Habs a picture of health

[Habsfan84]

Sitting in first place in the Eastern Conference with eight games to go, there has been a significant amount written about the reasons why the Montreal Canadiens are where they are today. Now while most of these articles have centered on the surprising nature of the Habs success, some have looked for an explanation.
For many onlookers the play of Alex Kovalev serves as exhibit A when discussing the Habs rise to the top of the East. Undoubtedly, the team’s most valuable player, Kovalev has given the Habs a season many thought he wasn't capable of. Others have pointed to the emergence of Tomas Plekanec as the team’s number one centre and the playmaker behind Kovalev's success. Some have pointed to the maturation behind the bench of head coach Guy Carbonneau.
Clearly, the continuation of the league's number one power play from a year ago hasn't hurt, but is the increased emphasis on defense led by the team’s lone all-star, Andrei Markov as well as the unheralded Roman Hamrlik has stabilized what had been for many years the Habs achillies heel. The emergence of Michael Komisarek as a force has been one of the league's top stories this year as has been the graduation of many players from the Hamilton Bulldogs, led by Carey Price and including Jaroslav Halak, Maxim Lapierre, Sergei Kostitsyn, Ryan O' Byrne and most recently, Mikhail Grabovski.
But amongst all the hoopla one aspect of the Canadiens successful season has been overlooked and that is the relative health of the squad. With the exception of Roman Hamrlik who missed five games because of the flu, this is a team that shown a remarkable aversion to injuries.
Heading into their Saturday night contest against the Boston Bruins, the Habs had played 75 games this year. Alex Kovalev, Andrei Markov, Mark Streit, Chris Higgins, and Mike Komisarek have played in all 75. Both Tomas Plekanec and Saku Koivu have only missed one game, both because of the flu, and Andrei Kostitsyn, Guillaume Latendresse, Francis Bouillon and the aforementioned Hamrlik have at least played in 70 games.
That's a remarkable eleven players that have played in almost every Canadiens game. Contrast that with their Saturday night opponents from Boston who have only seven players who have played in at least 70 games. In Toronto it's only six players, New Jersey has seven. Ironically, Ottawa has ten players, but this list does not include Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley, and Daniel Alfredsson; unquestionably their three best.
Coming off of last year's flu epidemic, this season’s return to good health has been welcome, but in recent weeks there has been a sense of foreboding, almost as if this couldn't possibly last, that at some point the Habs would have to deal with an injury to one of their top players. Unfortunately, this may have come to pass last night in Boston.
As of this writing the extent of the injury to Mike Komisarek isn't known but chances are that it isn't good. To see a player such as Komisarek, a true tough guy on the ice, the Habs iron man leave the game after only playing a couple of minutes was truly disheartening. Simply put, for Mike Komisarek to not play, mean's he must have sustained a serious injury.
If the injury is serious the question that lays ahead for the Canadiens is how they adjust. You don't replace a Mike Komisarek, you simply try to adapt to his absence. Many theories have been floated out with the most obvious being that Mark Streit, a player primarily used as a forward this year, moves back to play his natural position on the blue line. How that affect's the defensive pairings which for the most part have remained unchanged remains to be seen.
One thing is for certain, the Canadiens depth of talent, an area of the team long talked about but rarely used will now most certainly be put to the test under the most extreme circumstances, with first place in the conference and the playoffs looming.