Habs Daily: Demidov On Fire, Hage’s Big Night, Heineman

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

Montreal Canadiens News

Top prospect Ivan Demidov enjoyed a two-goal night as SKA shut down CSKA 6-3. The 19-year-old forward has been given upwards of 15 time-on-ice in the last five games, and coincidentally, he’s scored five goals in that stretch. Demidov now has 12 goals and 17 assists in 39 games.

The first goal, in particular, was impressive, as it showed off Demidov’s hand-eye coordination and agility.

Michael Hage had another big night for the University of Michigan. He scored the opening goal of the game versus Ohio State, closing down his opponent and forcing a turnover before quickly scoring. It was classic Hage, who has a penchant for doing everything at full speed.

He also assisted on Will Horcoff’s go-ahead goal in the third period, but his two-point effort wasn’t enough to save the Wolverines from losing 5-4 to the Buckeyes. Hage continues to lead Michigan in scoring with 10 goals and eight assists in 15 games, and it’s only fair to say the rest of the lineup has been rather underwhelming from an offensive standpoint.

The Montreal Canadiens played well enough to win, but a lack of discipline and a great performance by Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Arvid Soderblom led to a frustrating 4-2 loss. On the bright side, Emil Heineman scored his 10th goal of the year, joining Matvei Michkov and Macklin Celebrini as the only rookies to reach the 10-goal mark.  [Habs Highlights: Heineman and Caufield Score, Soderblom Shines]

Sometimes the numbers align perfectly with our impression of a player’s performance, other times, they paint a completely different story. Mike Matheson seemed to have a difficult night against the Blackhawks, but he also generated a lot of chances with an impressive eight shots on net.

It’s also worth pointing out Michael Pezzetta had a decent game considering he hadn’t played since October. We don’t want to lean too much on small sample sizes, but Pezzetta has produced good numbers in his very limited time on ice this season.

NHL GameScore Impact Card for Montreal Canadiens on 2025-01-03: pic.twitter.com/m6GIAh6nmL

— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) January 4, 2025

Lost in Friday’s game was a rather nice moment between Kirby and Colton Dach. According to TSN it was the first time the brothers faced each other in a game.

not everyday you make your NHL debut playing against your brother🥹 pic.twitter.com/i3rwTSEPKS

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) January 4, 2025