Despite his reputation as a quality veteran, the contract and mediocre performance from Jake Allen this season stand as possible barriers to him being traded by the March 8th deadline.  There is also another factor that will make a trade harder, one that is entirely out of his control.

The Habs kicked off the week with an impressive performance but they weren’t able to sustain that momentum, dropping a pair of games to Metropolitan Division opponents.

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 played a relatively strong game on Thursday night, but there were important momentary lapses and the top-ranked Rangers made them pay dearly for those sequences as the Habs dropped a 7-4 decision at MSG.

After a game to forget on Sunday, the Habs were back in action on Tuesday as they hosted Anaheim. This was a game to remember for the Canadiens with a couple of career firsts as they skated to a 5-0 victory.

Montreal emerged from the All-Star break with one line firing offensively, helping them to secure one win out of three games. Meanwhile, the injury bug struck again, taking several youngsters out of the lineup to end things on a sour note.

After coming up short in Saturday’s matinee, the Habs looked to come up with a split on Super Bowl weekend as they hosted St. Louis. It didn’t happen. Instead, they dropped a 7-2 decision while a pair of blueliners suffered injuries.

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.

January was an up-and-down month for the Habs, featuring some strong efforts and some of their worst of the year. But a handful of players stood out amongst the group, earning votes from our readers for our monthly three stars.

At some point, the Habs are going to have to start moving away some of their young prospects on the back end. Recent history suggests that they’re going to need to proceed carefully when they decide to pull the trigger on a move.