The Fifth Liners

There will be no player wearing the 'C' emblem next year at the Bell Centre as today it was announced that for the first time since 2009-10, the Montreal Canadiens will opt to have no official Captain on the ice and will instead go with four alternate captains instead. Andrei Markov , Max Pacioretty , Tomas Plekanec and P.K Subban have been chosen to fill the various leadership roles next season. Ever since former captain Brian Gionta opted to join the Buffalo Sabres as a free agent, the Habs franchise has been slow to appoint a successor, Subban appeared to be the main candidate, but it appears that he will not be the ruler on ice just yet. But what is the effect of selecting four different leaders? Well it does means that the Habs have a new flux of leadership on ice which could create better harmony on ice which will be needed after the problems that Subban's contract negotiation caused. However, with no out and out figure to guide them, it could cause issues wit...

Mike's question this week focuses on a team who bore the brunt of our mocking humour last season, the Buffalo Sabres . "The Buffalo Sabres are pretty much a whole new team, do they have what it takes to make the playoffs next season?"  So far in the post season, Buffalo have been planning ahead for the future and their picks appear to have been wise ones. They smartly selected hot prospect Sam Reinhart 2nd overall at the NHL Draft in Philadelphia. This young centre has put up impressive numbers for Kootenay Ice in the WHL and he gives the Buffalo franchise new talent to be excited about! In the last few years, they have been without a stand out player, but in Reinhart they have a potential superstar in waiting and they have constructed a great sounding board in which to build the team around him. Brendan Lemieux , son of former Montreal and Colorado winder Claude was also selected 31st overall which gives them another future star to work around because on his heri...

Montreal Canadiens ' Brian Gionta is out for the rest of the season, which depending on what happens tomorrow, could be one game.  Gionta suffered an injury to his arm a week ago and found out today that he needs surgery, scheduled for this Friday. This means his season is at an end. This is the sort of news nobody wants to hear and Gionta was visibly upset when he heard the news. Any injury is bad news to miss a potential (although slim) shot at the cup must be pretty galling.  We wish Gionta a speedy recovery and hope to see him back on the ice as soon as possible.