Habs news

[Stephane Richer]

Guillaume Latendresse has perfected his skating skills with skating specialist Paul Lawson during the summer and lost a little over ten pounds during that period. His efforts seem to have paid off. Francis Bouillon is quoted as saying that Latendresse was one of the fastest guys on the ice at the Bell Center yesterday.

Alex Kovalev also lost around ten pounds during the summer. Kovalev said that he lost the weight in order to be able to follow the younger guys. He says he would enjoy having Plekanec as his center but he maintains he would also enjoy having Lang as a center. Kovalev also mentions that he feels Laraque has good hockey skills and that he will be usefull in front of the opposite net. He jokingly mentionned that if Laraque wants to improve his skills, he could always watch Kovalev\'s DVD that raises funds for charity http://www.imavision.com/en/eStore,w...LoadCat-1.html

Alex Tanguay will wear number 13 on his jersey. That number has not been worn since Billy Boucher during the 1921-1922 season.

Saku Koivu has skated three times since being hit by a puck on a foot during his stay in Finland. The X-rays showed his foot is OK. Koivu feels that this year\'s edition of the Habs team is superior to last year\'s.

source Le Droit

[dbellan]

karma for the top notch info stephane. keep it up!

[TommyB]

FYI, just to add. Today, Kovalev was playing with Lang and Latendresse. Lang said to be very impressed by the speed of Latendresse.

Great job Steph.

[mister_mcgoo]

interesting stuff, when I think of latendresse I dont think of blazing speed but it shows how much he wants to be on the team that he\'s worked so hard to be able to match the other speedsters

[ether]

Considering all the other talent there, if Latendresse has even a solid year they will have three very good scoring lines. Didn\'t expect more than third line minutes from him anyway, but still can be a big factor.

Carbonneau will have unlimited possibilities with his forward line combinations. I\'m sure he\'ll take advantage of it!

[MilleFeuilles]

Canadian Press reported this morning that Saku Koivu and Georges Laraque will both miss 2 or 3 preseaon games on account of injuries.
Koivu has a bruised right foot suffered in practice 3 weeks ago in Finland resulting from an errand puck. It does not appear that thre\'s any fracture.

Laraque has a groin injury.