The city is alive with excitement today and has been for some time as the Canadiens enter their 100th season tonight. The fans of Montreal truly believe that this team has a legitimate shot at winning the Stanley Cup. And with good reason.

I have been covering the Montreal Canadiens for 40 years now and I feel the fans are right to have this optimism. The team is very quick, very fast and has a solid defense in front of a truly great young goalie.

In my experience the NHL and winning has always been and will always be about the defense. When the Canadiens were taking all of those championships in the 1970's they had a great offense, but it was really the defense that was unbeatable and enabled them to dominate.

Bob Gainey has brought back many of last years #1 team in the east and added three players that will help immensely.

Alex Tanguay will be a great fit for this team with his speed and ethic, Robert Lang, while not fast, is experienced, and Georges Laraque, while he has yet to suit up this year, brings a toughness that the Habs were missing in last year's playoffs.

No one around the team was happy with an injured Komisarek being roughed up by the Bruins in the playoffs. That plays a part in why Georges is here now.

Already Laraque is among the most popular player among his teammates and has shown leadership that is important.

But the true leader on this team is Kovalev. This is not the same player that we knew (and many questioned) when he played with the Rangers and Penguins.

Kovalev is a leader and is always there for his teammates helping them with all aspects of the game as was evident in a recent practice when he worked with Tom Kostopolus during practice with some tips on playing along the boards. Alex is not a selfish player and has embraced the city. The city has embraced him back as well.

Be sure to arrive early tonight for the ceremonies honouring some great Canadien Hall of Famers of the last 100 years.

I am very happy to be writing for hockeybuzz.com again and loom forward to some interesting projects that I an eklund are working on.

I am also excited to be joining the cast of "Hockey Night in Canada" on CBC where I will be in the booth coming thins Saturday.

Cheers!

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