Here's a bulletin for you, but don't expect Saku Koivu to endorse it: Captain K has been and is the Canadiens' best player even when Alex Kovalev, is healthy - and to prove the point, it's not necessary to look beyond his team's latest adventure - this one a 4-3 victory over the Florida Panthers with four seconds left in overtime.

Who, other than Koivu would score the winner the way he did - a second-effort job while being hooked from behind by a Florida defender that spoiled an eye-catching, 42-stop performance by Florida goaltender Roberto Luongo in a game the Canadiens led 3-0 after two periods and then proceeded to allow Florida three in the third until Koivu scored his second of the night.

"Every team needs different types of players," Koivu said with a shrug. "With Kovalev, the plan was to feed him the puck. Now that he's gone (perhaps as long as eight weeks after knee surgery) it's up to me, I think, to handle the puck more than I usually do."

How much did linemates Richard Zednik and Koivu miss Kovalev last night? Not as much as most thought they would, when it's considered Zednik opened the scoring, Steve Begin got the second goal and Koivu had the third and the winner in OT.

Alex Perezhogin was Kovalev's replacement on the line with the teams at full strength - which was most of the night - and was replaced by Tomas Plekanec whenever the Habs had a power play. The Canadiens scored once in four opportunities, the Panthers once on three chances.

This one, as in the Canadiens' 5-4 overtime loss to the Maple Leafs on Saturday, should have been over in the first period, but in this new NHL, nothing is forever.

After disappearing for most of the first two periods while the Canadiens swept in time and again on Luongo, the Panthers finally made an appearance in the third with goals from Gregory Campbell and Olli Jokinen in a matter of only 62 seconds. They came before the period was four minutes old and Steve Weiss got the tying goal with fewer than five minutes left in regulation - setting the table for Koivu to electrify yet another sellout crowd with his seventh goal of the season.

From the moment the puck was dropped, the Panthers - losers of their last eight games - gave every sign of adding a ninth, their worst stretch since dropping a franchise-record 13 in 1997-98.

Only 24 seconds into this one, with the Canadiens on a power play, the Panthers were fortunate Koivu couldn't get his stick to a hard pass through the crease. And it wasn't much later that Koivu, with the teams at full strength, had Luongo down, yet somehow managed to hit the side, rather than the back, of the net.

As for the Panthers, who were outshot 16-5 in the first period, how does a team get only one shot in the game's first 10 minutes in this new My NHL?

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