October 8, 2025
Game 1 of the 2025-26 season for the Montreal Canadiens is in the books and the event was not as lopsided as the 5-2 score would suggest. Several things caught my eye in the road loss.
The Dobson-Matheson pair looked great.
It’s one game, but the coach’s theory might have legs. The best way to defend is to spend a ton of time in the offensive zone. Noah Dobson, the big off-season acquisition, looked solid and smooth and in sync with Mike Matheson.
I also thought Xhekaj and Carrier were quietly effective together. The pair I liked least tonight was Guhle-Hutson. I’m not sure what Hutson was doing on either of the empty net goals. One game.
Bolduc comes as advertised.
Responsible. High energy. Straight to the net. And it fetched him a nice goal. That line could be really something if it had Gallagher from 10 years ago. Even so, I like what these two guys do for Dach right now.
The PK might not be as destitute as feared.
They won’t kill penalties like Armia and Dvorak did, but I suspect the duo of Alex Newhook and Oliver Kapanen will be effective in their own way. That was a very pretty goal for his first in the NHL.
So the newbies looked good, but there was some rust on the rest. Slafkovsky was the most invested guy on the top line. We’ve seen Montembeault sharper than he was tonight. The power play has a lot of kinks to iron out. And Patrik Laine is a bit of a misfit.
But all in all, I thought the Habs were the better team for most of the night. There were a couple of brain cramps and some bounces did not go their way. Still, it’s two points they did not collect.
They get a chance to redeem themselves in less than 24 hours.
Hab At Her 