After a five-game week, Laval got a small break on the schedule with only three although they were all on the road. The Rocket weren’t able to come away with a win but managed to get to overtime in all three games, making it a reasonably successful week in the standings.
The Habs had their California portion of the schedule this past week, a stretch that typically causes them some difficulty. While it certainly didn’t end well, they still came out of that portion of the road trip with a pair of victories.
The Habs looked to make it a clean California sweep on Saturday as they took on Los Angeles. Instead, they put forth one of their ugliest efforts of the season, falling 4-0.
It took a comeback in the second half of the game but the Habs were able to get it in San Jose on Friday afternoon, opening the door for Jesse Ylonen to be the hero in the shootout as Montreal picked up a 3-2 victory.
The Habs started Wednesday’s game in Anaheim off strong before fading in the second half of the game. However, a late goal from Alex Newhook proved to be the difference-maker in a 4-3 Montreal victory.
Topics in this edition of the HW Podcast include the recent rash of injuries and recalls from Laval, Josh Anderson’s scoring slump, recent trade speculation, and much more.
Montreal’s prospect pool has certainly gotten deeper over the last few seasons as a result of the extra draft capital they’ve had. We go similarly deep in our annual rankings as we begin with the players ranked outside the top 40.
The schedule makers weren’t kind to Laval last week, putting them in a tough situation of playing five games in seven days with two separate road trips in there. To their credit, the Rocket did relatively well, picking up a trio of victories despite a long list of injuries.
With the Canadiens needing an extra body on the back end for their upcoming California road trip, they recalled Jayden Struble from Laval. To make room, Rafael Harvey-Pinard was placed on injured reserve.
The Habs continued shuffling their lines and their goalies in an effort to get the team back in the win column. Neither approach worked, however, as they dropped all three games despite some quality contributions from some of their role players.