FanHouse MarkStreit

John Tavares has yet to step on the ice for the New York Islanders, but he's already making an impact for the once-proud franchise that has been aimlessly stumbling along a path of mediocrity for the past decade-and-a-half. This is, after all, a franchise that hasn't won a playoff series since David Volek beat Tom Barrasso in double-overtime way back in 1993.

Can Tavares, an 18-year-old phenom, change all of that? Well, he certainly can't hurt. Heading into Friday's NHL Entry Draft, there were rumors that the Islanders might be leaning toward either Swedish defenseman Victor Hedman or Brampton center Matt Duchene with the top pick. In the end, the team selected Tavares, and already Islanders fans are roaring their approval in the form of cold hard cash.

The Montreal Canadiens are still fighting for a postseason berth, and they're going to continue that fight on Monday night without the services of defensemen Andrei Markov and Mathieu Schneider. Their status is also uncertain for Tuesday's tilt with the Rangers.

Markov is currently leading Montreal with 64 points, and is one of only two defenseman to lead a team in scoring (Mark Streit of the Islanders is the other).

On Saturday night, the Montreal Canadiens continued their season of disappointment by getting crushed by Toronto, 5-2, on home ice. The recent struggles have left more than a few fans, like the fine folks over at Four Habs Fans, slightly perturbed.

Entering Monday night's action, Montreal could wake up on Tuesday morning on the outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture if Florida can knock off Carolina. So, where has it all gone wrong for the Canadiens in what was supposed to be a season of glorious centennial celebration?

Blues 5, Wild 3: Thanks to their 5-3 win over Minnesota on Sunday, the St. Louis Blues find themselves within one point of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference with just 13 games to play. The Blues managed to hold off a late Minnesota rally, as Brad Boyes sealed the win with an empty net goal in the closing minute.

Sunday's win comes less than 24 hours after the Blues suffered a loss to Detroit in a game that featured three Red Wings goals in just 46 seconds. The Blues have been on a roll in recent weeks, winning 10 of their past 15 games to stay in the playoff hunt.

Also inside Monday's edition of newsmakers: the Islanders continue their strong play by upsetting Chicago, the Blue Jackets have their winning streak snapped, and the Los Angeles Kings demonstrate just how easy it is to screw up a two-on-none breakaway.

We're in the home stretch of the NHL season, and both conference playoff races are heating up as the standings change on a daily basis. The Eastern Conference has seven teams separated by just seven points in the No's 4 through 10 spots, while everybody except Phoenix and Colorado is still competing for a playoff spot in the West.

It seems the only thing holding back Montreal's power play this season was the absence of a 40-year-old defenseman to work the point.

When the Canadiens acquired Mathieu Schneider from Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, they were converting on only 16.1 percent of their attempts with the man advantage, 24th in the NHL. That was quite a slide from the No. 1 ranking Montreal's power play had a season ago when the Canadiens entered the postseason as the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

With their 4-2 loss in Vancouver on Sunday night, the Montreal Canadiens have lost 10 of their past 13 games, falling into the current jumble of humanity that is the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

In an effort to shake things up, the Canadiens have acquired defenseman Mathieu Schneider from the Atlanta Thrashers in exchange for a second round pick in this year's draft and a third round pick in the 2010 draft. Montreal also receives a conditional pick.

Entering Thursday's game against the Islanders, Pittsburgh found itself with a three-game losing streak. Consider the streak over, as the Penguins systematically dismantled New York with a 9-2 thumping at Mellon Arena. The Penguins received hat tricks from both Petr Sykora and Pascal Dupuis (each player's first ever hat trick) as they never let up, while fans chanted "we want 10" during the final minute of regulation.

The Penguins scored four goals in both the first and second periods, before Dupuis completed his hat trick late in the third period. Defensemen Mark Streit and Andy Sutton scored the only goals for New York, as Penguins goalie John Curry picked up his second NHL win (both against the Islanders) making 24 saves.

The biggest problem for the Islanders was the fact they couldn't stay out of the penalty box, picking up 34 penalty minutes throughout the game, including three separate occasions where they handed Pittsburgh five-on-three advantages.

Pittsburgh had eight different players finish with multiple points, including Evgeni Malkin (goal, assist) and Sidney Crosby (three assists) who continue to distance themselves from the rest of the pack in the NHL scoring race. Amazingly, Jeff Taffe, recently called up from the minors, found a way to finish the game as a -1.

Should you feel sorry for the Islanders after a loss like this? Of course not. This is the big leagues, and as long as they're going to keep playing hard and physical (as they did), you should expect the other team to keep clicking on all cylinders in an effort to score as many goals as possible. You never know when the other team could mount an unexpected, late-game comeback.

Here's a French-language clip from RDS circa 2005 or so where they take a peek inside a 1970s-themed Halloween party attended by several members of the Montreal Canadiens. Just be prepared for Saku Koivu in drag, ok? And because the lighting is so poor, I can't make out exactly what was going on with Sheldon Souray, but part of me doesn't want to know.

After the Rangers and Penguins advanced to the second round of the playoffs, all talk about future matchups centered on the Flyers/Caps series. "If the Flyers win ...." or "If the Caps win ..." Of course, all talk came with one caveat: "Unless the Bruins win." You can toss that caveat out the window now, because the Habs did their job and blew the Bruins out of the water tonight with a 5-0 win, dominating the Bruins the way most people expected them to the entire series.

The key to this one was most certainly Carey Price, he of the 8 third period goals allowed in Games 5 and 6. It goes without saying that that kind of play is unacceptable in the playoffs and he shored things up tonight, turning away all 25 shots the Bruins threw at him. He was huge in the first period when Montreal ran out to a 1-0 lead, but Boston outplayed and outshot the Habs.

From that point on it was all Canadiens, with Mark Streit adding one goal and the Kostitsyns adding three more (Andrei with two, Sergei with one). After disappearing behind Price's shaky goal tending for two games, the high-flying Habs that took the top seed in the East were back on the ice tonight. They'll sit back tomorrow night with the Rangers and Penguins, watching the Flyers and Capitals settle both their series and the second round playoff matchups.