by Chris G, Senior Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine

LAVAL, QC. — The Canadiens returned from their Christmas break with a 5-3 win against the Panthers on Friday night, before losing 6-5 against the league leading Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.

Montreal finishes 2018 with a visit in Dallas on Monday night to face the Stars. Then they head home to host the Canucks on Thursday and on Saturday, P.K. Subban and the Nashville Predators will be at the Bell Centre.

Here are my top 5 takes of the week:

1. 1. 1. Price on IR – Carey Price left early from practice on Thursday morning with a lower body injury and didn’t travel with the team to Florida. “It’s an injury that’s been kind of lingering a little bit, more of an irritation anything else that we’ve managed for the last couple of weeks,” said Claude Julien prior to Friday’s game in Florida. We don’t know with certainty when and how the injured occurred, but  my suspicion is that it happened during the October 15th game against the Senators, when Brady Tkachuk jammed his stick into Price’s pad before scoring. Price went down awkwardly and at the next television timeout, he was seen at the bench being examined by the trainer. This is the ninth time since 2015-16 season that Price is on injury reserve, with more than one of those instances being nothing more than a simple flu while four of those times were reported as a lower body injury. This is the first time that I’m declaring myself to be concerned about Price’s ability to remain healthy.
      2. Transparency – Angela Price gave birth to the family’s second child on Thursday night, which gave some fans reason to conjure up silly theories claiming that Carey was not injured at all. They falsely claimed that the Canadiens used the injury story as a cover allowing Price to remain with his wife for the birth of their child. If the intention was to hide the birth of his daughter, why would Angela post it on her Instagram account the next morning? Several players across the NHL have missed games in the past due to the birth of their child or other family reasons. Just this Sunday, the BlueJackets announced that Nick Foligno will be out indefinitely as he will be with his daughter during surgery on Monday. I also think that the organization knows how sensitive the fan base is about an injury to their goalie, so I would think that there would have been a bigger chance of them trying to hide an injury than the birth of his daughter.
      3. Niemi not looking sharp – After having a good season last year with the Canadiens, the same can’t be said about Antti Niemi‘s 2018-19 season. Niemi has allowed at least three goals in all of his ten starts this season, and in three of those games has allowed at least three goals. In comparison to last season, Niemi also allowed at least three goals in a game ten times, but this was in a span of 20 starts. The backup goalie’s role is to give his team a chance to win, and Niemi hasn’t done that this season. If the Canadiens are serious about trying to make it to the playoffs, they need to upgrade their backup goalie. There have been suggestions that Marc Bergevin look outside the organization to fill that need, but I’m in the opinion that Charlie Lindgren should be given the opportunity once he’s healthy from his injury. A couple of starts with the Rocket once he’s given the green light from the medical staff and Lindgren will be ready, in my opinion, to be Price’s backup.
      4. Buyers or sellers? – It’s that time of the season where the talk of trades will begin with trade deadline coming up on February 25th 2019. The action started on Sunday as the Oilers completed two trades. Prior to the start of the season, most experts and fans thought that the Habs would be sellers at the deadline, but with them currently battling for a wild card spot, I would assume that Marc Bergevin won’t be selling at the deadline. That being said, I don’t also expect him to make a big acquisition at the deadline either. The Canadiens biggest need right now is for a left defenseman and that won’t need won’t be resolved at the deadline. As of right now, I’m expecting Jordie Benn to be traded by the deadline since he’s in his final year of his current contract. Beyond that, I expect only minor moves.
      5. Habs 2018 moment – With 2018 coming to an end, I wanted to look back and find my favourite Habs moment of the calendar year. Unfortunately, there wasn’t many to choose from. My choice happened the night of April 3rd 2018, the final home game of the 2017-18 season. During the first television timeout, a 90-second video was played to congratulate Carey Price on becoming the winningest goalie in franchise history. The crowd cheered and roared for their goaltender. “It was definitely an emotional moment for myself, I didn’t expect it to be. That video and that ovation were something that I really needed. I’m really thankful, and I really appreciated that,” Price said after the game. “Through all the hard times that we’ve gone through this year, to have the crowd stand up and show their appreciation really meant a lot to me.” At times last season, I believed that Price wouldn’t be with the organization for much longer, but that moment convinced me otherwise.

Leave your comments below. I am looking forward to interacting with all of you.

Happy New Year!