Habs-Leafs January 19th? Markov Contraversy, More...

Happy Hump Day, HabsAddicts!!!

Among rumours swirling of a Boston Bruins vs. Montreal Canadiens opening night matchup on January 19th, it was reported late last night by RDS's Renaud Lavoie, via his Twitter account, that the matchup set to take place at the Bell Centre will instead be against the Canadiens' bitter rivals down Highway 401, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

While nothing is yet confirmed on the Canadiens' official website, the longtime rivalry between the two Original Six franchises is a marketing dream for the CBC's Hockey Night in Canada.

According to TSN's Bob MacKenzie the breakdown of the schedule for each team might be:

- 4 Games vs. 2 Divisional Opponents (8)
- 5 Games vs. 2 Other Divisional Opponents (10)
- 3 Games vs. 10 Conference Rivals (30)

Although MacKenzie's math may be correct, it remains to be seen whether or not the league adheres to the same thought process. If his formula is correct, how would each group of divisional rivals be chosen? What would the criteria be? In my opinion, if the Habs play the Bruins and Leafs 10 times, our chances at the playoffs may be better than expected.

Habs and Hockey News and Notes:

- The NHL Board of Governors will be meeting this afternoon to ratify the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. While the agreement WILL be ratified, it will not be a large majority of owners who will vote for the new CBA. Some believe that only 18-20 owners will vote in favour, leaving 1/3 of disgruntled NHL owners with an agreement they don't particularly like. Given the lack of a roll-back in this agreement, one of those owners is expected to be Craig Leopold of the Minnesota Wild. An expected roll-back was the primary reason Leopold so aggressively sought the service of both Zach Parise, and Ryan Suter.

- There are plenty of Habs' fans who are up in arms over the fact that veteran defenseman, Andrei Markov, decided to play one more game with his Vityaz Chekhov teammates in the KHL. Markov insisted that he received no information about the end of the NHL Lockout. Dave Stubbs of the Montreal Gazette gets to the bottom of it.

- The Final Lockout Show on Montreal Hockey Talk was an all-star affair, as The Canadiens' play-by-play voice on TSN 690 John Bartlett and ESPN Boston's Jimmy Murphy joined Jay Ferrar, Nick Murdocco and host Corey Collard, to finally talk about something other than negotiations.

- ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun goes more in-depth on some of the more obvious point of contention in the new NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement.

All of us at HabsAddict would like to extend our deepest condolences to former Hab Dominic Moore, on the loss of his wife, Katie, who succumb to cancer yesterday. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Moore family at this difficult time.

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