Montreal Canadiens Centennial Season in Review

Starting their Centennial season on the road with a 2-1 shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres, the Canadiens meet he Toronto Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre and prove their potent offense early and often with a convincing 6-1 blowout win.

The Canadiens would go 2-0-1 to start the season on the road.

After going 8-0 against their rivals from Boston in 2007-2008, the Canadiens start off the season series with a 4-3 shootout win against the Bruins.

However, it would be Montreal's only win against the B's, who would then string off 11 consecutive victories against the Canadiens.

After leading 1-0 over two minutes into the game against the New York Islanders, the Canadiens surrendered two goals in the first and then two more in the second to go down 4-1.

Cue the comeback, when, in the third, Tomas Plekanec scored 7:48 into the period, followed by another goal over two minutes later, followed by the tying goal by Christopher Higgins five minutes later, all capped off by Alex Kovalev's game winning goal over a minute later to cap off a tremendous 5-4 comeback victory.

In a malestorm of Boston Bruins offense, Milan Lucic drops the glove with Mike Komisarek which not only puts the Canadiens bruising defenseman out for a while, but also electrifies an already electric TD Northbank Gardens crowd.

The Canadiens lost 6-1.

In November, the Canadiens went to the shootout five times, losing three of five, including to the top seeded Bruins and the lowest seeded Islanders. The Canadiens would go 7-7 in the shootout and 4-4 in overtime.

The most notorious overtime loss came March 12, when the Canadiens lost to the lowly Islanders again in overtime on a somewhat weak Kyle Okposo wrist shot that fooled Carey Price. The Habs were booed off the ice once again by the Bell Centre faithful.

Montreal's woes with injuries begin as Alex Tanguay separates his shoulder during a December 30 game in Tampa Bay. Carey Price also goes down to injury pressing backup Jaroslav Halak into service in which he goes 6-3 down the stretch of January.

Later on February 1, Robert Lang severed his achilles tendon ending his season with the Canadiens as their leading goal scorer at the time.

The Canadiens, injured, limped on through the rest of the regular season.

Once a Hab, Mikhail Grabovski steals the show January 8 with a show on Bell Centre ice during a 6-2 Canadiens win. Having enough of losing that night, Grabovski and former teammate and countryman Sergei Kostitsyn mix it up, try to fight, but are denied.

When Grabovski is denied access to a fight by the linesman, he pushes the linesman away and kicks ice at him. Realizing he's gone for the game, Grabovski skates off the ice and gives a peace sign to the crowd, which many think was him flipping the crowd off.

Both Grabovski and Kostitsyn get 10 minute misconducts while Grabovski is suspended three games for his abuse of the linesman.

The return of former Canadien Mathieu Schneider is an immediate boost in the arm of the Canadiens powerplay.

Schneider's first game back in a Canadiens uniform since the mid-1990s is a 4-3 shootout loss to the Washington Capitals, though Schneider picks up his first assist in bleu, blanc, et rogue.

Schneider would pick up his first goal back with the Canadiens the next night in Pittsburgh on the powerplay. Schneider would score five goals and add 12 assists for 17 points in 23 regular season games for Montreal, while only amassing 15 points in 44 games previously with Alanta.

The Canadiens powerplay picked up dramatically as all five of Schneider's goals came on the powerplay, including a game winning, overtime goal over the Philadelphia Flyers on February 27.

The Canadiens also picked up Glen Metropolit off waivers to add more depth at the center position.

Amidst turmoil that owner George Gillette is selling the team, Vincent Lecavalier is heading to Montreal, the Kostitsyn brothers are part of a drug ring, and the constant injuries plaguing some of the Canadiens, March proves to be the most difficult month for the Canadiens.

The Habs go 5-5-5, losing games and points that they should have won, such as on March 12 against the Islanders. Bright spots include a 4-3 overtime win over the Edmonton Oilers as well as a 3-2 overtime win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in which Saku Koivu provided the winning goals.

Yet, the main focus in on the coaching change. After concluding a western road trip with a 3-1 win in Dallas, Guy Carbonneau is fired as head coach and replaced by general manager Bob Gainey.

The move comes as a surprise to many, since the Canadiens had seemingly come out of the their post-All-Star slump, going 6-3-1 since the arrival of Mathieu Schneider.

Those games included a 3-2 win over the President Trophy winning San Jose Sharks and a 3-0 blanking of the Vancouver Canucks.

However, Gainey takes the reigns and the Canadiens stumble through March and manage to stay in the race to the end.

With only four games to go in the season, the Canadiens are hit hard by the Toronto Maple Leafs, despite rolling over their longtime rivals 6-2. Both Mathieu Schneider and Andrei Markov are hurt in the win and are likely gone for the season and playoffs.

However, Schneider makes a miracle comeback, yet is not 100% for the rest of the going as the Canadiens finally stumble their way into the post-season with only one point in their last four games, enough to earn them a ticket to a first round rematch dance with the Boston Bruins.

The Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens switched spots in the 2009 Stanley Cup Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals. While the Canadiens were the top dogs in 2008 and Bruins were banged up, the Canadiens could not do what the Bruins had done to them the year before.

The Canadiens had life early in the series until a penalty late in Game 1 by Josh Gorges sealed the Canadiens fate as they rolled over and lost Game 2 5-1, Game 3 4-2, and Game 4 4-1, being outscored by a combined total of 17-6.

Alex Kovalev, Chris Higgins, Yannick Weber, and Andrei Kostitsyn were the only Canadiens able to beat an average Tim Thomas as the Canadiens couldn't compete with the faster, bigger Bruins.

Despite a first round sweep, the Canadiens may be a entirely different team in 2009-2010, with a long list of free agents, both restricted and unrestricted.

The Centennial season did not go as well as planned but the Canadiens legacy will never dim or die. It is here to stay. Now it is time for the second century of Montreal Canadiens hockey history to begin.