Habs Weekly: Hanging Near the Top of the Atlantic

Last week didn’t get off to a great start for the Habs but they bounced back well, earning five out of six points over their final three games, allowing them to stay near the top of the Atlantic Division.

The Week That Was

Dec. 16: Flyers 4, Canadiens 1 – This was a game that neither team did a whole lot to win.  Montreal held the lead for all of 39 seconds as a last-minute goal in the first from Alexandre Texier was matched while still in that final minute while the Flyers added a last-minute goal in the second to take a two-goal advantage that proved to be insurmountable.  Travis Konecny added an empty-netter to seal the game late in the third.

Dec. 18: Canadiens 4, Blackhawks 1 – In the third straight 4-1 game the Habs played, they played one of their top defensive games while making life easy for Jakub Dobes who only faced 15 shots.  Meanwhile, Montreal peppered Spencer Knight and in the third period, he finally started to let some in as the Canadiens scored three unanswered goals in the final frame to break the tie.  Zach Bolduc scored his first two goals at home while Lane Hutson had a three-assist effort.

Dec. 20: Canadiens 4, Penguins 0 – Jacob Fowler evidently likes playing Pittsburgh.  After picking up his first NHL win against them a week ago, he got another first with a shutout.  Meanwhile, Owen Beck picked up his first career NHL goal (one that couldn’t be overturned or changed by replay) while Josh Anderson added a pair to put himself on pace for more goals than last season’s 15.

Dec. 21: Penguins 4, Canadiens 3 (SO) – This was a game where the Habs were probably fortunate to get a point yet will feel frustrated that they didn’t get two after a dominant overtime.  Sidney Crosby picked up two points in the first to become the franchise’s all-time leading scorer but the Habs bounced back well with Ivan Demidov tying the game in the second and Noah Dobson again equalizing it in the third to send it to extra time.  However, Dobes allowed two of three in the shootout to give the Penguins the extra point.

StatPack

Skaters:

#	Player	GP	G	A	+/-	PIMS	SOG	ATOI
8	Mike Matheson	2	0	1	+3	0	4	27:06
11	Brendan Gallagher	4	0	1	+1	2	4	11:25
13	Cole Caufield	4	0	2	+1	0	8	17:13
14	Nick Suzuki	4	1	2	E	2	6	20:16
17	Josh Anderson	4	2	1	+2	2	7	15:46
20	Juraj Slafkovsky	4	1	2	+1	0	8	17:34
27	Samuel Blais	1	0	1	+1	2	1	8:32
42	Adam Engstrom	4	0	0	E	2	4	13:28
45	Alexandre Carrier	4	0	0	+2	2	2	21:47
47	Jayden Struble	2	0	0	-1	0	0	13:34
48	Lane Hutson	4	0	4	+2	2	7	26:33
53	Noah Dobson	4	2	0	+2	4	7	22:59
62	Owen Beck	4	1	0	+3	2	4	10:33
71	Jake Evans	3	0	1	+1	0	0	11:22
72	Arber Xhekaj	4	0	0	E	4	2	14:01
76	Zachary Bolduc	4	2	0	-1	0	6	14:49
85	Alexandre Texier	4	1	0	-1	0	7	15:17
90	Joe Veleno	4	0	0	+2	0	7	13:34
91	Oliver Kapanen	4	1	2	E	0	11	16:12
93	Ivan Demidov	4	1	2	E	2	8	16:09

Goalies:

#	Player	Record	GAA	SV%	SO
32	Jacob Fowler	1-1-0	1.52	.941	1
75	Jakub Dobes	1-0-1	1.92	.913	0

Shootout – Skaters:

#	Player	G/ATT
13	Cole Caufield	1/1
14	Nick Suzuki	0/1
85	Alexandre Texier	0/1

Shootout – Goalies:

#	Player	SVS/SF
75	Jakub Dobes	1/3

Team Leaders:

Goals: Cole Caufield (17)
Assists: Nick Suzuki (30)
Points: Nick Suzuki (40)
+/-: Matheson/Suzuki (+10)
PIMS: Arber Xhekaj (59)
Shots: Cole Caufield (98)

News And Notes

– The Habs acquired Phillip Danault from Los Angeles for a 2026 second-round pick (previously acquired from Columbus).  To make room on the roster, Jared Davidson was sent to Laval.  To make room on the cap, Kirby Dach and Kaiden Guhle were moved to LTIR.  More on that in a bit.

