Why the Canadiens will, or won't, win their next two games

Call this a preemptive plus/minus. The Habs face the Devils in Jersey on Friday and the Rangers at the Bell Centre on Saturday.

What's looking good for these next two games?

• The team's been freed of the dreadlocked weight that's been holding it down for the last season and a half, and we'll finally get to find out if Georges Laraque was the problem plaguing this team. (I'm not hating on anyone, but I was told to expect a vastly improved Canadiens organization this season and the stats haven't changed much since last year, so I'm inclined to believe that there's something up.)
• The team's stressed and hungry, and I'm guessing that some of the players are like me and just want the media to shut up a little. (I'm just speculating.)
• There might be a desire to kick some Ranger ass.

What's looking not so good?

• Martin Brodeur [insert rest of sentence here].
• There's still an Andrei Kostitsyn-shaped hole in the lineup.
• Scheduling. In possibly the most asinine bit of sports scheduling I've seen in a very long time, the Canadiens are playing back-to-back games in different cities for the second week in a row. Last week, they were at the Bell Centre to play the Senators and found themselves at MSG the next day to fight the Rangers. Now, just a few days later, they're being jetted from Jersey back to Montreal to punch the Rangers again. Couldn't they have, oh, I don't know, let the Habs stay stateside for two games in a row instead of tiring them out? Thanks a lot, Gary Bettman. I'm sure that boxing isn't as important as hockey.
• We're down one pair of fists and I'm guessing that the Rangers will probably want to do some more punching. 
• Let's be honest. Things aren't going as well as they could be and there's a chance that the team will lose another game. It can't be easy to play for a team when you're clearly showing up to do your job dy after day, but your team still isn't doing as well as the New York Islanders. It's kind of a slow period.

Let's be honest, it's going to be a tough couple of games, but hopefully a day off (...ish) did the team some good.