With Montreal’s forwards struggling to score, their defence corps picked up the slack on Saturday afternoon by scoring four goals on the way to a 5-2 victory over the Ducks to kick off Super Bowl weekend.

It was much of the same from the Canadiens on Thursday night. They played reasonably well, were aggressive on the puck, but ultimately couldn’t score as they fell 2-0 to Carolina to give the Hurricanes the sweep of the season series.

A strong start to the game defensively wasn’t enough for the Habs who fell 3-1 to St. Louis in their first game following the All-Star Break.

Home ice is supposed to be a good thing but that wasn’t the case for the most part this past week. The Habs managed to eke out a single victory at the Bell Centre but Laval went winless in their three contests to drop even farther out of the playoff chase.

The All-Star game came early as both the Habs and Canes forgot to play defence on Thursday night. Unfortunately for the Habs, the score didn’t come out in their favour as they lost the 80’s-like contest 6-5.

The second quarter of the season wasn’t great for the Habs. While several players stepped up, quite a few others failed to live up to expectations. Our report cards for this quarter conclude with a look at the forwards.

The Habs showed up and decided to physically drive the young Avalanche into the ground. With Colorado playing on Monday, the strategy proved wise as the Habs ended the Avs extended winning streak by a 4-2 score on Tuesday night.

With the Habs struggling and limited hope on the horizon, the road to redemption ultimately leads directly through Geoff Molson’s office. Has he seen enough to hand over the reins to a new GM?

It’s safe to say that the Habs don’t want to see Boston anytime soon after dropping two more games to them while they only picked up a single win for the week in Washington. Meanwhile, Laval continues to tread water and they are slowly but steadily losing ground on the final playoff spot.