Character, character, character

Listen folks, I've had an epic day dealing with the hometown GM explaining how he could trade away a local icon, the return of an enfant terrible, an enforcer's mea culpa on his brutal explanation for what was clearly a dirty hit, and a great hockey game to finish it off.

I'm tired, and I will go into all sorts of details about what I heard and witnessed tomorrow, when my head is on a little straighter.

All I will say about Tuesday's 5-3 win over Columbus is that it was a perfect example of how injuries and adversity can make a team stronger. That makes it 3-0-1 in the past four when it would have been perfectly reasonable for anyone to expect this team to go 1-3-0.

This team is finding reserves of character somewhere, and it's pretty darn impressive.

The best way to sum it up, in my opinion, came from Maxim Lapierre, of all people. The guy just saw his buddy shipped out of town largely because of the coach, and who does he credit for this recent upswing? The coach.

"I think we've seen the impact of our system over the past few games," Lapierre said. "Even with all the guys we're missing, the system doesn't change."

Anyhow, a lot more to come tomorrow, but in the meantime you can read what I wrote about Bob Gainey and Georges Laraque here, and what I wrote about Tuesday night's game here.