I've been bombarded with e-mails tonight from several of my readers who were watching the Canadiens-Penguins post-game show on RDS (the French version of TSN) and the analysts report a major "bombshell" is going to explode in the Montreal media on Friday involving the Canadiens.

No word yet on what the story is but I've been hearing from some readers that a story will appear in La Presse (one of the major papers in Montreal) that could potentially involve allegations of criminal charges against several Canadiens players.

None of them involve Alex Kovalev, who was recently sent home by Canadiens GM Bob Gainey for the club's final two games of their recent six-game road trip.

I want to caution my readers that so far I've heard few details, only talk of criminal allegations, and nothing has been confirmed yet, nor has the Canadiens responded to this.

 It's also possible this could be nothing more but another rumor but for now this one seemed serious enough to generate considerable response from those of my readers who are Habs fans.

Hopefully we'll have more on this over the next twelve hours.

**UPDATE** Mike Boone of the Montreal Gazette's "Habs Inside/out" site confirms La Presse reporter Richard Labbe claimed his paper would have a major story in Friday's edition, hinting at behaviour that could result in criminal charges against several Canadiens.

**SECOND UPDATE**: La Presse reports three Canadiens - the Kostitsyn brothers and Roman Hamrlik - have social ties with reputed Montreal mobster Pasquale Mangiola. Andrei Kostitsyn admitted socializing with Mangiola but insists he knew nothing of Mangiola's criminal activity.

So much for the "bombshell". The three have done nothing wrong in socializing with Mangiola other that show poor judgement in their choice of off-ice friends here. It's embarrassing for the three but they haven't engaged in criminal activity and from what I read of the reports out of Montreal the three aren't under investigation and aren't facing charges.

This also has nothing to do with the Canadiens current free-fall in the standings, but this kind of press over-reaction is one of the big reasons the team has trouble attracting quality free agents. This is a classic example of what life is like in the Canadiens fishbowl.