I am in no way saying that Lindholm will keep up this crazy scoring pace he's on, but it sure is nice seeing a top five pick figuring it out early in his career, especially when a lot of people were overlooking him for others taken around him.

The Staal boys don't know it yet but there's a new Sheriff in town and his name is Elias. Or maybe they do….

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Rene Bourque waived by the Habs

Axeman's Grind

So on Sunday, the Montreal Canadiens placed Rene Bourque on waivers. Not that I am surprised but by noontime Monday, there were no takers so the Habs shipped him off to Hamilton in the AHL. I say I am not surprised mainly because of his remaining contract hit that another team would have had to take on, 3.33M for the remainder of this year and next. That's a heavy hit for a guy who still has yet to find the back of the net this year. In 13 games this year, he has two assists and is a minus nine. Actually, short of last year's playoffs, Bourque has been a big ole bust in Montreal since he arrived in the 2011/2012 season. He was brought in to score goals and that's something he rarely did.

There are rumors that Bourque wanted out of Montreal this past summer. Apparently he approached GM Marc Bergevin about a trade due to a conflict of interest between the Head Coach, Michel Therrien and himself. From what I have read, there was lukewarm interest in Bourque but teams wanted the Habs to retain salary. Obviously, that didn't happen. Let's be honest, I really wonder about Therrien and his coaching choices at times but if Bourque was performing the way he was expected to, I doubt he and the coach would have had much of a problem. Why Therrien continued to cart Bourque out there night after night while younger, higher skilled skaters like Jiri Sekac sat in the press box are a question mark that I would love to hear an answer for.

The Habs will still be on the hook for 2.4M of Bourque's cap hit but the Habs have plenty of cap space so that's not an issue for them. I won't be surprised to see the Habs still work the phones to see if there's a deal for Bourque and if there's no takers, I can see them buying him out in the summer. Of course, if Bourque can find his way, there's still a chance he could end up back with the big club before season's end as well. I am doubtful of the later, but anything's possible I suppose.

Good luck Rene.

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That's all of my Axe's to Grind for this week. Thanks again for taking the time to read my ramblings and thoughts. Feel free to leave your comments and feel free to follow me on twitter – @chrispudsey