FanHouse Roman Hamrlik

The Montreal Canadiens managed to escape Thursday's season opener in Toronto with a 4-3 overtime win -- despite being outshot by a 46-27 margin -- thanks to a game-winning tally from Josh Gorges with 10 seconds to play in the extra period.

While Montreal won the game, it proved to be a very, very costly win as two-time All-Star defenseman Andrei Markov left in the third period after awkwardly colliding with goaltender Carey Price.

Multiple Canadian media outlets, including TSN, Sportsnet and RDS, reported that Markov could miss anywhere between two-to-four months early Friday, and the Canadiens confirmed Friday afternoon that the defenseman will be on the shelf for the next four months after undergoing surgery for a lacerated tendon in his ankle.

Back in February, the Montreal media, and by extension, everybody else in the hockey world, was awaiting a bombshell of a story that was sure to not only rock the very foundation the Montreal Canadiens franchise stood on, but also forever tarnish the legacy of the NHL's most storied team in its centennial season. In other words: this was going to be huge.

I remember having 14 browsers open, furiously clicking the refresh button waiting to see something scandalous, only to be severely disappointed.

Newsmakers in the NHL is a weekday morning attempt to clear yesterday's rebounds and look to the day ahead.

Senators 3, Canadiens 2: First, the bad news for the Montreal Canadiens: they dropped a 3-2 decision, at home, to the Ottawa Senators on Monday night. Now, the really bad news for the Canadiens: remember those injuries to Andrei Markov and Mathieu Schneider? Yeah, they're worse than expected.

Canadiens 3, Canucks 0: Maybe Montreal should have tried this scandal strategy three weeks ago. Since news broke that the Kostitsyn brothers and Roman Hamrlik might have some connections to gangsters, the Canadiens have put together back-to-back wins, thanks to Tuesday's 3-0 win over Vancouver.

Sure, it's only two games, but when you've been losing as much as the Canadiens have the past three weeks you have to start somewhere. Jaroslav Halak stopped all 34 shots he faced to record his first shutout of the season. For Vancouver, the loss snaps a four game winning streak, as the Canucks currently sit in the No. 5 spot in the Western Conference.

Who's In: Bryan Smolinski (FA-VAN), Roman Hamrlik (FA-CGY), Tom Kostopoulos (FA-LAK), Patrice Brisebois (FA-COL).

Who's Out: Sheldon Souray (UFA-EDM), Sergei Samsonov (Trade-CHI), Mike Johnson, David Aebischer (FA-PHX), Radek Bonk (FA-NSH), Janne Niinimaa (UFA-Sweden), Alexander Perezhogin (FA-RSL).

What's Changed: In a way, a lot and not all that much. By the end of the 2006-07 season a few of the guys listed above weren't taking a regular shift for the Habs, while others were the key to the limited success they had coming down the homestretch. The biggest issue coming into this season for Montreal is how well they compensate for the loss of Sheldon Souray on the power play.

This team was miserable 5 on 5 with only Tomas Plekanec among the returning forwards to end up in the plus column by season's end. As bad as they were at even strength they were devastating with the man advantage, leading the league with a 22.8% conversion rate. Overall, their special teams were a very respectable +17.

So, with Souray gone the big question surrounding the Canadiens is how are they going to score goals? Is either Roman Hamrlik or Patrice Brisebois expected to replace Souray's cannon from the point? I wish I could say that I had a good answer to that question, because I don't. Younglings Andrei Kostistyn and Guillaume Latendresse are going to have to grow up fast for the Habs to have a shot at a playoff spot in the much-improved (on paper at least) Eastern Conference.