Habs Weekly: A Disappointing Start to 2020
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It wasn’t a good end to 2019 for the Habs and 2020 hasn’t started off any better as the Habs dropped a trio of games to slip further out of the playoff picture.
It wasn’t a good end to 2019 for the Habs and 2020 hasn’t started off any better as the Habs dropped a trio of games to slip further out of the playoff picture.
Christian Folin has been the eighth defenceman on Montreal’s back end for most of the season and the Habs are giving him a chance to play in Laval after he cleared waivers on Monday.
The Habs have been hit hard by injuries as of late and they’ve dipped into the free agent market to try to help in that regard as they’ve signed winger Ilya Kovalchuk to a one-year, two-way contract.
In advance of Thursday’s game against Tampa Bay, the Habs swung a pair of trades. They acquired Marco Scandella from Buffalo for a 2020 fourth-round pick and flipped Mike Reilly to Ottawa for a 2021 fifth rounder and minor leaguer Andrew Sturtz.
Laval didn’t get off to a great start in their final stretch of 2019 but they ended the year on a high note with a pair of victories against division rivals.
The week started off with some promise for the Habs but the enthusiasm quickly cratered after a pair of disappointing losses to teams they’re battling with for a playoff spot over the weekend.
The Habs are now on the Eastern portion of their road trip and were in Tampa Bay to take on the Lightning on Saturday night. They got off to a flying start but weren’t able to hold the lead as they dropped this one 5-4.
Our third group of prospects in our 2019-20 rankings features a pair of players who have been in the organization for a while now and are running out of time to make their mark.
The 2020 World Junior Hockey Championships will run from December 26th to January 5th and while the Habs won’t have quite as many prospects participating as they did last year, they will still be well-represented in the tournament. We’ll keep track of their stats here.
With Laval getting closer to reaching the midway point of the season, it’s time to wrap up our first quarter grades with a look at the forwards.