The Habs embarked on their second multi-game road trip of the early season this week. With a pair of wins in those three games plus a victory on home ice, they find themselves sitting atop the Atlantic Division through their first ten games of the season.

A big second half push from the Habs on Saturday made the difference. They scored four times in the back half of the game while Ivan Demidov’s second goal of the season stood as the winner in a 4-3 game.

For the second year in a row, the Habs will be missing Patrik Laine for a big chunk of the season.  The team announced Saturday that he will miss the next three to four months after undergoing surgery to repair a core muscle injury.

In a back-and-forth affair on Thursday night that also featured some questionable officiating, the Habs came up just short in Edmonton as Vasily Podkolzin’s late winner gave the Oilers the 6-5 win.

The Habs weren’t able to muster up much offence on Dustin Wolf on Wednesday in Calgary but, backed by another strong showing from Jakub Dobes, what they had was enough as Mike Matheson’s overtime goal gave Montreal a 2-1 victory.

Montreal’s first home stand of the year featured some very close games with the Habs trailing late in all three of them. However, they were able to come back to win two of them to sit in a tie for first in the division.

The Habs had the lead for the majority of Saturday’s game against the Rangers thanks to a quick start. However, New York scored three quicks goals in the third and the Canadiens couldn’t come back this time, falling 4-3.

The Habs had a very strong start to their season with a 4-1 record to tie for the lead in the Atlantic Division. Digging into the numbers, they show that Montreal’s performance has been much better out of the gate.

The Habs took care of a big piece of business earlier this week when they signed Lane Hutson to an eight-year, $70.8 million extension. Our writers offer up their thoughts on the signing.