Habs Highlights: Patrik Laine Again, Montembeault Dominance

The Montreal Canadiens hosted the Nashville Predators on Thursday night, attempting to win their second game in a row since forward Patrik Laine recovered from his lower-body injury.

The Habs hit the ground running and did not look back, emerging with a well-deserved 3-0 win.

Let’s dive into the highlights!

Jake The Penalty Kill Snake

Effort levels haven’t always been ideal in Montreal this season, but if there’s one player who could never be accused of mailing it in, it would be Jake Evans.

The 28-year-old defensive stalwart opened the scoring on Thursday night with a crucial shorthanded goal that put all the momentum firmly in the Canadiens’ corner. It was Evans’ fifth goal of the season, which means he’s now on pace to establish a new career high with 40 points.

We also need to give some credit to Joel Armia, as he was the player who caught a piece of the puck deep in the Canadiens’ zone, which allowed Evans to intercept the puck. He also quickly joined the rush, forcing the Predators to spread their defensive coverage, making life a little easier for Evans as he entered a high-danger scoring area.

Jake Evans with a strong drive to score while shorthanded.

1-0 #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/Q7Ezq2LoCY

— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) December 6, 2024

Patty Cakes

Despite playing quite well in the first half of the game, the Canadiens only held a fragile 1-0 goal heading into the second intermission, putting their hard work at risk of being erased with just one shot.

The risk was quickly pushed aside when Patrik Laine took advantage of a lot of open ice on the powerplay to score his second goal in as many games. His accuracy was particularly evident, as he picked the short side corner out with the greatest of ease. Of course, we can’t expect Laine to score every night, but you’d be hard-pressed to argue his presence in the Canadiens lineup hasn’t completely changed the play of the team for the better.

It feels like everyone is skating a few inches taller now that No.92 has returned to play.

Nick Suzuki and Lane Hutson got well-deserved assists, which means Suzuki maintained his point-per-game scoring pace, while Hutson registered his name on the scoresheet for the 17th time.

The Canadiens did a great job closing out the game, keeping the Predators scoring chances to a minimum, which led to Armia being rewarded for his strong penalty work with an empty-net goal.

Patrik Laine scores again!

His second PP goal in as many games, 2-0 #GoHabsGo

Suzuki with the big save, Hutson got the other assist. pic.twitter.com/7Zlq9VgVRe

— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) December 6, 2024

Monty Money

Even though Samuel Montembeault’s save percentage is better than the two other Canadian goalies who are set to represent Canada at the 4 Nations Faceoff, a certain columnist decided to stir the pot by suggesting bringing the Habs netminder was a political decision.

Ignoring that Montembeault backstopped Canada to a gold medal at the 2022-23 World Championship, suggesting he is not worthy of playing for Team Canada feels like a desperate attempt to avoiding separating the facts from archaic perception.

While it’s true Montembeault tends to lean left, he’s also a bi-partisan goaltender, relying on his reflexes to filibuster right-handed opponents during the penalty kill.

And in the end, the Quebec-native often decides the fate of all Canadiens, making a vote of confidence for Montembeault the most logical choice.

For the record, Montembeault made 29 saves in the shutout effort, which will hopefully put to rest the referendum regarding his Canadian worthiness.

The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Saturday, hosting Alexander Ovechkin and the high-flying Washington Capitals at the Bell Centre. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 pm ET. All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.