The Canadiens, without their head coach, kicked off a five-game road trip in Calgary on Saturday night. In a battle of two young netminders, it was Dustin Wolf who stole the show, allowing the Flames to pick up the 5-2 victory.
The Habs kept pace with Toronto for most of the night on Saturday but a late John Tavares goal was the difference-maker as the Maple Leafs picked up the 3-2 victory.
The Habs played one of their more defensively-sound games on Saturday afternoon in New Jersey but it wasn’t quite enough as the Devils skated away with the 4-3 victory.
Saturday’s matchup against Washington was a tight affair throughout. While Montreal came back from a one-goal deficit three times, it wasn’t enough as the Capitals scored in the back half of the third period to pick up the 4-3 win.
Montreal’s top line came to play on Saturday afternoon against Dallas but a lack of offence from the rest of the lineup proved costly as Dallas skated away with a 3-2 win while Rafael Harvey-Pinard left early with a lower-body injury.
Jake Allen had a strong showing in Pittsburgh on Saturday night but it wasn’t quite enough as Marcus Pettersson’s goal midway through overtime gave the Penguins the 3-2 victory.
For the first half of the game in Boston on Saturday, the Habs were able to somewhat keep pace. However, frequent defensive struggles came back to bite them as the Bruins skated away with a 9-4 win.
The Habs put forth their best effort of the week on Saturday against Edmonton but came up just short in the end as Evan Bouchard scored a power play goal early in overtime to give the Oilers a 2-1 victory for a franchise-record tenth straight win.
The Habs jumped out to an early 3-0 lead against the Metropolitan-leading Rangers on Saturday night before New York fought back to tie it and send it to overtime. After a scoreless extra session, Cole Caufield potted the only goal to give Montreal the shootout win.
The Habs haven’t had much success in Florida lately and that trend continued on Saturday night as they dropped their penultimate game of 2023 by a 4-1 score.