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With a week where they faced three opponents behind them in the standings, the Habs had a chance to grab a firmer hold of the last playoff spot in the East.  They did exactly that, winning all four games to give themselves some much-needed wiggle room for the second Wild Card position.

The Week That Was

Apr. 1: Canadiens 3, Panthers 2 – After taking the first half of the home-and-home set two days earlier, the Habs lost an early first-period lead and found themselves trailing for almost the entire third period after Mackie Samoskevich scored a power play marker late in the second.  But in the dying seconds, Lane Hutson’s shot bounced off a Florida defender to Nick Suzuki who had a wide-open net to tie the game with nine seconds left.  Then, on the opening shift of overtime, Suzuki beat Vitek Vanecek on a wraparound to give Montreal the key comeback win, a term that was quite common this past week.

Apr. 3: Canadiens 4, Bruins 1 – After a first period that saw neither side do much of anything, the Habs found their skating legs in the second.  They dominated nearly the entire period and got goals from Christian Dvorak and Cole Caufield to give themselves the lead heading into the third.  Brendan Gallagher got an insurance marker early in the third while Suzuki potted a late empty-netter.

Apr. 5: Canadiens 3, Flyers 2 – The Habs once again had a rough first period and found themselves trailing for the bulk of the game until the third period where Gallagher and Hutson scored early to give Montreal the lead.  Suzuki potted a huge shorthanded marker midway through the frame and the Canadiens held on from there.

Apr. 6: Canadiens 2, Predators 1 – This was Montreal’s fourth game in six days and it showed.  They were lifeless from the start and that continued for pretty much the entire game.  Jakub Dobes was shaky early but settled down after allowing an early goal plus another to Michael McCarron that was called back for goalie interference.  It wasn’t pretty by any standpoint but he wound up making 36 games.  Meanwhile, Caufield and Patrik Laine scored early in the second and from there, they held on.  Another comeback and another victory.

StatPack

Skaters:

Goalies:

Team Leaders:

Goals: Cole Caufield (36)
Assists: Lane Hutson (58)
Points: Nick Suzuki (84)
+/-: Nick Suzuki (+17)
PIMS: Arber Xhekaj (118)
Shots: Cole Caufield (226)

News And Notes

– Oliver Kapanen’s SHL playoffs came to an end and while the initial thought was that he’d go to Laval, he instead was recalled to Montreal and got in the lineup pretty quickly.

– Emil Heineman and David Savard both missed Sunday’s win in Nashville with undisclosed injuries and are listed as day-to-day.

– Nick Suzuki is the first Hab to reach the 80-point mark since Alexei Kovalev did so back in 2007-08.

– Lane Hutson is now tied with Chris Chelios for the most points in a season by a Canadiens rookie defenceman and is tied for the sixth-most points by a rookie blueliner in NHL history.

Last Game’s Lines:

Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Anderson – Dvorak – Gallagher
Laine – Newhook – Kapanen
Pezzetta – Evans – Armia

Matheson – Carrier
Guhle – Hutson
Struble – Xhekaj

The Week Ahead

Tuesday vs Detroit – With two straight wins including a big one over Florida on Sunday, the Red Wings have managed to get back into the playoff race and are now tied with the Rangers as the top Eastern team currently out of the postseason.  Cam Talbot has allowed two or fewer goals in four of his last five games which is a big reason for their recent turnaround.  Lucas Raymond recently passed his career high in points and is hovering near the point-per-game mark while former Hab Jeff Petry has really slowed down this year.  He has just seven points in 40 games and his assist on Sunday snapped an 11-game drought dating back to before Christmas.

Friday at Ottawa – We hear about how the Canadiens are one of the top teams since the 4 Nations break but the Sens are right up there as well with a top-four points percentage since the trade deadline.  That’s allowed them to nearly clinch a playoff spot and put themselves within striking distance of Florida to jump out of a Wild Card spot altogether.  They just tied a franchise record, recording their tenth shutout over the weekend with both Linus Ullmark and Anton Forsberg playing well right now.  Brady Tkachuk has missed the last three games but if this is a game with some meaning for Ottawa, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him back in the lineup if he hasn’t already returned by then.  Dylan Cozens has 10 points in 16 games since being acquired last month but Fabian Zetterlund has only managed two assists in 15 appearances after being a literal last-minute addition from the Sharks on deadline day.

Saturday at Toronto – The Maple Leafs are starting to get a bit of separation for top spot in the Eastern Conference and are arguably the hottest team in the East right now as well.  Toronto made a pair of key trade deadline acquisitions, adding Brandon Carlo and Scott Laughton and while Carlo has fit in quite well, Laughton has struggled thus far.  Mitch Marner is once again within striking distance of a 100-point season, a plateau that he has nearly reached twice already.  The biggest question for them heading into the playoffs will be in goal as they have two players who haven’t been full-fledged starters before; will one grab the reins or will their platoon continue?

Final Thought

Standings-wise, it was a very good week for the Habs whose grip on a playoff spot got a lot stronger.  However, there was a common element of concern from their games this week, one that they’re going to need to clean up in a hurry.  Their first periods haven’t been good for a while.

Yes, against Florida, they scored early but as they had been doing lately, they gave that back relatively quickly.  And that was still the best first period they had.  In the other three, they didn’t score and, more concerningly, they didn’t even show up.  Shots on goal were few and far between with scoring chances even less so.  Fortunately, they were able to escape those opening frames relatively unscathed.

But the level of competition is about to increase with two of the three games this week being against division rivals playing for playoff seeding.  If Montreal keeps coming out as poorly as they have been recently, they’re going to find themselves facing a pretty steep deficit.  While they’re doing a nice job of pulling off comebacks, it’s pretty hard to keep relying on those for success.  It’d be much better if they just didn’t play their way into needing those as often as they have been.  Fixing that involves starting off much stronger than they have in recent weeks and that fix needs to come quick.