It's just one game on one night, but how can you not be impressed with a team that is as decimated as the Habs are, yet still finding a way to win.

What do these ten players have in common?

O'Byrne, Leach, Chipchura, Lapierre, Bergeron, Wyman, White, Pacioretty, Kostitsyn, and Pyatt.

All ten have played in the American Hockey League within the last year.

The Habs are without seven or eight players, depending on how you want to measure it, and they are winning games.

Carolina, Washington, Detroit, and Columbus. The injuries are piling up, yet points in all those games.

It is simply remarkable that in the face of some guy named Pyatt and another guy you never knew named Leach and another guy you didn't think so much would be asked of named White, the Habs are winning games.

Here's why. Hard work. Hard irreplaceable work. Oh, and Carey Price. The best six-game stretch of his career, starting with a 53-save performance in Nashville.

To just say it's hard work is too simple though. Every team wants to work hard. It's not an NHL trade secret. But hard work makes a difference when every player wants to pull together, wants to support the other guy, wants glory only for the team with glory for himself a bonus, wants to row together in the same boat. When you have that, then you can achieve well beyond your abilities.

The way these guys are playing for each other and their coach is remarkable. On talent, on inexperience, on an awe to be in Montreal so strong that you forget to play, this should not be happening. The Habs should be overwhelmed and on a seven-game losing skid, not getting stronger.

The Locker Room

I was fortunate to be in one of the greatest rooms in one of the greatest eras of all time.

The Oilers of the 80s truly cared for each other. They were the best of friends. They were a band of brothers. Gretzky, Messier, Lowe, all of them. They went to war for each other. A better room you could not and can not find.

For me, after those glorious Oiler days, there were okay rooms in between in the 90s for me, but then I was in the Habs room for the last six years, and I forgot what a good room felt like. There were some good days, but for many more it was just a flat out bad room.

I remember now how bad that room was because I am aware how good this room is. Led by Mike Cammalleri, everyone is supportive, laughing, pulling together, feeling the joy of this good and fortunate life as a pro hockey player.

For the media, it's refreshing not to feel like an interloper. Last season, the media would enter the dressing room after practice and some players would mimic noises that the mentally challenged might make. I will save the reputation of the players who mocked us with such an unkind gesture by not naming names. Instead, I will just say that it doesn't happen anymore. The childish has been replaced by the childlike.

Gainey's moves

The leaders of this team would not suffer behaviour like that, which brings me to a final point. Credit to Bob Gainey for an epic overhaul of the ten UFAs. I believe Gainey saw the room first hand and he became sick of the entire dynamic.

I'm not sure this year's team is more talented than last year's team, but they sure work harder.

Pittsburgh Wednesday could go differently. Hard work doesn't beat talent 80 per cent of the time, but after another surprising win I have to tell you I am more impressed with this overachieving, injury prone, hardworking, rich in character, unselfish Habs squad, than I was with the team that made it to the playoffs last year.