MONTREAL - The Canadiens recaptured the hotly-contested lead in the northeastern division standings Thursday with a 5-1 victory over Buffalo, while the Bruins fell 2-1 to the Islanders.

The Canadiens, who now have 57 points and the Bruins, who have 56, both have eight games remaining, but Boston might have the easier schedule, as five of its games are at home, while five of Montreal’s games are on the road.

However Montreal’s road record is a sparkling 13-4-2, even better than its home record, while the Bruins are 12-7-2 on the road.

The Canadiens have home games against Philadelphia, Tampa and Washington and play road games in Toronto, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Winnipeg and in Toronto a second time to finish the season on Saturday, April 27.

The Bruins play at home against Ottawa, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Florida and Tampa. Their three road games are against Carolina, Philadelphia and Washington.

The Canadiens are playing without the injured Alexei Emelin, who is gone for the season with knee ligament damage and fellow defenceman Raphael Diaz who is out with a concussion. Colby Armstrong is also out with knee woes.

The Bruins are also playing without key forwards Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, both of whom suffered recent concussions. It’s unknown how long both will be out out action, but Bergeron has been seen practicing recently.

The Bruins have been stymied, for the moment at least, in their attempts to lure Swedish forward Carl Soderberg to finally play in the NHL. Soderberg, who scored 31 goals in 54 games for Linkoping of the Swedish Elite League, has inked a deal with the Bruins but the Swedish Ice Hockey Association has thus far blocked the transfer.

The Canadiens, if they finish first in the conference, could possibly face the seventh-place New York Islanders, a high-scoring team which has been a thorn in the side for the Habs, having won two of three against the Habs.

The Islanders beat the Canadiens 4-3 in overtime on Feb 21 and prevailed 6-3 on March 5, while the Habs got some measure of revenge by winning their last game on Long Island by a score of 5-2 on March 21.

If the Canadiens finish behind the Bruins, they would likely end in fourth place in the conference and thereby play the Toronto Maple Leafs, currently in fifth.

The Leafs have also beaten the Canadiens twice, once 2-1 in the season opener on January 19 and then 6-0 on February 9. The Canadiens beat the Leafs 5-2 on February 27 and will play them twice more before the end of the season.

Ideally, the Canadiens would face the Rangers, whom they have handled easily three times by scores of 3-1, 3-0 and 3-0.

Habs in contention for individual awards

Some Canadiens might be motivated to push extra hard by the possibility of winning some post-season hardware, including Brendan Gallagher and Alex Galchenyuk who are both Calder Trophy candidates, awarded to the league's best rookie.

Gallagher and Galchenyuk sit fourth and fifth in rookie scoring with 22 and 21 points respectively.

Gallagher’s 12 goals are one fewer than goal-scoring leader Jonathan Huberdeau, while Galchenyuk is tied for the rookie lead in assists with 15.

P.K. Subban’s goal and assist in Thursday’s 5-1 road romp against Buffalo leave him with 34 points in 34 games, five ahead of Ryan Suter and Kristopher Letang who both have 29 points. Andrei Markov, who also scored a goal and an assist in the game, now sits tied for fourth with 26 points.

Subban is widely considered the leading candidate for the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenceman, but some point out that the trophy doesn’t always go to the highest-scoring defenceman, for example low-scoring Rod Langway won the trophy in both 1983 and 84 while Raymond Bourque and Paul Coffey managed to score far more points.

Some have suggested that Coach Michel Therrien could be a leading candidate for the Jack Adams Trophy as coach of the year.

And some P.K. Subban fans have even proposed that he could be named the league MVP for his stellar play.