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Habs Wrap: St-Louis Sends Message, Demidov Shines, Roy

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montreal canadiens head coach martin st-louis

MONTREAL — There’s always Montreal Canadiens content to absorb, but there are only so many hours in a day. On Sundays, we recap the most exciting and relevant NHL news stories that you may have missed throughout the week so that you can stay in the Canadiens loop.

Monday

According to Pierre LeBrun, the Canadiens have started making calls to gauge the NHL’s trade market. Even though there are some players who could be moved without hurting the current lineup, improving the roster via an early-season trade will be a difficult task for general manager Kent Hughes. [Montreal Canadiens Options For Early-Season Trades]

Usually it would be difficult to suggest multiple players being injured is a good news situation, but we’re discussing the Montreal Canadiens, which means the short-term recovery timeframes for Juraj Slafkovsky, Kaiden Guhle, and Justin Barron fall into that category. [Canadiens Receive Good News On The Injury Front]

The Habs won both their games on the weekend, starting with a well-deserved 5-2 win over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, powered by Kirby Dach and Lane Hutson, among others. [Canadiens Instant Recap: Dach And Hutson Shine In Big Win]

On Sunday, the Habs held on to beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3, with sniper Cole Caufield registering his eighth goal of the year, good for second overall in the NHL. Nick Suzuki had a two-point effort, pushing his season totals to 11 points in nine games. [Canadiens Instant Recap: Red Hot Caufield Keeps Scoring Goals]

Tuesday

There was some unfortunate news on the farm, with four Laval Rocket players set to miss time in the AHL. Filip Mesar will miss from eight to 10 weeks with a lower-body injury, putting an end to his strong start to the season which saw him register five points in five games.


Ivan Demidov’s ice time has improved by leaps and bounds in recent games. The top Montreal Canadiens prospect was given over 16 minutes of ice time on Monday, which led to a great assist on Evgeny Kuznetsov’s third-period goal. As it stands, he is among the most productive players in the entire league. [Top Canadiens Prospect Demidov Already Among Best KHL Players]

It’s also worth noting Demidov is the current KHL Rookie of the Week, and he’s in the midst of a six-game point streak.

Lane Hutson is used to playing a lot due to his time with Boston University, but he’s not used to playing 82 games a year, which means his current pace is fairly impressive, as long as he has the endurance to tackle the second-half of the season.

Wednesday

When the Montreal Canadiens acquired Sean Monahan from the Calgary Flames, they also secured a conditional first-round draft pick that comes into play this season. As Kent Hughes and former Flames GM Brad Treliving created the most convoluted trade condition tree in the history of the NHL, they also managed to rope in Florida’s 2025 1st into the mix.[State Of Conditions Tied To Canadiens’ Sean Monahan Trade]

Juraj Slafkovsky returned to the lineup on Tuesday, while defencemen Kaiden Guhle and Justin Barron missed another game as they nurse their respective short-term injuries. [Canadiens Preview And Lines: Juraj Slafkovsky Set To Returns]

Tuesday’s game started on the wrong foot, and only got worse for Martin St-Louis’ team. It’s one thing to allow the Seattle Kraken to score four goals in the first 10 minutes of play, it’s another to fade down the stretch when fans expect some sort of response. The good news is that Cole Caufield continued his hot start, and now leads the NHL in goals with nine. [Canadiens Instant Recap: Cole Caufield Leads NHL In Goals]

It won’t provide much solace for fans who use their hard-earned money to buy tickets, but St-Louis acknowledged it was a disappointing situation for all involved.

Thursday

Check out the latest highlight reel goal from top Montreal Canadiens prospect Ivan Demidov. He participated in both of SKA’s scoring plays as they lost 3-2 to Lokomotiv. With the two-point effort, Demidov is now among the top-10 scorers in the league, with six goals and 13 assists in 21 games, a rather impressive feat when you consider his limited usage at the start of the year. Speaking of which, Demidov was given almost 16 minutes of ice time, marking the third game in a row which he surpassed 15 minutes TOI.

Here’s a good reminder that the best is yet to come in Demidov’s case, as he came close to scoring two beautiful goals versus Lokomotiv.


Martin St-Louis decided to mix things up following the Canadiens’ frustrating 8-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday. Emil Heineman practiced on the top line, alongside Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, while Kirby Dach was returned to the second line, flanked by Juraj Slafkovsky and Oliver Kapanen. [Canadiens Run New Lines At Practice Following Frustrating Loss]

The team announced rookie Logan Mailloux would re-join the Laval Rocket in the AHL, a precursor to Kaiden Guhle’s return to play. To his credit, Mailloux did a very good job driving offence while he was on the ice, but the defensive issues were also quite evident.


