Habs Daily: Montembeault Impact, Xhekaj Shines, Hutson

All the Montreal Canadiens news items, highlights, and stories you may have missed over the weekend.

Montreal Canadiens

The Canadiens played well versus the Winnipeg Jets, the best team in the NHL, but they were ultimately undone by a fantastic performance by Connor Hellebuyck, not to mention Montreal’s eternal lack of discipline. On the bright side, rookie Lane Hutson scored his first goal of the year, which means he now has 20 points in his first 30 games in the league. [Habs Highlights: Lane Hutson Scores First NHL Goal Versus Jets]

Prospect Florian Xhekaj enjoyed quite an outing against the Bridgeport Islanders. The 20-year-old centre stole the spotlight with a five-point effort, including the first hat trick of his professional career. Jared Davidson also scored a goal in the 6-2 comeback win, pushing his season totals to 12 goals and six assists in 23 games, a significant uptick compared to his rookie scoring pace in 2023-24. [Xhekaj And Davidson Find Rhythm With Canadiens AHL Affiliate]

The disparity in results between Samuel Montembeault and Cayden Primeau is clear every time they take to the ice, but just in case you needed confirmation, they’re among the best and worst netminders in the NHL, respectively.

The situation reminds me a lot of the 1859 classic ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens, as it features two characters who put on space-age plastic suits and then face a firing squad of angry athletes showering them with frozen chunks of vulcanized rubber at unreasonable speeds. Okay, I never actually read ‘A Tale of Two Cities’, and if I’m being honest, I’ve always found English literature to be a little mundane, but I took off without somewhere to land on that one, and this is the result.

Best and Worst Goaltenders – December 15 pic.twitter.com/fBtcD7r7rs

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) December 15, 2024

ICYMI: Head coach Martin St-Louis discussed a few things following the team’s embarrassing 9-2 loss by the Montreal Canadiens to the Pittsburgh Penguins, which featured mid-game adjustments to the top six. Juraj Slafkovsky was promoted to the top line, while Alex Newhook was dropped to the second line. St-Louis suggested the Slafkovsky, Patrik Laine, and Kirby Dach combination was not working, something we confirmed by taking a look at their numbers. [Canadiens Fact Check: St-Louis Discusses Slafkovsky Line Change]

This isn’t Canadiens news per se, but I did have a good laugh when I saw TSN describe the play embedded below as being close to a goalie goal. I’ll never criticize a goalie for trying, but that’s the first time I’ve ever seen a goalie goal attempt intercepted before the puck made it to the opposing blue line, and some would argue that would make it rather far from a goalie goal.

SO CLOSE TO A GOALIE GOAL! pic.twitter.com/mBubSxcn9Y

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) December 16, 2024

National Hockey Now Network

Stalwart defenceman Marcus Pettersson, 28, who will be a free agent after this season is generally seen as the rock of the Penguins defence. However, later in the first period on Saturday night, Pettersson suffered a lower body injury, left the game, and did not return. [Pittsburgh Penguins]

The Florida Panthers sent social media into a tizzy late Thursday night when they trailed by three going into the third period in Vancouver before losing 4-0 to the Canucks. [Detroit Red Wings]

Fresh off a 6-5 win at Buffalo, familiar Detroit maladies – an inability to put the puck in the back of the other team’s net, mismanagement of the puck and too much time spent defending in their own zone – was again spelling doom in a 4-1 road loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. [Florida Panthers]