighton is playing like a man possessed. With the Flyers goalie seeing every shot well, the Habs know that they’re main order of business has to be that old cliche: traffic to the net.

All the old hockey cliches in the world won’t be able to help the Canadiens if they can’t scrape together a few goals, however, and that has to be first and foremost on the minds of the coaching staff as they prepare for the next game.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

Here is your Eastern Conference Final matchup:

Philadelphia Flyers vs. Montreal Canadiens: It is a series that could not be a more direct contrast to the series in the Western Conference Finals. Out West, the two top seeds are meeting in a decisive series. Out East, however, it’s the two lowest seeds and that makes the Flyers the lowest seed in NHL history to have home ice advantage in the post-season. Mere rankings alone make the Habs the underdogs in the series, but some analysts consider them to be heavy favourites going in.

The season head-to-head record is 2-2 and both finished the regular season with 88 points. The Flyers finished 41-35-6, while the Canadiens left off their regular season with a 39-33-10 record. The Flyers haven’t been to the Stanley Cup Finals since 1997, while the Habs haven’t been there since their 1993 Cup victory. Philly hasn’t seen a Cup since 1975.

The Flyers are the more physical team here, although the Canadiens should give them fits in the shot-blocking department. Nobody has blocked more shots than the Habs in this post-season. In fact, nobody’s even close to Montreal in blocking shots. The Flyers also have the weaker goaltender, going with Michael Leighton in lieu of the injured Brian Boucher. The Habs are, of course, riding the Jaroslav Halak train and will hope to do so right to the end of the line. The Flyers lack the offensive punch of Montreal’s previous two victims, too, and they could struggle putting the puck past them on the PP.

My Prediction: Canadiens in 7.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

With the Pittsburgh Penguins favoured by many to take the Cup once again, the Montreal Canadiens proved the better team as they finished the defending champs off in a thrilling seven game series. The series concluded with a 5-2 victory from the Habs on Wednesday night.

The Canadiens have proven to be the most exciting team to watch in the entire post-season thus far. First they took out the President’s Trophy-winning Washington Capitals in seven games and now they’ve put away last year’s victors in another captivating full series that saw a heroic performance from Jaroslav Halak in goal that will go down in history.

Part of the reason for the success of the Habs against the Penguins was the containment of Sidney Crosby. Crosby was mostly playing against Montreal’s Hal Gill for the series and when the big defender was on him, Sid the Kid was kept quiet.

“I’m not going to sit here and complain about playing Stanley Cup finals and Olympic gold-medal games,” Crosby said. “That’s a good problem to have and you have to deal with it. There are times when it is a grind and you have to deal with it. By no means is that any excuse or any reason for anything. I would never blame that on anything. Those are great things to be a part of and you have to find a way to still produce and be successful.”

The game marked the last game of Pittsburgh Penguins hockey to be played in the Mellon Arena, too.

But for Montrealers, it was all about the victory and all about moving on to the next round. The celebration in Montreal was spectacular, but there’s still a sense of the destiny of this year’s Habs being unfinished. The Canadiens have proved surprising so far, at least for those who didn’t know this was going to happen all along, but the road ahead is still long.

“We have some special guys on this team,” Mike Cammalleri said. “It’s been a lot of fun to be part of … but we’re only halfway there.”

It’s worth noting that many analysts wrote the Habs off entirely in this post-season. The team came into the playoffs in the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference and was expected by many to be a mere warm-up for the Capitals, but they used their small size and speed against the Washington team and pulled off the victory.

They put the same plan to work against the Penguins and isolated the star players with solid defensive play. With Halak to rely on in key moments, the Canadiens were then able to chip away offensively and worked the games down low. The plan didn’t always work, but when it did the Habs were effective at putting the puck in play and popping in a few important, decisive goals.

So now Montreal (and all of us) will have to wait to see what happens when the Philadelphia Flyers face off against the Boston Bruins for a historic game seven of another kind altogether.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.