Habs Weekly: A Great Finish to January
The Habs had a tough week on the schedule to close out the month of January. However, that didn’t matter as they played three strong games and came away with all three victories to move back into third place in the Atlantic Division.
The Week That Was
Jan. 27: Canadiens 4, Golden Knights 3 – With Vegas coming in following a tough loss to Ottawa, it was expected that they’d come out flying and they did. The game was end-to-end and the Golden Knights got an early goal. But then the Habs had a strong second period (something they’ve been getting a bit better at lately) to grab the lead, including a rare goal from Phillip Danault. Unfortunately, Pavel Dorofeyev’s second of the game came late in the third to force overtime. Montreal didn’t score on a carryover power play and after that, there were no whistles, meaning it was played at four-on-four. That meant some different forwards got ice time, including Jake Evans, who kept the puck on a two-on-one and beat Akira Schmid on the backhand for the win.
Jan. 29: Canadiens 7, Avalanche 3 – With Colorado coming in following a tough loss to Ottawa (the Sens have quietly been better lately), the thought was they’d come out flying. They didn’t. Instead, Montreal had popped three goals by the eight-minute mark of the first period. They then won the second period again and even though the Avs made it interesting by cutting the lead to two early in the third, the big advantage was restored barely within a minute. No doubt that the Canadiens caught them at the right time (third game in four nights with travel) but they also played a very strong game.
Jan. 31: Canadiens 4, Sabres 2 – With third in the division on the line, there was a lot to play for. Montreal didn’t want to lose to them for the third week in a row and Alex Lyon was going for a franchise record for consecutive wins for the Sabres. The power play struck again for the Habs to open the scoring but this time, the bad second period play returned. Buffalo scored twice and easily could have had more but Jakub Dobes was sharp to keep it close. Cole Caufield took over in the third as his strong Saturday play continued to the tune of the tying and game-winning goals to give the Habs a sweep in one of their toughest weeks of the season.
StatPack
Skaters:
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | PIMS | SOG | ATOI |
| 8 | Mike Matheson | 3 | 0 | 2 | +3 | 0 | 6 | 24:31 |
| 11 | Brendan Gallagher | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 1 | 11:56 |
| 13 | Cole Caufield | 3 | 3 | 1 | +4 | 4 | 10 | 15:58 |
| 14 | Nick Suzuki | 3 | 2 | 3 | +6 | 0 | 7 | 18:37 |
| 17 | Josh Anderson | 3 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 2 | 1 | 12:27 |
| 20 | Juraj Slafkovsky | 3 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 0 | 12 | 17:26 |
| 21 | Kaiden Guhle | 3 | 0 | 1 | +2 | 0 | 2 | 20:42 |
| 24 | Phillip Danault | 3 | 1 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 4 | 16:04 |
| 45 | Alexandre Carrier | 3 | 1 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 4 | 20:25 |
| 48 | Lane Hutson | 3 | 0 | 3 | +2 | 6 | 4 | 21:53 |
| 53 | Noah Dobson | 3 | 1 | 3 | +7 | 2 | 9 | 20:16 |
| 71 | Jake Evans | 3 | 2 | 0 | +1 | 0 | 5 | 17:22 |
| 72 | Arber Xhekaj | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 2 | 0 | 9:41 |
| 76 | Zachary Bolduc | 3 | 0 | 3 | +2 | 0 | 4 | 12:31 |
| 77 | Kirby Dach | 3 | 1 | 2 | +5 | 2 | 4 | 13:43 |
| 85 | Alexandre Texier | 2 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 0 | 3 | 15:39 |
| 90 | Joe Veleno | 1 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 10:33 |
| 91 | Oliver Kapanen | 3 | 1 | 2 | +3 | 2 | 3 | 15:43 |
| 93 | Ivan Demidov | 3 | 0 | 2 | -1 | 0 | 6 | 16:06 |
Goalies:
| # | Player | Record | GAA | SV% | SO |
| 75 | Jakub Dobes | 3-0-0 | 2.29 | .931 | 0 |
Team Leaders:
Goals: Cole Caufield (32)
Assists: Lane Hutson (47)
Points: Nick Suzuki (64)
+/-: Nick Suzuki (+26)
PIMS: Arber Xhekaj (104)
Shots: Cole Caufield (165)
News And Notes
– Alexandre Texier was scratched before Saturday’s game due to a lower-body injury. With the Olympics fast approaching, it wouldn’t be shocking if he’s held out of at least one more game this week to make sure he’s close to full health for that event.
