Habs Weekly: A Good Start to the Home Stand

The Habs kicked off a long home stand this past week.  Bolstered by the return of their key offseason acquisition, they were able to pick up two of three victories, making it one of their better performances over the first two months of the season.

The Week That Was

Dec. 3: Canadiens 2, Islanders 1 – Excitement was in the air with New York in town.  Okay, it didn’t really have much to do with the Islanders but rather the regular season debut of Patrik Laine.  He made an immediate impact as he opened up the scoring in the second period with a power play marker.  However, Anders Lee was able to tie it up late in the second and after a goalless third, Nick Suzuki potted the winner midway through overtime to give Montreal the extra point.

Dec. 5: Canadiens 3, Predators 0 – For the first half of the game, the Habs played one of their stronger all-around games of the season.  They didn’t score much in that span – just a shorthanded goal from Jake Evans – but nevertheless, they were playing quite well.  Things were looking up when Laine made it 2-0 early in the third but from there, the Canadiens took their foot off the pedal.  Fortunately for them, Samuel Montembeault was in fine form, keeping Nashville at bay and securing the shutout in the process.

Dec. 7: Capitals 4, Canadiens 2 – Montreal got off to a great start against the Metropolitan leaders with goals from Alex Newhook and Cole Caufield in the first period.  But they weren’t able to sustain it.  Tom Wilson got the tying and winning goals in the third after taking a puck to the face earlier on while the Habs had several breakaways and couldn’t get the equalizer while Dylan Strome sealed the win with a little over six minutes left.

StatPack

Skaters:

Goalies:

Team Leaders:

Goals: Cole Caufield (17)
Assists: Hutson/Suzuki (18)
Points: Nick Suzuki (28)
+/-: Nick Suzuki (+2)
PIMS: Arber Xhekaj (41)
Shots: Cole Caufield (76)

News And Notes

– Winger Patrik Laine was activated off LTIR as expected.  Carey Price was moved to LTIR to create the corresponding cap space.

– The Habs will have three representatives at the 4 Nations Face-Off.  Samuel Montembeault will represent Canada while Laine and Joel Armia were named to Finland’s roster.

– Kaiden Guhle missed Thursday’s game due to illness but returned for Saturday’s contest.

– Laine’s goal against Nashville was Montreal’s first tally at five-on-three in more than two years.

Last Game’s Lines:

Caufield – Suzuki – Newhook
Slafkovsky – Dach – Laine
Anderson – Dvorak – Gallagher
Heineman – Evans – Armia

Hutson – Matheson
Struble – Guhle
Xhekaj – Savard

The Week Ahead

Monday vs Anaheim – It has been a rough go for the Ducks this season who come into this one tied with Montreal for points while sitting at the bottom of the Pacific Division.  They just lost Trevor Zegras to what looks like a longer-term injury while sophomore center Leo Carlsson is also banged up although veteran blueliner Cam Fowler recently returned.  Anaheim sits 31st in the league in goals scored and no player has more than six so far in what has been a by-committee attack that has struggled.

Thursday vs Pittsburgh – The Penguins have found their footing recently as they’ve won five of six games to creep closer to the .500 mark.  Veterans Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin continue to lead the way offensively while Rickard Rakell is having a nice bounce-back year with 11 goals already.  Kris Letang isn’t off to a great start with just 11 points in 26 games while Erik Karlsson isn’t producing quite as expected either with 18 points in 29 outings.  If they ever get going, Pittsburgh could get on a bit of a run.

Saturday at Winnipeg – The Jets have cooled off as of late, losing five of their last eight games but still sit atop the NHL standings (tied with Minnesota and Washington).  They are one of the top scoring teams in the league with six players past 20 points already (the Habs have two and you probably know who they are).  Meanwhile, Connor Hellebuyck is once again among the league leaders in goal, helping Winnipeg be a top-three team in fewest goals allowed.

Final Thought

I feel like the Habs are reaching a crossroads with Justin Barron.  They’ve basically eradicated any potential trade value he might have had by this frequent benching they’ve been doing lately over doing a rotation (thanks in large part to Arber Xhekaj settling down after a rough start to his year).  But this is a player they had high hopes for as the centrepiece of the Artturi Lehkonen deal and he has shown flashes of being a capable NHL player, just not consistently enough so far.

Generally, I’m not a fan of selling low but we’ve seen time and time again a young player have their potential value disappear once they become waiver-eligible.  Struggles lead to consistent benchings and things go downhill from there.  Greg Pateryn and Jarred Tinordi are older blueline examples of that.  I’d even put Cayden Primeau in that category as he’s gone from a young netminder with upside to a backup that the coaches appear to be afraid to play and his value has gone down to probably zero.

Barron isn’t exactly in the same category as these three as he has more playing time overall than the others did but it still feels like a comparable situation.  Do the Habs still see him as part of the long-term future on the right side of their back end?  If so, they need to find a better way of getting him into the lineup, even if it’s as a third-pairing piece.  If not, maybe the time is right to try to move him while he still has some value (with another year at $1.15 million, it’s not a bad-value contract) even if it’s not for the value they paid for him.  Otherwise, if the current trend continues, accomplishing even that a few months from now will be that much harder.