Defenceman Craig Rivet was back on the ice Monday with his sore left foot feeling better.
The Montreal Canadiens veteran took a shot off the heel in the third period of a shootout loss to Ottawa on Saturday but said he will be in the lineup Tuesday night at the Bell Centre against the Calgary Flames.
``Any time you take a shot like that the first thing in your mind is the hope that it's not serious,'' Rivet said. ``But waking up the next morning, it felt quite good.''
The news wasn't all good for Montreal, which lost Mathieu Dandenault, another right-side defenceman, in the same period of the same game to what has been diagnosed as a strained and partially torn hamstring.
Dandenault is out indefinitely and Swiss defenceman Mark Streit will make his first start of the season in his place alongside defence partner Janne Niinimaa.
The Canadiens were already missing injured defencemen Francis Bouillon and Jean-Philippe Cote but having Rivet ready to play prevented them from having to recall a player from the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs.
And Rivet is part of a penalty-killing effort that has seen Montreal (2-0-2) allow only one goal in their opponents' 24 power-play opportunities this season. That's an NHL-best 95.8 per cent kill rate.
The Flames, meanwhile, bring the league's worst early-season power play with only one goal in 33 chances _ a 3.0 per cent success rate.
Rivet gave the credit to first-year assistant coach Kirk Muller for instituting a much more active penalty kill than in recent seasons.
``He's pretty much done a 180 on the penalty kill,'' Rivet said. ``We're much more aggressive.
``Our forwards have done a fantastic job, being very aggressive on the puck in their zone and in our zone. And the defence has the green light to force a little more. If one guy forces, the other three have to react to that. It's been really solid so far.''
Rivet reached over and touched wood when the Flames' power-play woes were mentioned, knowing that it is a matter of time before a unit with former 50-goal man Jarome Iginla and a big point shooter like Dion Phaneuf starts to connect.
``It's very early in the season and teams are finding their niche,'' he said. ``They have a lot of offence on that team.
``They have one of the best power forwards in Jarome and I'm sure he's going to be very difficult to handle.''
The Flames have scored only nine goals in five games this season but have managed to win two thanks to strong defensive play and Miikka Kiprusoff's stellar goaltending.
New head coach Jim Playfair is confident the team can work through its scoring troubles. It started to come Saturday night, although the Flames were beaten 5-4 in overtime in Toronto.
That followed a 1-0 win in Ottawa.
``We're trying to get our work ethic established in our five-on-five play and we feel that will carry over into our special teams,'' Playfair said. ``You spend a lot of time on the power play in today's game. Ours has only got one goal so far, but I do feel we've turned the corner.
``It's a matter of us doing things right over and over again and getting the tempo pushed up.''
Phaneuf, Tony Amonte, Jeff Friesen and Kristian Huselius are among the Flames yet to score a goal this season while newcomer Alex Tanguay has only one, which doesn't sit well with the former Colorado Avalanche sniper.
``Coming to a new team, you want to play well,'' he said.
``I'm used to this in Colorado. I have never been a guy who scored early in the season. But that's not what I wanted to happen in Calgary. I wanted to score right away, to make a good impression and stuff like that.''
Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau said Cristobal Huet would start a second straight game in goal while David Aebischer will start Wednesday night in Chicago.
Carbonneau also hinted that Huet would start Saturday night when his former rival for the starting job, Jose Theodore, comes to Montreal with the Avalanche.
Dandenault was disappointed with his injury.
``Last year, I was proud to play in all 82 games for the team,'' he said. ``Throughout my career, I wasn't injured much. But this was a freaky thing that happened.
``And the weird thing is that we don't know how long it will be. It could be two weeks, it could be two months.''
