[bigboydan]

Forwards
* Sakic Koivu is still uncertain how his eye will do during training camp. He is having trouble with peripheral vision. It is unknown whether Koivo will start the season.

* The Canadiens signed left wing Sergei Samsonov over the summer. Samsonov scored 23 goals and had 30 assists over 74 games with the Boston Bruins and Edmonton Oilers. He will certainly add more speed to the Canadiens.


Defense
* The defensive corps of the Canadiens is still intact with Francis Bouillon, Mathiew Dandenault, Andrei Markov, Craig Rivet, Sheldon Souray and Mark Streit.


Goaltending
* Christobal Huet had an outstanding season last year, posting an 18-11-4 record with seven shotouts. His goals against average (GAA) was 2.20 and he had a .929 save percentage. Maybe that’s why the Canadiens offered him a 2-year, $5.75 million contract June 26th.

* The Habs acquired David Aebischer from Colorado for struggling goaltender Jose Theodore. Huet will probably get the start just to see how steady he really is.

[xxx]

all eyes and talk are on 18 year old Guillaume Latendresse, a local product who is having a great camp. The spotlight is away from players like samsonov who is having a bad camp. It's his second camp with the big club (had an amazing camp last year and was cut to his junior team) and telling him to go to the minors again might hurt him. The local paper had a pool and 75% of voters want this kid to start the season with montreal.

[xxx]

Montreal will be without its d-man Francis Bouillon who has an knee injury till november. He is a big part of the montreal defence and this can hurt them in the beggining of the year. I expect them to make a waiver wire pickup to get a veteran who can help because their really thin at that position.

[bigboydan]

Thats not going to help Montreal chances at all this year. I feel there gonna have another up hill battle to make the playoffs as it is.

[xxx]

Patrick Traverse was claimed of waivers. Nothing serious here.

[xxx]

mike ribeiro for janne ninimaa. Finally, ribeiro out of montreal, he could'n keep pace with kovalev and samsonov during training camp. if healthy, ninimaa will see lots of power play action and bring back some stability in defense.