It will be up to the young players to make the difference on the Canadiens. After failing to land any free-agent stars on attack and losing power-play point man Sheldon Souray as a free agent to Edmonton, the Canadiens will be hard pressed to avoid a second straight season out of the playoffs. That is, unless a core of young talent that includes forwards Chris Higgins, Guillaume Latendresse, Tomas Plekanec, Andrei Kostityn and Maxim Lapierre and defenceman Mike Komisarek take another step forward in their development as front-line players. Second-year coach Guy Carbonneau insists his team will make it to the post-season "just on the fact that the younger players will get better."