Big challenge for Habs' Grabovski

[Habsfan84]

TORONTO - The Toronto Maple Leafs have some big centres in Mats Sundin and Nik Antropov, but Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau has no qualms about using 5-foot-9, 172-pound Mikhail Grabovski on the No. 2 line against the Leafs tonight.
"I liked the way he played the other night in Carolina," Carbonneau said. "That line (Grabovski, Andrei Kostitsyn and Alex Kovalev) did some good things and he got some confidence. Playing against Mats Sundin is a huge challenge, but we'll try to protect him from matchups like that."
Carbonneau said he wasn't tempted to make his lineup bigger by inserting rookie Kyle Chipchura, who will again be a healthy scratch, along with Garth Murray and Josh Gorges.



Asked when fans could expect to see Chipchura and backup goaltender Carey Price, Carbonneau said: "It's a long season, and we're only playing our second game. They'll get a chance to play, but we want to put them in a position to succeed."
That means the Canadiens will go with the same lineup that beat Carolina, and Mathieu Dandenault will again play right wing tonight on the fourth line.
Rookie learns his place: Speaking of Grabovski, the rookie received a lesson in protocol on the trip to Carolina this week.
Before the players board the team charter flight, they are given boarding passes. They have seat numbers on them, but they're simply used to get a head count. The seating traditionally has team management and coaches in the front seats, the broadcast crews behind them, and the players in the back.
Grabovski was unaware of this and took the seat number on his boarding card. When a team official noted that he was in the wrong section, Grabovski pointed to his boarding pass and insisted he was in the right place.
Huet ready to play - a lot: When general manager Bob Gainey made the case for keeping Price in Montreal, he said the situation was different from New Jersey, where Martin Brodeur regularly plays 70-plus games a season.
But Cristobal Huet, who has never played more than 42 games in a season, said yesterday that he's ready to play as many games as the Canadiens want him to play.
"I worked hard all summer and I'm in good shape," said Huet, who stopped 29 of 31 shots in the season-opening 3-2 win in Carolina.
He'll start again tonight. And unless Huet runs into a rut along the way, Price won't get a start until later in the month. If I had to guess, I'd say we'll see him when the Florida Panthers visit the Bell Centre on Oct. 16.
Rbk tweaking uniforms: Shelly Anderson of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Rbk is "tweaking" those new form-fitting, space-age uniforms. There have been complaints since the preseason started that while the new uniforms don't absorb moisture, they do trap moisture inside the fabric. The result is that it drips into gloves and sticks.
While a number of players have said the new uniforms are uncomfortable, Rbk and the Montreal-based Hockey Company started to listen after one high-profile complaint. That came from the NHL's top player - and leading Rbk endorser - Sidney Crosby.
Speaking of Crosby, the superstar and his linemate, former Canadien Mark Recchi, have each purchased a luxury box at Pittsburgh's Mellon Arena. The boxes will be made available to sick and underprivileged children in the Pittsburgh area.