The Habs were back at home this past week with a couple of strong teams on the schedule plus a team wanting to contend in the draft lottery. Montreal put forth some good efforts and was able to pick up a pair of victories to sit at .500 on the early season.

Saturday night was a sloppy affair between the Habs and Stars with the teams combining for many turnovers in a high-speed affair. However, it was the visitors who skated away with the win as Dallas picked up the 5-2 victory.

It’s a scenario that not many thought would be realistic but the Montreal Canadiens have a winning record through the first five games of the season. With that in mind, it’s time for five early thoughts on the early performance from the Habs.

Thursday night was all Habs for the first 40 minutes as the kids showed up to play, the veterans followed suit, and the fans in attendance were treated to a big fight, Juraj Slafkovsky’s first, and total domination by the home team who is now 3-0 on home ice this season while playing some offensive and entertaining hockey as they beat Arizona 6-2.

After losing two straight on the road, the Habs returned home on Monday night to take on Pittsburgh. They found themselves down two in the third period but completed the comeback, eventually securing a 3-2 overtime victory.

After a preseason to forget, the Habs were at least able to kick off their regular season on a winning note before dropping their first two road games of the campaign. Plus, some thoughts on Juraj Slafkovsky’s usage so far.

The Habs had the lead early in the second period on Saturday in Washington but allowed three unanswered before the middle frame came to an end. That was the difference as they fell to the Capitals 3-1.

Jake Allen held down the fort early and often on Friday night but the Habs couldn’t muster up anything offensively as they fell 3-0 to Detroit in their first road game of the season.

The Canadiens will be running with a very inexperienced back end for a while as the team announced Thursday night that Mike Matheson will be out for two months due to an abdominal muscle strain.