The Trois-Rivières Lions finally earned their first win of the year, a 4-2 victory over the Reading Royals.

Friday

We’ve heard a lot of criticism regarding Lane Hutson’s play in the first 10 or so games of the season. Coincidentally, or not, most of it is coming from fans who are supporting Canadian teams in the Atlantic Division, but that’s a good sign. When opposing fans go out of their way to insult players who are clearly doing well, you know there’s a certain element of envy at play. And it’s been a very long time since the Canadiens have had the type of player that evokes such envy around the division.

On that note, Hutson’s underlying numbers are far from great, but much of that has to do with the team he plays for. Everyone in the Canadiens lineup has awful possession stats, such is life on a rebuilding team. Relative to his teammates, Hutson is doing quite good.

Additionally, Hutson is generating a quantity of  high-danger chances that most elite defencemen can only dream of, and if his teammates did a little better job capitalizing on the chances, the Habs would be in much better shape.

Take a gander at the chart below, and then consider how much more compact it would look without Hutson involved. Compared to the rest of the NHL, Hutson’s ability to create high-danger chances via a quick pass in the slot has been off the charts.

Speaking of Hutson, even though some Habs players have failed miserably when it comes to anticipating quality plays from the rookie, he’s still managed to register his name on the scoresheet seven times in 11 games.

The Montreal Canadiens are regressing, statistically speaking. Even the most optimistic analysts would have suggested the playoffs were probably a stretch this season, but you never want to see a team take a step back in every single stat. On Thursday, the Capitals outchanced them significantly, and even though the Canadiens received contributions from the usual suspects (Hutson, Brendan Gallagher, Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki), there were larger issues at play.

Martin St-Louis’ lack of strategic adjustments are also starting to be an issue. He’s a fantastic motivator, but the Habs need a little more structure, it’s painfully obvious. The hybrid defensive system the Canadiens adopted this season is simply not working. Alternating from man-to-man to zone coverage can work, and lots of teams have found success by using it, but it requires every player to make the right decision while also adapting to a fluid situation on the fly. That’s a big ask for the youngest team in the league. To end this little rant on a positive note, it’s encouraging that the team’s best players keep producing. Caufield is back to being tied for the league lead in goals this season (10). [Canadiens Instant Recap: Caufield And Suzuki Score, Habs Lose]

The Laval Rocket are off to a great start this season (6-0-1), and part of that is due to the excellent play from goaltender Jakub Dobes, who has a 4-0-0 record, a 2.25 GAA, and a .910 save percentage. Unfortunately, Dobes is currently listed as day-to-day, but since the Habs pre-emptively added some insurance in the AHL this summer, goaltender Connor Hughes should be able to hold the fort. As an aside, unless a fort is a giant balloon filled with helium, no one will ever hold down a fort. You hold the fort, full stop. Some may suggest this type of pedantry is detrimental in the long run, and that it’s wasted energy, because languages are bound to evolve. And those people are absolutely right, it’s probably time for me to stop holding down the language fort.

Saturday

Martin St-Louis sent a message on Friday by putting his team through their paces at practice. A bag skate is a good reminder that there must be some accountability at play during the rebuild, and that also applies to the head coach. [Martin St-Louis Sends Message To Struggling Canadiens]

The Laval Rocket are off to a great start to the season. The many rookies in the lineup are performing well in important roles, while the veterans who want to return to the NHL are focused on a team-first approach. It’s still very early, but new head coach Pascal Vincent seems to have found a healthy balance between motivation and structure. [Pascal Vincent Off To Great Start With Canadiens AHL Affiliate]

The Rocket extended their win streak to six games with a 2-1 win over the Providence Bruins on Friday night. Jared Davidson and Owen Beck scored, two of the players who have responded very well to Vincent’s coaching. Both players now have six points in the first eight games of the season.

Davidson scored on a one-timer, his specialty, while Beck’s game-winning goal came while the Rocket were shorthanded. Full marks to Brandon Gignac for setting him up perfectly.

In the adorable department, injured defenceman David Reinbacher was invited to take part in Halloween festivities by Paul Byron when he heard the 20-year-old was unfamiliar with the process. Some European countries celebrate Halloween, but very few match the enthusiasm North Americans have for October 31.

A nice goal is a nice goal, regardless of the league. Check out this fantastic individual effort by Jacob Perreault.

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