Morning Skate

Some morning news and notes...

Before getting into the details of the Canadiens/Leafs contest last night, the most important news of last night - Andrei Markov is out for 3-4 months with a severed tendon in his leg. The Habs playoff chances just took an enormous hit.

Can they stay afloat with Markov out? That's 64 points gone - and there best defenseman by a mile. A defensive corps of Josh Gorges, Hal Gill, Paul Mara, Jaroslav Spacek, Ryan O'Byrne, and presumably Yannick Weber is...bad.

Don't forget, he's also arguably Russia's best defenseman. With the Russians thinking gold-medal, this injury could have a big affect on the Vancouver games, as well. He should be back in time for the Olympics, but you never know.

A big hit for the Habs and possibly the Russians.

.........

The Habs pulled out the win in Toronto last night in a game that's play wasn't very indicative of the score. Here's some things I took away from the game:

Ron Wilson wasn't kidding - Tomas Kaberle is a lot quicker. It was noticeable in the pre-season and especially last night. He's Toronto's best player - make no doubt about it.

Carey Price looked great. His movements were in control, and his rebound control, although still not perfect, looked much better.

Will "The Monster" be in between the pipes for Toronto in their next outing? Toskala had a very vanilla outing.

Viktor Stalberg looked just as good last night as he did in the pre-season. This guy's a player.

Mike Komisarek needs to tone it down. Toronto can't have him taking five penalties for a total of 15 minutes.

Why are Hal Gill and Paul Mara on the same defensive pairing?

...........

Alex Ovechkin - two goals, one assist last night. Backstrom three assists. Yikes!

...........

Hats off to the Avs for bringing home a victory on Joe Sakic's big night. Sakic was a class act and one of my all-time favorites.

..........

Ryan Callahan was named the lone alternate captain for the Rangers today. A good choice by "Torts" - nobody on the team lays it all out on the line every night like Callahan does.

In other Rangers' news, apparently Alexei Semenov's contract with the Rangers has been vetoed - by his wife, who wants him to play in Russia.