A Okay in Habs Land

The Habs keep on rolling. The derailing of playoff rivals Philadelphia Flyers marked the end of the Flyer's 10 game point streak. The game also marked Price's 2nd shutout in 4 games, while allowing just 3 goals in the other two games. However, its been more than Carey Price enjoying games that end in the famous triple-five.

Tomas Plekanec has been in the spotlight all season long after signing a new contract and being the preseason scoring leader. He hasn't disappointed one bit. He has been scoring points and helping his team in the faceoff circle, but it goes farther than that. He is a game changer. He features the best skill set since before Saku Koivu ran into his injury problems. That doesn't begin to cover his smart hockey mind. The biggest difference, however, is noticeable when he is on the bench. The 20 minutes he is on the ice features a far different attitude than the other 40 minutes. Sounds like a few ghosts of Canadiens past, doesn't he?

He has had some help though. Early in the season, it seemed he found a winning combination with Cammalleri and Kostitsyn. However, it seems as though the winning combo is just Plekanec and Cammalleri. They both maintained top line production, and were successful in getting Brian Gionta started. Since joining with his current linemates, Gionta has been putting up captain-worthy numbers for the first time since the playoffs.

But that doesn't mean Kostitsyn hasn't remained solid. While his production has dipped down a little bit, he has been very successful in waking up Scott Gomez. This is the first time in a long time that we have seen Gomez put forth 100% effort and get things done.

With an offense and a good powerplay kicked into gear, it is about time the defense has settled down. While there is no one identity to it like there is for most defenses, there is still six meshed identities. Some are more aggressive and some are more passive, but they are getting the job done and are turning into a solid unit. Even with the recent trade of O'Byrne(who didn't help very much anyway) and the scary injury to Andrei Markov, Habs fans still have a reason to be confident in the depth of the defense.

So what is the outlook for the Habs this season as a whole? It is looking very, very good. The team looks solid from all perspectives, and there is a chemistry with the team that never had a chance to develop last year. Add that with more confidence and a bring-it-on attitude means that there is only one question left to ask.

What will happen when this team meets a lot of adversity? And no, Markov being injured doesn't count.

This article was written by Benjamin Twain. Check out Canadiens at www.canadienszone.com for all the latest Canadiens news updates, pregames, post games, trade rumors, lineup changes, player profiles, videos and much, much more.