A master of carefully chosen words

That's Bob Gainey for you, always measured and always aware of what he is saying.

When asked about the possibilities for trading Alex Kovalev on Tuesday, Gainey said that no one had called him about the mercurial Artiste. Of course, that doesn't mean he hasn't been calling people, which it appears he has.

La Presse reports today that Gainey has been working the phones in an attempt to unload Kovalev for two weeks, based on information from three agents that chose to remain anonymous, for obvious reasons.

The sad fact here is that Kovalev is practically worthless on the trade market because Gainey's bargaining power has been rendered nil by this forced "rest."

Another interesting take on Tuesday's drama in Brossard comes from the CBC's Elliotte Friedman, who writes that he believes Kovalev will in fact come back to the Canadiens after this "rest" period.

I personally don't feel it's impossible we'll see Kovalev wearing the CH again, but it is pretty unlikely, especially in light of the La Presse report this morning.

Carey Price takes the net tonight, perhaps with some added incentive to shove a win down the throat of Jean Perron, though when he says he doesn't care what Perron says you have to take him at his word. Really, who does care what Perron says anymore?

I'll be interested to see how Mathieu Schneider does alongside Andrei Markov, and also how Guy Carbonneau will use Mike Komisarek and Roman Hamrlik. The latter pairing, if in fact it remains intact for tonight's game, will likely see a lot of action against Alex Ovechkin. Funnily enough, Markov usually plays pretty well againt Ovechkin, his close buddy.

But removing the defensive responsibilities from Markov may in fact free him up to focus on moving the puck and getting the offence going, which is a big need right now. And for those ocncerned about having two offensive d-men on the same pairing, consider that Schneider played at least 20 minutes in 16 of his last 21 games and was a plus-7 in his final 12 games with Atlanta while notching a goal with five assists over the same span.

Markov definitely can't say the same.