– Jake Evans suffered a lower-body injury in Saturday’s game and was moved to IR.  That resulted in Samuel Blais being recalled; Davidson isn’t eligible until he plays in a game for the Rocket.

– Lane Hutson is the fourth-fastest American-born defenceman to record 100 career points, doing so in 119 games.  The three who reached the mark faster were Mark Howe, Brian Leetch, and Phil Housley.

– Jacob Fowler is the third-youngest goalie in franchise history to record a shutout.  The two who were a bit younger were Patrick Roy and Carey Price.  Pretty good company to be in.

– Nick Suzuki has now failed to score on his last 15 shootout attempts, spanning the last two years. 

– On the plus side, Suzuki picked up his 30th assist in Game 35 of the season.  The last Hab to reach that mark that fast was Saku Koivu back in 1996-97.

Last Game’s Lines:

Caufield – Suzuki – Bolduc
Slafkovsky – Kapanen – Demidov
Texier – Veleno – Anderson
Blais – Beck – Gallagher

Matheson – Dobson
Hutson – Carrier
Xhekaj – Engstrom

The Week Ahead

Tuesday at Boston – The long end-of-year road trip continues with a matchup against the Bruins, a team that slumped a bit last week, losing three straight including an ugly 6-2 rout to Ottawa.  Morgan Geekie is scoring at an even better clip than last year and has the most goals in 2025 (yet isn’t garnering much Olympic consideration).  He and David Pastrnak form a one-two punch on the top line but they have had some challenges scoring beyond them.  Charlie McAvoy was injured the last time these two teams played after taking a shot off the jaw.  He wound up returning much earlier than anyone could realistically have expected.

Sunday at Tampa Bay – Montreal gets an extra day’s break for the holidays and then gets to face one of the hotter teams in the league, despite the fact they’re missing a top-line winger and two of their top three defencemen.  Darren Raddysh has very quietly become one of the better offensive threats from the back end and has a shot at a 60-point year if he keeps it up.  Meanwhile, Charle-Edouard D’Astous, signed as a 27-year-old out of Sweden, is averaging over 19 minutes a night and is looking like one of the savvier under-the-radar moves of the summer.  And up front, the usual suspects are leading the way in Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel.

Final Thought

With adding a $5.5 million contract in Phillip Danault and the Habs having several players on recall due to injuries, they ultimately had to do what they didn’t want to do and go into LTIR.  By giving up a draft pick to offload Carey Price’s deal, the intent was to bank enough in-season flexibility to cover this year’s bonuses (which is going to be a hefty number with Lane Hutson, Ivan Demidov, and Oliver Kapanen all tracking to hit some) and hopefully leave some money for the trade deadline.  But they decided the opportunity to get Danault was worth losing their short-term flexibility.

It’s important to remember the intent of avoiding LTIR as it ultimately dictated who they put on there.  Could they have put Alex Newhook and Patrik Laine on there since they’ll be out longer?  They could have but the fact they’re out longer is why they didn’t.  By putting Kirby Dach and Kaiden Guhle on there, their goal is to not need to use LTIR by the time Guhle comes back next month.  That way, the money they saved in-season comes back into play and they can start to bank cap room again for a deadline addition or to avoid (or reduce) the bonus carryover penalty.

There’s a misconception that LTIR means a bunch of extra cap space.  It used to some of the time but with the new restrictions, it rarely is the case unless a player is out for the season like Price is.  But the use of in-season LTIR doesn’t give as much cap flexibility as it once did; Guhle isn’t adding $5.55 million to Montreal’s pool, just $3.82 million.  The less they need to use, the better, as that makes it easier to get out of it.  So, don’t expect Montreal to add anyone else on the trade front right now.  For the next little bit, the focus (beyond having enough players to ice a full lineup) is going to be getting out of LTIR, not going deeper into it.