Habs season turning for the better

  Okay, the cynics among you say, that leaves them only two more to turn before they can be called respectable.

  If they have turned a corner, it also remains to be seen if they'll just step into the path of an oncoming truck.

  You can never tell in this season from hell.

  But there have certainly been signs that what coach Alain Vigneault, his players and only the club's bravest supporters have been saying -- that this team is not as bad as it looks -- might have a faint ring of truth.

  The latest evidence is the Canadiens overcoming a two-goal, third-period deficit against the Ottawa Senators -- a team that doesn't give up two-goal, third-period leads -- to squeak out a 4-4 tie at the Corel Centre.

  The tie leaves the Canadiens with a modest, three-game unbeaten streak (1-0-2), but more interestingly kept them over .500 for their last 20 games. The Canadiens are 9-8-3 in that quarter-chunk of the season, but still have a long way to go to make up for their dismal, injury-plagued start which saw them go 3-11-2 in their first 16 games.

  Let's not kid ourselves here. The odds are overwhelmingly in favour of the Expos being the only pro team playing in Montreal in May (and you would have had a tough time getting anybody to believe even that until a couple of weeks ago.)

  But at least the Habs have something now to keep them moving forward, a little more hope.

  "For us to come back from a two-goal deficit," said Vigneault after the game, "against one of the best teams in the league and one of the best defensive teams in the league, is without a doubt, something for us to build on."

  The biggest area of improvement for the Habs lately has been the boost in their offence. Only the New York Islanders had scored fewer goals than the Habs going into yesterday's play.

  But the Canadiens have now scored five, three and four goals in their last three games, a significant development for a team that had scored more than two only eight times in its first 33 games.

  There's no secret why. With a league-leading 236 man games lost to injury, the Habs haven't had their best lineup at any point this season.

  But now the Canadiens are getting some key guys back from injury who can help out on offence. Winger Benoit Brunet and defenceman Patrice Brisebois, who scored the Canadiens' third-period goals Monday afternoon, missed the first two months of the season with back injuries.

  "They've had a major impact on the team," said Vigneault. "They're two of our most skilled and intelligent players. We're not the same team without those players."

  Brunet, one of the most under-rated players in the league, scored a power-play goal to make it 4-3 Monday afternoon and has five points in the nine games he's played since returning.

  Brisebois bounced back from a bad penalty that led to Ottawa's fourth goal to score the tying goal with less than four minutes to go in regulation time. He also added two assists Monday giving him eight points in the nine games he's played.

  "I'm a big believer in this team," said centre Sergei Zholtok, the ex-Senator who had the Canadiens first two goals Monday afternoon. "I absolutely think this team is improving.

  "We've showed a lot of guts playing through all the injuries. One of the biggest things is caring. We've got guys who play hard for 60 minutes, every shift. That's a big thing."

  The Canadiens, who host the the Senators Wednesday night, are very much in a desperate situation.

  They were but seven points out of seventh place going into Monday's play, but that's the way only the most positive Canadiens' fan looks at the standings.

  The reality is that apart from the expansion Atlanta Thrashers, they have the most losses (20) in the Eastern Conference.

  How many more can they afford before making the playoffs - the minimum standard applied to any Canadiens team - becomes impossible?

  The Carolina Hurricanes had the eighth-best record in the Eastern Conference last season with a 34-30-18 record.

  The Habs already have 20.

  Do the math.

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