What a difference a weekend makes. As recently as Friday, question marks surrounding the Montreal Canadiens were aplenty, with our writers compelled to dispel some of the harsher comments and queries. Then came Saturday’s 5-2 win at home against the St. Louis Blues and Sunday evening’s 4-3 success away to the Philadelphia Flyers. Were they perfect performances? No, but they were vastly superior to what had been seen recently and revealed some good habits. Let’s discuss.
Dach, Evans, Newhook Get Going on Offence
Understandably, Cole Caufield’s name has been on everybody’s lips since the start of the season. How could it not, with six goals tallied in seven matches entering the weekend? Most people were aware that he is an exciting offensive talent, but few would have guessed his start to the campaign would rival what players like Leon Draisaitl and Nikita Kucherov can accomplish.
The problem was that few other Montreal players were finding the back of the net. That all changed this weekend. On Saturday, three players who badly needed to get their names on the scoresheet put the biscuit in the basket. In the first period, Jake Evans sent a terrific wrist shot on a two-on-one just as a Montreal penalty was killed. Beyond being a quality play to watch unfold, it was the Torontonian’s first of the season. He doubled his tally on Sunday in Philadelphia by one-timing an attempted shot from Brendan Gallagher that became a pass when the latter’s stick broke on contact. Whatever gets the job done.
The trend of attacking players MIA continued in the middle frame when a little bit of hacking and whacking on a loose puck in front of St. Louis’ net and traffic allowed Kirby Dach to score for the first time in 2024-25. It wasn’t pretty, and it almost looked as though Logan Mailloux hit the disc, but they don’t have to be works of art when a player just needs to get the monkey off their back.
After the Blues levelled the terms at 2-2, Alex Newhook, who had only netted once this season, slotted home a crucial power play goal.
Lastly, Joel Armia iced Saturday’s game with an empty netter. Again, players don’t get a lot of style points for finding the back of the net when there is no goalie to shield it, but for a player who gets regular top-six minutes, this surely felt good.
None of these goals mean that all of Montreal’s scoring problems are solved. But a team and its players have to start somewhere. Whether these forwards can continue contributing as they did for two days remains to be seen. That said, it’s safe to argue that the Canadiens will be going nowhere fast if most of the attacking comes from only two or three players. Oh, by the way, Caufield scored on both nights because of course, he did.
Canadiens Improve on Special Teams
This element feels equally critical to whatever success, modest or otherwise, Martin St. Louis’ ensemble achieves this season. The Habs were a sub-par club in 2023-24 on both the power play and penalty kill. When on the man advantage, they operated at only 17.5% efficiency, which ranked 27th in the league. When one of their own was sent to the sin bin, they only survived those stretches 76.5% of the time, which was no better than 25th.
Although the Canadiens are not exactly the most disciplined squad in the NHL (85 total penalty minutes, 11th), they’ve greatly improved in preventing the opposition from making them pay for it. Montreal has killed off 90.3% of their penalties, which places them third in the league, a rank they haven’t had in, well, a really long time.
Related: Flyers Turn to New Goalie Kosolov But Fall Again to Canadiens
They were more disciplined than usual this past weekend, getting called for six total infractions, three on each night. Neither the Blues nor the Flyers could cash in on any of those opportunities.
Conversely, the power play continues to work well for the Habs. Montreal converts 25.8% of its chances, good for eighth league-wide. Nobody ever organized a parade to celebrate being eight-best, but like with the penalty killing, the Canadiens haven’t looked this good in a while. As previously stated, Newhook netted on the power play versus the Blues on Saturday. The next evening, it was Caufield working from his office in the left faceoff circle who wristed home a shot that fooled Aleksei Kolosov.
There is a reason why special teams statistics are considered in virtually every serious hockey conversation about a club’s success or lack thereof. They can make or break a campaign or come very close to it. This is especially true for a team like Montreal, which is not a particularly efficient scoring team nor very disciplined. Mild criticisms last season about the Edmonton Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl and New York Rangers’ Vincent Trochek doing most of their damage at 5-on-4 feel laughable. One team made it to a conference final, and the other to the Stanley Cup Final.
Canadiens’ Juggle Mental Lapses and Moxie
Just as we began the article stating that a weekend can bring positive vibes, that doesn’t mean everything is perfect. Amidst the admirable performances that deserved four total points were some deficiencies.
An element about how the Habs have played the past couple of seasons that has fuelled the fire of frustration among the fans is the relative lack of mental toughness. Versus the Blues, a 2-0 advantage almost immediately devolved into a 2-2 tie in the second period. Away to the Flyers, the Canadiens were coasting with a 4-1 lead late in the third period. Then, right on cue, the hosts made a push as Travis Sanheim and Travis Konecny beat Cayden Primeau. This happened with less than three minutes remaining and made the match’s final moments a heart-stopping affair despite that it should have been done and dusted.
Now, Montreal pulled away on Saturday and held their nerve – if only just – on Sunday. A win is a win, after all. If there are any questions about how the head coach prepares his unit or what else needs to be improved, it would be the psychological aspect of the game. So often contests that appear to be close have devolved into embarrassing results for Montreal. Maybe the weekend’s contests were indications of change, signs that even when momentum is on a knife’s edge, this season the Canadiens will steady the ship more often.
After writing last week that the club’s resolve will be tested in light of injuries and recent bad performances, Montreal has looked good through a pair of tests. We felt that the Blues contest was winnable, and they won. The Flyers are experiencing an even worse season than the Habs, and the latter let that be known with a win. It might not show every night, but these games lend some credence to the point that St. Louis is doing his job. What fans enjoyed over the weekend is reason to believe that there is moxie in this team.
