After six weeks the Habs are finding their way

November 17, 2024

The Montreal Canadiens entered the sixth week of action in the 2024-25 season at the very bottom of the standings and in desperate need of some wins. Being “in the mix” was nowhere near as important as staying out of the gutter and lifting the spirits of a young team.

The Habs took a 7-5 win in a goalie’s nightmare game in Buffalo on Monday. They were in Minnesota on Thursday and played a strong road game but couldn’t get their offence going in a 3-0 loss. On Saturday night the Canadiens welcomed the Blue Jackets and claimed a 5-1 win.

After a rough start to the season, the Habs are finding their way.

The best Habs were the best Habs in Buffalo.

Nick Suzuki has not entirely looked like himself to start the season, despite putting up good numbers. Kirby Dach is taking longer to get back in the saddle than hoped. Juraj Slafkovsky did not pick up where he left off. Cole Cufield has been the only member of the core group of forwards meeting everyone’s expectations, but not his own.

In Buffalo, Suzuki had two goals and two assists, while passing on the hat trick on the empty net goal. Slafkovsky had three key assists, and created turnovers on a strong forecheck game. Dach had two assists, and that trio was strong for the Habs.

Caufield scored two goals despite being on a second line where he’s the only legit top six player. That’s a credit to the kind of game he’s playing right now.

Those four have to be strong for this rebuild to take. They were strong again on Saturday for the win, and this bodes well for the Habs.

Shea Weber’s induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame was a final opportunity to reassess that infamous trade.

I hated it at the time. I thought Marc Bergevin was making a mistake in a deal that aged the team. I thought it was a Bergevin classic, moving a beloved player that he didn’t like. In the end it was fine. PK Subban’s career was shortened by injuries, and Weber was a leader that nearly took the Habs to a Stanley Cup, even if it was in the middle of a pretty good string of bad years.

There is another benefit to the deal that no one was calculating at the time. Weber was the guy who said Nick Suzuki was captain material, and he has made himself available as a mentor for the young captain.

If second guessing could make a career some guys would be in the Hall of Fame.

Cayden Primeau had a tough outing on Monday in Buffalo, that ended with him being pulled and Sam Montembeault taking the net. It’s fair to say that, so far this season, Primeau has not exactly taken advantage of the opportunity he’s been given by the Habs. During the game, Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette tweeted this.

Cowan is not necessarily wrong. Allen is having a great start to his season, and perhaps he could be helping stabilize the young Canadiens right now. Or perhaps backstopping this group, instead of the crowd he’s backstopping in Jersey, would look much like it did last year. And that look was uninspiring.

Either way, Hughes made the right call. He had a veteran he knew was not part of the future and a kid that was once projected to be an NHL starter. He had to give the chance to the guy who might be part of the future in Montreal. Why? Because that’s what you do in a rebuild.

Perhaps Primeau will be a bust, and I suppose it’s possible the Habs will regret trading Allen. But in the words of that great sage Michel Therrien, that’s second guessing.

In the meanwhile, Sam Montembeault was solid in week six, and if the Habs decide they need a veteran back up, those are fairly cheap to acquire.

The less we talk about Arber Xhekaj, the better he’s playing.

The season began with fans griping about Xhekaj being wrongly targeted by Martin St. Louis to raise his game to standard. Xhekaj was not playing very well but he was busy being The Sheriff. The leadership group in Montreal knows that Xhekaj can be more than an enforcer and they want him to stay focused.

Xhekaj has quietly put together a string of solid games on a third pair with Jayden Struble. Not one soul will mind him having a tilt with another team’s enforcer, or taking a penalty here and there for defending teammates as long as he’s playing like he can defensively.

A full moon this week had Josh Anderson scoring two goals.

Anderson opened the scoring in Buffalo on Monday on a beautiful breakaway that I fully expected him to flub. On Saturday night he deflected in a pretty insurance goal. He’s killing penalties and using his body more. Don’t look now but struggling Andy has been replaced by a contributing veteran.

That’s two guys who have reinvented their games under Coach Martin St. Louis. I thought Brendan Gallagher was done, and he is clearly not. I thought Anderson could never play in Marty’s style. I was wrong on both counts.

While you’re busy calling out the coach because Juraj Slafkovsky does a shift on the fourth line, Marty has turned the two veterans on long and expensive contracts into contributors.

It’s unlikely this group will find themselves in the mix this year, but they’re finding their way.