The week got off to an ugly start for the Habs with their worst loss of the early season. However, they were better on the weekend, picking up the rare set of victories on back-to-back nights.
The Week That Was
Oct. 22: Rangers 7, Canadiens 2 – The beginning of this game emphasized where each team is – one rebuilding, one contending. Montreal didn’t play that poorly early on but couldn’t capitalize on their chances. The Rangers didn’t play that great but when the Habs made mistakes, they took advantage and didn’t waste their opportunity. The end result was Samuel Montembeault barely making the midway mark of the first while Cayden Primeau didn’t fare that much better. The second half of the game saw the Canadiens basically just play to run out the clock instead of trying to score, making for a sour taste all around.
Oct. 26: Canadiens 5, Blues 2 – With Montreal having some time to practice and work on their defensive zone structure, they were much improved on that front in this one. On top of that, several forwards who were struggling offensively helped pace the Habs as Kirby Dach, Jake Evans, and Joel Armia all had their first goal of the season while Alex Newhook added his second. With Montembeault having a bounce-back effort, that was more than enough for the win.
Oct. 27: Canadiens 4, Flyers 3 – Philadelphia had Aleksei Kolosov making his debut in net and he was visibly nervous early on although Montreal wasn’t able to take advantage of that early on. However, they were able to break through with three in the second period, giving them a three-goal lead heading to the final 20 minutes. It looked like they were well on their way to a comfortable victory but Travis Sanheim scored his second of the game with a little over two minutes left while Travis Konecny added one on the next shift, making for a much closer finish than just about anyone expected.
StatPack
Skaters:
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | PIMS | SOG | ATOI |
| 8 | Mike Matheson | 3 | 0 | 4 | +1 | 21 | 3 | 21:29 |
| 11 | Brendan Gallagher | 3 | 1 | 1 | E | 2 | 5 | 15:41 |
| 13 | Cole Caufield | 3 | 2 | 0 | E | 0 | 6 | 16:08 |
| 14 | Nick Suzuki | 3 | 3 | 3 | +2 | 2 | 9 | 18:46 |
| 15 | Alex Newhook | 3 | 1 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 15:18 |
| 17 | Josh Anderson | 3 | 0 | 2 | -1 | 2 | 4 | 14:51 |
| 24 | Logan Mailloux | 3 | 0 | 1 | -3 | 0 | 4 | 14:49 |
| 28 | Christian Dvorak | 3 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 0 | 3 | 14:01 |
| 40 | Joel Armia | 3 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 5 | 15:01 |
| 47 | Jayden Struble | 3 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 6 | 18:40 |
| 48 | Lane Hutson | 3 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 0 | 3 | 23:14 |
| 51 | Emil Heineman | 3 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 0 | 3 | 11:00 |
| 52 | Justin Barron | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 0 | 15:01 |
| 55 | Michael Pezzetta | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 4 | 1 | 9:11 |
| 58 | David Savard | 3 | 0 | 3 | E | 0 | 1 | 21:18 |
| 71 | Jake Evans | 3 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 2 | 6 | 16:44 |
| 72 | Arber Xhekaj | 2 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 2 | 0 | 18:45 |
| 77 | Kirby Dach | 3 | 1 | 3 | -1 | 0 | 9 | 16:52 |
| 91 | Oliver Kapanen | 3 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 2 | 4 | 12:23 |
Goalies:
| # | Player | Record | GAA | SV% | SO |
| 30 | Cayden Primeau | 1-0-0 | 3.31 | .902 | 0 |
| 35 | Samuel Montembeault | 1-1-0 | 5.10 | .854 | 0 |
Team Leaders:
Goals: Cole Caufield (8)
Assists: Matheson/Suzuki (8)
Points: Nick Suzuki (11)
+/-: Kaiden Guhle (+4)
PIMS: Mike Matheson (23)
Shots: Cole Caufield (26)
News And Notes
– Kaiden Guhle was placed on injured reserve as Montreal needed a roster spot for Lucas Condotta who was recalled on a precautionary basis for the Philadelphia game. He didn’t play and was sent back down.
– Justin Barron suffered an upper-body injury against the Rangers on a hit from Jacob Trouba. He left that game and missed the next two; he’s listed as day-to-day.
– Juraj Slafkovsky (shoulder) was listed as out for roughly one week. He has missed three straight games so he should be coming back soon.
– Under the category of stats that aren’t going to hold up much longer, Mike Matheson is the NHL leader in penalty minutes with 23. 17 of those came against Trouba and the Rangers.
Last Game’s Lines:
Caufield – Suzuki – Dach
Anderson – Evans – Gallagher
Armia – Newhook – Kapanen
Pezzetta – Dvorak – Heineman
Matheson – Mailloux
Hutson – Savard
Struble – Xhekaj
The Week Ahead
Tuesday vs Seattle – Last season, the Kraken struggled considerably offensively. This season, under new head coach Dan Bylsma, they’re more in the middle of the pack with a resurgent showing from Jared McCann while Jordan Eberle has a higher shooting percentage than Cole Caufield (which is hard to do given Caufield’s early success). Shane Wright has two points in nine games so far in his first full NHL season while Montreal will catch a bit of a break with Vince Dunn on LTIR, a move that saw former Hab Cale Fleury get called up from the minors.
Thursday at Washington – The Capitals have the cheapest goaltending tandem in the NHL, combining for less than two million overall. However, a revamped defence has helped fuel them to five wins in their first seven games. They’ve done it by committee with only one player scoring more than three goals, that being Tom Wilson. Pierre-Luc Dubois has five points so far as he looks to make a good impression with Washington after failing to live up to expectations with the Kings last season.
Saturday at Pittsburgh – The Penguins are ten games into their season and the fewest goals they’ve allowed in a game so far is three and they’ve only managed that twice (once against Montreal). Tristan Jarry is now in the minors working on his game with Alex Nedeljkovic and Joel Blomqvist splitting the crease. Offensively, Evgeni Malkin is 38 but is scoring like he’s 28 with 14 points so far while former Hab Lars Eller is tied for the team lead in goals with four.
Final Thought
One of the early-season surprises has been how Emil Heineman has found a way to succeed in a role he’s not necessarily suited to have success in. We’ve seen already from him how he has an NHL-level shot and is already a quick player. While those elements give him a decent foundation to work off of, he still went into the year as more of an offence-first player.
There have been varying takes on his defensive game over the last couple of years going back to his last year in Sweden and last season in Laval but the fairest way to put it is that it’s still developing. He’s not a liability but he isn’t necessarily the safest player out there either. But since he’s not ready to play in an NHL top six (and might not ever be quite talented enough to get there), that part of his game needs to be sound enough to play in the bottom six.
And to Heineman’s credit, it has been effective enough so far. On top of that, he’s playing with a physical edge that we didn’t see a whole lot of with the Rocket last year. The end result has been a player who has been a fairly reliable piece so far while adapting his game to play a role he’s not accustomed to. Less than ten games into the season, that’s more than a solid outcome from a rookie who few expected to be up with the Canadiens when training camp started last month. I think that’s a development that both management and the coaching staff are quiet pleased to see.>