Samuel Blais could be recalled on return from Western trip

The Canadiens claimed Samuel Blais in the waivers on Thursday, before sending him to the Laval Rocket a few moments later.
However, Blais’ stay in Laval may be shorter than expected.
During Renaud Lavoie’s appearance on Jean-Charles Lajoie’s JiC show on TVA Sports on Thursday, the two men discussed Blais’ return to the Habs organization. He could be recalled by the Canadiens at the end of their Western trip.News from @renlavoietva https://t.co/qsHSP5IjDY
– TVA Sport

Tonight, the Canadiens take on the Calgary Flames.
So there was a practice this morning (during which we understood that Jacob Fowler would get the start and the rest of the lineup would be unchanged) and press briefings.
What’s on my mind?
1. Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson have been the talk of the town lately. These are two players who could aspire to a place in the Olympic squad – and who don’t know if they’re potential replacements.
And we can see that Bill Guerin didn

The Canadiens will play four games in six days at the Bell Centre, starting tonight when the Flames come to town. Along with the Canucks and Jets, the Flames are one of the NHL’s three worst teams in the overall standings. Three Canadian teams…
In short, we have to win tonight, in front of our fans ( sorry Kris!)… even if the first home game back from a long trip is often complicated and the Bell Centre is far from being a fortress this season for the Canadiens.
Who will be t

Heated Rivalry is basically Everybody Wants Some because… well… everybody does. It is by far the most popular and most viral series of the moment, arguably even more than the final installment of the final season of Stranger Things. Which is why award season wants a piece of it. Of them, of Hollanov, Shane and Ilya, Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie.Heated Rivalry is not eligible for the current round of awards because of its release date. It was released within the time window fo

When are the big baseball signings coming?
If there’s one player we’re keeping an eye on (among many, of course), it’s Alex Bregman. The outfielder, who spent the 2025 season in Boston, is on the radar of several teams.
The Red Sox, who benefited from his performance and wisdom in 2025, are among them. And everyone knows they have the money to make it happen, since Rafael Devers is no longer in town.
Word on the street is that the Red Sox have an “aggressive” offer

With the Canadiens’ success and the just-concluded World Junior Championship, the Laval Rocket hasn’t been getting much love lately.
So, how is our Rocket doing?
They’re sitting atop their division with a 21-11-1 record, and only the Grand Rapids Griffins have scored more goals than Laval since the start of the AHL campaign.
Kaapo Kahkonen (11-2-1) in Laval and holding down the fort in the absence of Jacob Fowler. Hunter Jones, on the other hand, is struggling (0-2-0), but we e

Dear Gossips, Even though Timothée Chalamet was the Critics Choice for best actor the other night, prognosticators don’t seem convinced that he’s the favourite for the Oscar. As Sarah noted in her post about Timmy’s win, the Academy has been reluctant to award younger actors in this category. So, right now, heading into the Golden Globes, it’s actually a competitive race. Which makes it more fun. We want suspense!Last night was the award ceremony for the New York F

In the past, Marc Bergevin has made it clear that it’s difficult to find good center players in the NHL.
It hasn’t always been easy for the former GM of the Canadiens. The GM once tried to turn Jonathan Drouin into a center, passed on Brady Tkachuk to draft a pivot and missed on Sebastian Aho.
All in vain.
However, when you look back (which you sometimes have to do with a GM, a position where you work for the long term), you can see that right now, the Canadiens’ roster bears B

The Habs weren’t playing, but there were 10 NHL games last night.
Yes, 10 games!Let’s take a look at what caught the eye across the league:2026 has been the year of the hats so far as Anthony Duclair and Connor McDavid became the latest players with a three-goal performance through the first six days.#NHLStats: https://t.co/JUYHt2Wcfq pic.twitter.com/2Ey7JzqmxH
– NHL Public Relations (@NHLPR) January 7, 2026
1: Trevor Zegras has fun
Last night, Trevor Zegras faced the Ducks for

Kyle Tucker is still free as a bird at the moment. The outfielder, who was seen as the big name on the free-agent market this winter, is slow to find takers.
There are teams in the race for his services (the Mets, Dodgers, and Blue Jays are said to be the most aggressive clubs), but he doesn’t seem to be on the verge of signing just yet..@JimDuquetteGM reports that the Mets, Dodgers, and Blue Jays are the “most aggressive” suitors for Kyle Tucker.
He also says that nothing is i

