Habs Weekly: Last Time’s the Charm

The Habs didn’t exactly make it easy on themselves but in the end, they managed to do just enough to take care of business in the final week of the season to secure the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Week That Was

Apr. 14: Blackhawks 4, Canadiens 3 (SO) – The game couldn’t have gotten off to a better start with Montreal scoring twice in the first with Ivan Demidov picking up his first NHL goal and assist along the way, making for quite the debut.  Butthe penalty kill wasn’t able to hold the lead, allowing Tyler Bertuzzi and Frank Nazar to tie it up before the end of the second.  Juraj Slafkovsky scored a power play goal of his own late to tie it up again in the third but after a largely eventless overtime, the only goal of the shootout came from Nazar, one that took quite a while for anyone to realize it went in, leading to a bit of confusion and controversy along the way.  The single point meant the Habs would need one point in their final game.

Apr. 16: Canadiens 4, Hurricanes 2 – Carolina did Montreal a big favour for this one, sitting seven players and giving a couple of prospects their NHL debuts for this game.  But even with that, it took a while for the Habs to take advantage.  It wasn’t until late in the second that the Habs got some extended momentum coming from a pair of late goals from Nick Suzuki and Kaiden Guhle’s second of the night.  That took the Hurricanes out of it for a good chunk of the third although they made it interesting late before Jake Evans’ empty-netter sealed the win.  It took until the last possible chance for them to clinch but they got it done in the end.

StatPack

Skaters:

#	Player	GP	G	A	+/-	PIMS	SOG	ATOI
8	Mike Matheson	2	0	1	+2	2	2	26:51
11	Brendan Gallagher	2	0	0	-2	0	1	17:06
13	Cole Caufield	2	0	2	+3	0	3	19:01
14	Nick Suzuki	2	1	1	+4	0	5	24:11
15	Alex Newhook	2	1	0	+1	0	4	14:01
17	Josh Anderson	2	0	0	-2	0	2	15:12
20	Juraj Slafkovsky	2	1	1	+3	2	5	18:24
21	Kaiden Guhle	2	2	0	-1	4	3	21:17
28	Christian Dvorak	2	0	0	-2	0	1	17:13
40	Joel Armia	2	0	2	+2	0	3	11:37
45	Alexandre Carrier	2	0	1	+2	2	1	21:55
47	Jayden Struble	2	0	0	+2	0	0	11:20
48	Lane Hutson	2	0	2	-1	0	2	24:27
51	Emil Heineman	1	0	0	E	0	0	12:00
58	David Savard	2	0	0	+2	0	0	10:59
71	Jake Evans	2	1	0	+1	0	1	14:15
91	Oliver Kapanen	1	0	0	E	0	0	7:17
92	Patrik Laine	2	0	0	E	0	5	13:37
93	Ivan Demidov	2	1	1	+1	0	5	13:43

Goalies:

#	Player	Record	GAA	SV%	SO
35	Samuel Montembeault	1-0-1	2.40	.907	0

Shootout – Skaters:

#	Player	G/ATT
13	Cole Caufield	0/1
14	Nick Suzuki	0/1
92	Patrik Laine	0/1

Shootout – Goalies:

#	Player	SVS/SF
35	Samuel Montembeault	1/2

Team Leaders:

Goals: Cole Caufield (37)
Assists: Lane Hutson (60)
Points: Nick Suzuki (89)
+/-: Nick Suzuki (+19)
PIMS: Arber Xhekaj (118)
Shots: Cole Caufield (239)

News And Notes

– In terms of average age (25.95), the Habs are the youngest team to make the playoffs in NHL history.

– Montreal returned Joshua Roy to AHL Laval after the Carolina game.  The four-recall rule is still in effect until Laval is finished so it’s unlikely he’ll be back up unless injuries strike.

– Lane Hutson tied Larry Murphy for the NHL record for most assists by a defenceman with 60.

– David Savard announced he’ll be retiring at the end of the season.  He was slated to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.

Last Game’s Lines:

Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Anderson – Dvorak – Gallagher
Laine – Newhook – Demidov
Heineman – Evans – Armia

Matheson – Carrier
Guhle – Hutson
Struble – Savard

The Series Ahead

The Habs will take on the Eastern Conference champions in Washington, a team that had the second-most goals in the league but also finished up the year losing eight of their last 12 games.  They will have Logan Thompson back after he was injured down the stretch but the availability of 30-goal scorer Aliaksei Protas and defenceman Martin Fehervary to start the series remains in question.  The schedule is as follows:

Game 1: Monday, April 21
Game 2: Wednesday, April 23
Game 3: Friday, April 25
Game 4: Sunday, April 27
Game 5: Wednesday, April 30*
Game 6: Friday, May 2*
Game 7: Sunday, May 4*

*-If necessary

Final Thought

With how young the Habs are as a team, one of the early narratives is their inexperience.  But six of Montreal’s forwards were on the roster for the run to the Stanley Cup Final back in 2021, five of them playing regularly while Jake Evans was injured.  Alex Newhook has a Stanley Cup ring from his time with Colorado, Patrik Laine made the playoffs three times with Winnipeg, and Christian Dvorak played in the bubble playoffs with Arizona.  Out of their top 12, only three forwards haven’t played in an NHL playoff game and they’re the three still on their entry-level contracts.  That’s a pretty good spot to be in as a team that has been rebuilding lately.

On the back end, the experience is unsurprisingly less with three of their regular six right now also on entry-level deals.  David Savard has 57 games of experience, Mike Matheson 20, and Alexandre Carrier 16, all with at least three separate playoffs worth of experience.  That’s still not bad for a rebuilding squad.

Where am I going with this?  The narrative of young and inexperienced is out there but a good chunk of this group has some at least relatively recent postseason experience to fall back on.  Is that going to be a big difference-maker in this series?  Hardly.  But it should help them heading into Monday night as not too many of them will be making their playoff debuts, allowing them to settle in a bit quicker than they might have otherwise