Tuesday, February 3, 2009

It's one thing to say it...

...entirely something else to believe it.

I just finished listening to audio of the game day skate courtesy of Dave Stubbs at Habs Inside/Out, and Guy Carbonneau said something interesting in his session with the French media.

When asked how the loss of Robert Lang would affect the team in comparison to losing Saku Koivu earlier this season, the coach replied that the Habs were 8-2 without Koivu, Christopher Higgins, Carey Price and Ryan O'Byrne in the lineup. Now, they are missing Lang, Guillaume Latendresse - who Carbonneau said would be gone for "weeks" as opposed to days -and Kyle Chipchura

"So we should have a better team today than we did two weeks ago," Carbonneau said. "But it plays itself out on the ice, and it's up to us to regroup and play the way we were playing back then."

It's a great attitude to take into the rest of the season - especially with Georges Laraque and Mathieu Dandenault apparently on the verge of getting cleared to play Friday night in Buffalo - but I just wonder if his players believe that to be true.

Trading Koivu, Higgins, Price and O'Byrne for Lang, Latendresse and Chicpchura is totally one-sided, but there's a difference in losing certain guys while the team is on a roll and losing them when they are kind of spiralling downward. Carbonneau seems to be hoping that the injuries will put a stop to that spiral.

"Were facing some adversity right now, but often times that's when a team picks itself up."

We'll find out if that's true tonight agianst Pittsburgh.

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