Earlier today, Kent Hughes gave an update on his club’s first half of the season. And listening to the GM, it became clear that the club, at the moment, is ahead of the game in terms of management.
And in fact, the club’s 23-13-6 record proves it: the Habs have been one of the best teams in the Atlantic since the start of the season.
Increasingly, then, we’re beginning to envision a world in which the Habs will be back in the playoffs this spring. But Grant McCagg sees an even

Tonight, the Devils travel to Long Island to take on the New York Islanders. The club is trying to get back on track after losing to the Hurricanes in their last game.
But things didn’t go exactly to plan: the Devils allowed five unanswered goals in the first two periods of the game. And it obviously didn’t go down well with their fans.
Even though the club was on the road, one fan expressed his displeasure by throwing a Devils jersey onto the ice. What’s interesting is that th

Nick Suzuki is having another great season in Montreal. The Habs captain, who will be representing Canada at the next Olympics, already has 46 points on his tally after 42 games.
He has a real chance of reaching the 90-point plateau for the first time in his career.
That said, it’s Suzuki’s defensive game that’s getting the most attention this year. The captain has really improved in this area again this year… and that’s why his name is often mentioned in discussio

Bo Bichette’s wedding
He looks happy.this is making me emo like our bo bichette is all grown up pic.twitter.com/gDbmfGEnyb
– maddie (@maddiecholette) January 5, 2026Several of his (former) Blue Jays teammates attended the wedding.Clement, Gausman, Bassitt, Bieber, Hoffman, Scherzer were part of the Jays crew that attended Bo’s wedding. I’m sure that flight was wild
( Kara Bieber) pic.twitter.com/OSp3R5Od5M
– Lindsay Dunn (@LindsayDunnTV) January 5, 2026The Alex Breg

Earlier today, Kent Hughes held his mid-season review. The GM was generally very positive about many aspects of his club, which is indeed having a great season.
My colleagues Charles-Alexis Brisebois and Marc-Olivier Cook did an excellent job of summarizing what the GM had to say today, if you want to catch up.
And among the things the GM was positive about was Lane Hutson. The defenseman is playing some great hockey this season… and Hughes admitted: he didn’t expect Hutson to ever

Samuel Montembeault hasn’t had a great season so far. The goaltender struggled for months at the start of the season, to the point where he spent some time in Laval as part of a conditioning program.
He spent about two weeks with the Rocket, including the holiday break.
That said, Monty is now back with the Habs, and things are already looking up for him. He’s won his last two starts, and suddenly feels more confident in front of the net.
Except that, in reality, there are currently

The Blue Jays had a superb 2025 season. They made it to the World Series and came close to winning top honors against the Dodgers, as you know.
Throughout the season, they had the Yankees’ number. That was also the case in the playoffs.
Even so, that didn’t stop Major League Baseball’s big thinkers from favoring the Yankees (who hadn’t necessarily lost more or fewer pieces than the Blue Jays on the free-agent market) over the Blue Jays in their November 10 power rankings.

Martin St-Louis was a finalist for the Jack Adams Trophy at the end of last season.
He took his club to the playoffs when it wasn’t really expected, and his work was lauded even if he didn’t go home with the trophy awarded to the NHL’s best coach of the year.
That said…
Since the start of the season, St-Louis has done some truly impressive things with his club. The Canadiens are the youngest team in the National League, have had problems in front of the net for some time

Does the signing of Kazuma Okamoto cut into the Blue Jays’ chances of signing Bo Bichette? That’s the baseball question on the lips of just about every Blue Jays fan.
It’s a good question, actually.
I don’t know if it’s because of the Nippon signing that Ken Rosenthal said what he said about Bichette, but the Baseball Informant believes that right now, Bo Bichette’s return to Toronto is highly unlikely.
That’s a big statement.Ernie Clement would only be

Looking at the Canadiens’ current forward line-up, there aren’t too many major holes in the lineup.
Admittedly, adding a quality center could help… but hey.
On paper, the Habs aren’t an atrocious club. And right now, it’s working because the guys understand their roles and because they’re all working in the right way.
But I tend to think that the Canadiens could still improve. Again, that could be done by adding a center who can play on the top-6… but

