Rene Bourque won't be wearing a Canadiens sweater any more.

The forward was sent down to the Hamilton Bulldogs after being placed on waivers by the Canadiens.

The struggling winger didn't play the last two games with the Habs, instead being sent to observe from the press box.

“We were hoping that he was capable to build on his playoff last year.  He was a dominate player with his work ethic and he had passions and physicality.  We were hoping he could build on it.  Obviously the result was not quite there,” said coach Michel Therrien. “This is why he is going to AHL to try to find his game. “

In the first 13 games of the season he had two assists and no goals -- which was a far cry from his performance in the playoffs, when he scored eight goals over 17 games.

Throughout his 54 regular season games with the Canadians Bourque had only three goals to his name, and was minus 27.

Therrien said the team could no longer wait for Bourque to adjust.

"We believe we gave him an opportunity, and he was having a hard time to find his game, and the reason why-- the biggest reason why the organization decided to send him down to Hamilton to try to find his game back and where he is supposed to play, and we are not closing any door, but in the meantime he needs to go out there and perform like he is supposed to perform," said Therrien.

Teammates expressed their surprise at the decision.

“Obviously we were surprised,” said winger Brendan Gallagher. “We never expect business side of hockey… Bourque was a great teammate and got along with everyone.  He’s going to have to work hard get back to where he was at.”

“Obviously it’s a tough situation. Bourque is our friend and our teammate…  There's nothing we can do about it so we'll just keep going about our business,” said winger Brandon Prust.

“We all saw how great he was only a couple months ago. Obviously he has that in him,” said centre Lars Eller. “I think he can do it again.  The challenge is to get it going on a nightly basis.   It's been a tough going for a long time for him.” 

The reason Bourque may be expendable for now appears to be the play of young winger Jiri Sekac, who was the Canadiens best player this weekend.

“It was a good surprise that we had a lot of chemistry we were even good in practice,” he said. “It works pretty well.”

Prust agreed. 

“Yeah we were feeling good out there. We were moving the puck well and we felt that we had been playing together for a while and we knew how to find each other so we just have to keep building on that,” he said.   

There may not be 100 per cent direct correlation, but the more Sekac finds success and the more the Eller line dominates, the more Bourque to Hamilton may be a marathon instead of a sprint.

Bourque was acquired in a trade with Calgary in January 2012 as part of a deal that saw Mike Cammalleri and Karri Rammo leave the Habs. Since then he's scored 21 goals and picked up a total of 39 points in his 141 games played with the Canadiens.

The Lac La Biche, Alta., native has played 573 regular-season NHL games with Chicago, Calgary and Montreal. He has recorded 278 points (142 goals, 136 assists) and 474 penalty minutes in his career.

Bourque was originally signed as a free agent by the Blackhawks on July 29, 2004.

With files from The Canadian Press