– Juraj Slafkovsky’s power play goal against Buffalo gave him a new career-high in that regard with 21. His previous best was 20, set back in 2023-24, when he got the goal in the final game of the season to reach one of his performance bonuses.
– Noah Dobson’s goal against Colorado gave him a double-digit goal total for the fifth straight season. There are only three other blueliners league-wide who also have at least 10 goals in five straight seasons, Cale Makar, Rasmus Dahlin, and Josh Morrissey.
– Cole Caufield’s goal versus Vegas gave him a career-best six-game streak. That tied Max Domi (2019-20) and Max Pacioretty (2014-15) for Montreal’s longest goal streak in the last 30 years.
Last Game’s Lines:
Caufield – Suzuki – Dach
Slafkovsky – Kapanen – Demidov
Anderson – Danault – Gallagher
Veleno – Evans – Bolduc
Matheson – Guhle
Hutson – Dobson
Xhekaj – Carrier
The Week Ahead
Monday at Minnesota – Historically, this has been Guaranteed Loss Night for the Habs. The last time Montreal beat the Wild on the road was nearly 15 years ago when Jose Theodore was in net for Minnesota. When they played last month, the Wild were down their entire second line and playing on a back-to-back. That forward line is now back and they’re as rested as the Canadiens are. Very quietly, Vladimir Tarasenko is having a nice bounce-back season with 30 points in 49 games while Quinn Hughes is averaging well over a point per game since being acquired from Vancouver.
Wednesday at Winnipeg – The final game before the Olympic break is one against a team that has struggled considerably this season. After finishing first overall in 2024-25, the Jets are out of the playoff picture entirely this season. Their top line is still high-end but no other forward has 10 goals or more than 20 points. Former Hab Tanner Pearson is a regular most nights on their fourth line but has been limited to just seven goals and three assists in 47 games.
Final Thought
The Habs made a move of some significance this past week but not on the transactions front. Instead, they parted ways with goalie coach Eric Raymond, promoting Laval goalie coach Marco Marciano to the role on an interim basis for the remainder of the season. Barring a further collapse from the goalies, I expect the interim tag will ultimately be removed and Marciano will stay in the role full-time.
But this was a move the team needed to make. Frankly, I’m a little surprised they didn’t do so sooner. It’s not necessarily a matter of preferring one coaching style over the other (although the two believe in considerably different mechanics) but realistically, this was the only card they had left to play. Jacob Fowler helped the cause for a few weeks when he first came up but he eventually started to struggle and was sent back down. Now, with the forward group healthier, carrying three goalies right now isn’t an option.
Meanwhile, it’s not like there are viable goalies out there to trade for. A lot of teams have had underachievers between the pipes so there are a lot of teams looking around for few, if any, realistic options. There was no trade to be made to stabilize things.
So, when you can’t call anyone up (due to cap issues and a full roster) or trade for a replacement, what’s the one thing left to do? Make a move to bring in a new coach to change up the voice and change up the approach and hope that serves as a reset to get at least one of the goalies going in the right direction. They showed a lot of patience before making this move (really, when all three were struggling a few weeks ago, that was the logical time to make it) but now, it’s up to Samuel Montembeault and Jakub Dobes to get back on track. So far, so good with the latter but that’s too small of a sample size to say his struggles are in the rearview mirror. There’s no more help coming so let’s see if they can get back to form and give this team a boost for the stretch run.