Québécois pass-catcher Damien Alford takes the next step in his career, signing with the New Orleans Saints after a year in the CFL.
At the age of 24, the Calgary Stampeders member achieves a goal he’s been dreaming of for several years, finally getting the opportunity to compete with the best players on the planet in the NFL. The Journal de Montréal was the first to report the news.
Alford’s transition to the south of the continent is no accident. Since the end

Last summer, Brad Marchand had a decision to make.
The man we all love to hate was free as a bird and needed to find a new team. He finally signed a new deal in Florida, which came as a bit of a surprise to everyone, because we didn’t think the Panthers had room to keep him on the team.
That said, Marchand was hesitating between two clubs: the Panthers, and… the Toronto Leafs.
Can you imagine Marchand in a Leafs uniform? Just thinking about it makes me want to have nightmares.
And I

This afternoon, the Blue Jays introduced Kazuma Okamoto to the Toronto media. I say Toronto media, but in fact, there were quite a few Japanese present at the Rogers Centre.
Of course, Scott Boras was present. Why was he there? Because every time one of his clients signs a major contract, the agent arranges to be present at the press conference.
Obviously, as long as Boras was on hand, the journalists present took the time to ask him questions. Among them: why is the market for position players

Last year was up and down for Sydney Sweeney. Started off great, ended her engagement, then controversy in the summer, with a string of flops at the box office, but then a rebound at the end of the year with The Housemaid which did very good business during the holidays.And just today it was confirmed that the sequel has been greenlit so in show business terms, with short memories, this is definitely a solid rebound. She’s no longer, really, in contention for award season but she’s s

Kent Hughes has improved his team in recent weeks.
He acquired Phillip Danault from Los Angeles because there was a (significant) hole at center in Martin St-Louis’ lineup.
And while the GM thinks the upcoming deadline will be quieter than usual, that doesn’t mean he’s done making moves.
He did talk about it this morning, after all… and there’s one sentence in particular that stands out for me.
Talking about the market, Hughes mentioned that it’s a bit compli

Yesterday we didn’t get a chance to talk about the holiday Beckham messiness, which is the “unfollowing” that, according to Cruz Beckham, was actually a block by Brooklyn. Prior to the block, Victoria had been liking Brooklyn’s posts.View this post on InstagramA post shared by 𝓃𝒾𝒸𝑜𝓁𝒶 (@nicolaannepeltzbeckham)
Ashley Tisdale’s rep told TMZ that the toxic mom group story for The Cut isn’t about Mandy Moore, Hilary

The free agent market has been in slow motion since the start of the off-season, with some major free agents still free as a bird.
This is the case for Bo Bichette and Alex Bregman, among others, who will most likely have to settle for short-term deals, often with a higher monetary value and exit clauses after the first year.
Earlier this winter, Bregman opted out of his contract with the Boston Red Sox, hoping to improve his situation after a good 2025 campaign. However, it’s now January

Is the Canadiens a perfect team? No.
But are the Canadiens an exciting team that continues to progress and learn more and more about how to win hockey games?
The answer is yes.
More and more, before our very eyes, we see the fast, talented team that Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton sold to fans when they took control of the team’s hockey operations.
There are encouraging signs, let’s face it.
In fact, at today’s press conference, Hughes said something interesting. The GM said, in re

Right now, when you look at the standings in the East, it’s pretty tight.
I’m not telling you anything, but this season, in the East, the Canadiens are up against several teams that are performing well. No one wants to pull away.
The Blue Jackets (16th in the East) are six points out of the playoffs. That’s crazy.
(Credit: NHL.com)
That’s one of the reasons Kent Hughes thinks it’s possible that the trade deadline (two months away) will be quieter than usual.
He talk

Kristen Stewart was on Late Night with Seth Meyers last night to promote her directorial debut, The Chronology of Water, in select theatres now. One of the things I clocked that she said during the interview was when they were talking about the holidays and New Year’s Eve and how she spent it and she mentioned that she was doing as much press as possible ahead of the break and then basically just had to do nothing when everything shut down for Christmas – which wasn’t exactly w