NHL montreal Canadiens

We're trying something different to replace the old Newsmakers in the NHL posts. Hopefully you'll like it. Each weekday we'll take a look at one positive performance from the previous night (a plus), and one negative performance from the previous night (a minus). It's the plus/minus.Tell us what you think at nhlfanhouse@gmail.com.

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While the NHL still tries to figure out a way to handle hits to the head, they are also trying to curb other dangerous hits plaguing the game.

Saturday night, we saw this kind of hit in Montreal. Georges Laraque took out the knee of Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall. Despite pleading innocence and claiming it was an accident, Laraque was suspended five games on Monday.

Oh Twitter, you glorious and brilliant avenue for information and trouble.

Following the Montreal Canadiens' 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, a game that saw Carey Price take the loss after giving up three goals on 21 shots, Allan Walsh, the agent for Canadiens backup goaltender Jaroslav Halak, created some havoc and controversy on his Twitter account when he pointed out Price's record in his past 42 starts.

Predictably, things went quite well.

Since it's been, oh, I don't know, five minutes, since we had a debate on what's a clean hit and what's a dirty hit, Chicago Blackhawks forward Andrew Ladd decided to give us something else to talk about on Friday night when he laid out Montreal's Matt D'agostini early in the second period.

Video after the jump.

When I first started thinking about this post Wednesday morning, I intended to focus it on the goaltending "controversy" unfolding in Montreal. After all, Carey Price, the No. 5 overall pick in 2005 and next in line for the throne that is the Montreal Canadiens' goaltending position, was getting ready to start his fifth straight game on the bench behind Jaroslav Halak, a ninth-round pick in the 2003 draft.

I decided, however, to go in a different direction and instead focus on Price himself, and whether or not it's time to panic and cast doubt as to whether or not he's really the goaltender of the future in Montreal.

Since Gretz was at Wednesday's Penguins vs. Canadiens game for FanHouse, consider this your abbreviated version of Newsmakers in the NHL, our weekday recap of the previous night's action across the league.

PITTSBURGH -- I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I'm probably the only hockey fan in the world that had never seen a player record a hat trick in person, whether it be as a fan in the stands, or sitting in the press box. Thanks to Sidney Crosby's three goal effort on Wednesday, I can now cross that off the list.

Each and every Saturday this season I'll be taking a look at the random happenings and absurdities that occur in the world of hockey. This is the first edition. Feel free to suggest stories, complain or otherwise babble at me via electronic mail.

One of the stories to watch this season is the youth movement that is currently taking over the NHL. I'm not talking about Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. At 22 and 24 respectively, those guys are old news. The kids I'm talking about are a bit younger and dare I say, better.

Georges Laraque recently appeared in an online commercial for an alcohol-infused energy drink, violating NHL policy. On Tuesday, he apologized for breaking the league rule. He has not stopped apologizing since. He really needs to stop.

The phoniness of our major professional sports leagues is boundless.

Laraque is one of the league's top fighters and a popular player for the storied Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens play in a hockey palace currently called the Bell Centre, formerly known as the Molson Centre. Back then, you couldn't go anywhere in the rink without a beer logo in sight.

Newsmakers in the NHL: During the regular season it's our Weekday look at the previous night's action and some of the storylines taking place around the league. Have a tip or something you want linked? Send it in to nhlfanhouse@gmail.com.

Red Wings 5, Kings 2: Four Stanley Cups, six Norris Trophies, a Conn Smythe Trophy, 10 All-Star games, and now ... 1,000 career points. With his assist on Henrik Zetterberg's goal at the 3:24 mark of the third period (his second assist of the game), Nicklas Lidstrom recorded the 1,000th point of his remarkable career, joining fellow rearguards Paul Coffey, Ray Bourque, Al MacInnis, Phil Housley, Brian Leetch, Larry Murphy, and Denis Potvin as the only defensemen to reach such a mark. As for the rest of the Wings, they pulled out a 5-2 win against the Los Angeles Kings, and did so in shorthanded fashion, playing without the services of not only injured forward Johan Franzen, but also Pavel Datsyuk.

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Remember Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final when Pittsburgh managed to skate with six men on the ice for about 20 seconds, while none of the on-ice officials noticed it? Well, we had a replay of it on Thursday night in the Montreal vs. Colorado game. Only Montreal played with seven players.

With the Canadiens trailing, 3-2, and desperately trying to tie the score in their home opener, goaltender Carey Price went to the bench in favor of the extra attacker, which coincided with defenseman Hal Gill coming out of the penalty box. Instead of going to the bench, Gill remained on the ice and joined the play. The result? A 7-on-5 power play to close out the game.

Video, of course, after the jump.