Habs Daily: Filip Mesar Scoring In Playoffs, Kaiden Guhle Injury

Here are the Montreal Canadiens news, highlights, and stories you may have missed on Thursday.

•  Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St-Louis only made one change to his lineup ahead of the match-up against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Cayden Primeau was given his 18th start of the season.[Habs Game 75: Cayden Primeau To Start Versus Lightning]

• The good news is that Joel Armia scored two goals versus the Lightning, matching his career-best output. Juraj Slafkovsky and Cole Caufield also scored, but the late-game rally by the Habs was too little, too late. The game also featured some questionable officiating, but it wasn’t the reason Montreal lost.[Canadiens Recap: Injuries, Goals, & Poor Officiating Vs Tampa Bay]

• The Habs have the day off today, which means we may not get an update on defenceman Kaiden Guhle. The 22-year-old defenceman had to leave the game after being hit from behind by Nikita Kucherov.

Guhle has to return to the locker room after this hit from Kucherov. pic.twitter.com/YoEBVTWpoJ

— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) April 4, 2024

• With the loss against Tampa Bay, the Canadiens are officially ineligible to qualify for the 2024 playoffs. St-Louis took a rather positive approach to the situation.

#Habs Martin St-Louis says while it is mentally a downer for the team to be officially eliminated from playoff contention, he compared it to being more of a celebration of life than a funeral because of the positives that can be reflected on / carried over to next season.

— Priyanta Emrith (@HabsInHighHeels) April 5, 2024

• Filip Mesar scored his first goal of the OHL playoffs. He has now seven points in the first four games of the series against the Erie Otters. The bad news is that the Kitchener Rangers lost, which means the series is now tied at two games a piece.

Mešár gets his first goal of the #OHLPlayoffs in style 😎@OHLRangers | #GoHabsGo https://t.co/8Dx7i2e9BQ pic.twitter.com/8Oq6wWBCyI

— Ontario Hockey League (@OHLHockey) April 4, 2024

• Nick Suzuki registered his 40th assist of the season on Thursday. He is the first member of the Montreal Canadiens to reach 30 goals and 40 assists in a season since Le Magicien did it back in 2007-08.

#FunFact: with an assist on Cole Caufield's goal, #Habs Nick Suzuki becomes the first #GoHabsGo player to register at least 30 goals *and* 40 assists on a season since Alex Kovalev did so it 2007-08!

— Priyanta Emrith (@HabsInHighHeels) April 5, 2024

National Hockey Now Network

• The Chicago Blackhawks have been rebuilding the right way ever since Kyle Davidson took over the franchise as the general manager. He has overhauled everything from top to bottom. It hasn’t been easy but a lot of the hockey heartache was rewarded with the first overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. That certainly accelerated the rebuild but it was clear that there was a lot more work to do.[Chicago Blackhawks]

• Before thieves swiped a cargo shipment of Jaromir Jagr bobbleheads, thousands of Pittsburgh Penguins fans were anxiously awaiting their ceramic memorabilia of one of the greatest players in franchise history. [Pittsburgh Penguins]

• Chris MacFarland just had a dynamite trade deadline, reshaping his Colorado Avalanche in hopes of a long playoff run. It’s never too early to start thinking about next season, though. On Wednesday, the Avalanche announced that they had re-signed veteran center Chris Wagner to a one-year contract for the 2024-25 season. [New Jersey Devils]