This past week was a mixed bag for the Habs. They eked out a win to start, got demolished in the second game, and followed that up with more of a respectable losing effort against one of the top teams. Clearly, consistency is still an issue for them.
Dec. 9: Canadiens 3, Ducks 2 (SO) – Patrik Laine’s hot start to his season continued as he scored an early power play goal to open up the scoring. Anaheim briefly took the lead in the second but just seconds after they scored, Lukas Dostal made a mistake behind the net, eventually leading to an easy goal for Kirby Dach to tie it up. After one of the more lifeless overtimes in recent memory, Montreal scored on both of their shootout attempts while the Ducks didn’t, giving the Habs the extra point.
Dec. 12: Penguins 9, Canadiens 2 – The score certainly doesn’t imply it but this was a close game for a lot of it; it was 3-2 for the visitors heading into the third period. However, once Pittsburgh doubled their lead, Montreal simply folded and the Penguins didn’t let up, scoring six unanswered in the final frame. Not a great way to end a five-game home stand, that’s for sure.
Dec. 14: Jets 4, Canadiens 2 – While this was a loss, it was a lot more competitive at least. Lane Hutson got his long-awaited first career NHL goal to open up the scoring but special teams got the Habs down soon after with Winnipeg scoring twice on the man advantage. Josh Anderson made it a one-goal game in the third but while Montreal had some chances, Connor Hellebuyck shut them down from there.
Skaters:
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | PIMS | SOG | ATOI |
| 8 | Mike Matheson | 3 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 8 | 25:43 |
| 11 | Brendan Gallagher | 3 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 2 | 4 | 13:52 |
| 13 | Cole Caufield | 3 | 0 | 2 | E | 4 | 6 | 18:34 |
| 14 | Nick Suzuki | 3 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 6 | 18:58 |
| 15 | Alex Newhook | 3 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 2 | 2 | 15:04 |
| 17 | Josh Anderson | 3 | 1 | 0 | -2 | 6 | 4 | 14:16 |
| 20 | Juraj Slafkovsky | 3 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 0 | 3 | 16:30 |
| 21 | Kaiden Guhle | 3 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 5 | 4 | 20:14 |
| 28 | Christian Dvorak | 3 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 2 | 8 | 14:31 |
| 40 | Joel Armia | 3 | 1 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 4 | 14:23 |
| 47 | Jayden Struble | 1 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 0 | 0 | 12:53 |
| 48 | Lane Hutson | 3 | 1 | 1 | -2 | 0 | 4 | 22:39 |
| 51 | Emil Heineman | 3 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 11:18 |
| 52 | Justin Barron | 3 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 0 | 1 | 11:52 |
| 58 | David Savard | 2 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 0 | 20:02 |
| 71 | Jake Evans | 3 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 0 | 0 | 14:08 |
| 72 | Arber Xhekaj | 3 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 2 | 5 | 18:34 |
| 77 | Kirby Dach | 3 | 1 | 0 | E | 4 | 3 | 14:47 |
| 92 | Patrik Laine | 3 | 1 | 1 | -3 | 2 | 10 | 15:26 |
Goalies:
| # | Player | Record | GAA | SV% | SO |
| 30 | Cayden Primeau | 0-0-0 | 15.91 | .571 | 0 |
| 35 | Samuel Montembeault | 1-2-0 | 3.82 | .864 | 0 |
Shootout – Skaters:
| # | Player | G/ATT |
| 13 | Cole Caufield | 1/1 |
| 92 | Patrik Laine | 1/1 |
Shootout – Goalies:
| # | Player | SVS/SF |
| 35 | Samuel Montembeault | 2/2 |
Team Leaders:
Goals: Cole Caufield (17)
Assists: Hutson/Suzuki (19)
Points: Nick Suzuki (30)
+/-: Nick Suzuki (+1)
PIMS: Arber Xhekaj (43)
Shots: Cole Caufield (82)
– Heading into Sunday’s action, the NHL average save percentage at five-on-five is .919. Montreal’s checks in well below that at .897. (If you’re looking for some possible encouragement for the second half of the season, it sure feels like that gap has to close at some point.)
– Last season, Juraj Slafkovsky hit the net on 48.4% of his shot attempts on 3.83 of them per game. This season, his attempts are down to 3.11 per contest and he’s only hitting the net 40.5% of the time. Shooting less and missing more isn’t a great combination but that has been the case for him in the first couple of months this season.
– David Savard missed Thursday’s game with an upper-body injury. However, he was able to return for the game against Winnipeg.
Last Game’s Lines
Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Laine – Dach – Newhook
Anderson – Dvorak – Gallagher
Heineman – Evans – Armia
Hutson – Matheson
Guhle – Barron
Xhekaj – Savard
Tuesday at Buffalo – Odd as it may seem, this is a game for positioning in the division as the Habs can leapfrog the Sabres with a regulation win. Buffalo has ranged from abjectly mediocre to bad all season long and they’re in a rough spot, having lost ten straight. J.J. Peterka has cooled off after a particularly strong start while Jack Quinn, the eighth overall pick in 2020, had just one goal in his first 24 games.
Friday/Saturday at/vs Detroit – Each year, the Red Wings have seemingly added some firepower but each year, it doesn’t seem to matter much. That’s the case again this season as only three teams have scored fewer goals than Detroit despite having a trio of forwards with a dozen goals apiece. Patrick Kane has struggled in the early going with just 11 points so far while it took former Hab Jeff Petry 26 games to score his first of the season. Lately, they’ve been without both Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon but chances are one, if not both, will be available by these games.
It has been a tough year so far for Cayden Primeau, to put it lightly. His 4.70 GAA and .836 SV% are woefully bad, there’s no sugarcoating that. Mind you, he hasn’t had a lot of help either. The defence hasn’t played particularly well in front of him in a lot of his games and he’s not playing enough to get into any sort of rhythm.
But there comes a time when Primeau needs to help himself and that time might very well be now. He declined a conditioning stint at least once last season, feeling he had done all he needed to in the minors. While I get that the thought might still apply here, Primeau needs to get some games in. Not just one every few weeks but a few games in a week to shake off the rust and try to get some confidence.
With Laval finishing up their weekend game in Bridgeport earlier today, they’re now at home until January 2nd with six straight games. If there was ever the optimal time for a goalie to go down there (or even Michael Pezzetta), this is it. There are no bus trips or hotel stays which are among the reasons why some players balk at the idea of a conditioning stint. Primeau needs to go to the Rocket and play four or five games in a row, then come up and play in Montreal relatively soon after that.
Maybe he gets on a bit of a roll, maybe he doesn’t. But right now, there’s not much to lose. Sure, he could struggle with the Rocket and find himself on waivers but at this point, it feels like they could already be getting to that point as having a backup goaltender that they have no confidence in playing isn’t ideal nor sustainable. The upside outweighs the drawback so in a perfect world, it’s in Primeau’s best interest to accept a two-week stint with the Rocket in the near future.
