Habs Weekly: The Stretch Run Begins
After a long break for the 4 Nations Face-Off, the Habs kicked off the stretch run on a winning note but they will need to get on a bit of run if they want to stay within striking distance of the playoffs with the trade deadline looming large.
The Week That Was
Feb. 22: Canadiens 5, Senators 2 – The game got off to a nice start for Montreal as they had a two-goal lead before the five-minute mark with both goals coming right from the slot. However, they couldn’t hold it with the Sens tying it up barely ten minutes later. Patrik Laine restored the lead on the power play soon after and after Josh Anderson and Juraj Slafkovsky scored slot tallies in the second, that was the end of Linus Ullmark’s night. The Canadiens easily held on from there as they took advantage of the Sens missing three key forwards in Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris, and Shane Pinto.
StatPack
Skaters:
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | PIMS | SOG | ATOI |
| 8 | Mike Matheson | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 1 | 23:28 |
| 11 | Brendan Gallagher | 1 | 1 | 1 | +2 | 0 | 3 | 12:29 |
| 13 | Cole Caufield | 1 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 0 | 2 | 16:26 |
| 14 | Nick Suzuki | 1 | 0 | 2 | +1 | 0 | 1 | 16:15 |
| 15 | Alex Newhook | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 1 | 15:09 |
| 17 | Josh Anderson | 1 | 1 | 0 | +2 | 2 | 1 | 14:32 |
| 20 | Juraj Slafkovsky | 1 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 5 | 5 | 15:25 |
| 28 | Christian Dvorak | 1 | 0 | 1 | +2 | 0 | 2 | 16:29 |
| 40 | Joel Armia | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 1 | 14:19 |
| 45 | Alexandre Carrier | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 2 | 1 | 21:30 |
| 47 | Jayden Struble | 1 | 0 | 1 | +2 | 0 | 1 | 18:35 |
| 48 | Lane Hutson | 1 | 0 | 1 | +2 | 0 | 1 | 19:26 |
| 51 | Emil Heineman | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 0 | 12:16 |
| 58 | David Savard | 1 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 0 | 1 | 17:52 |
| 71 | Jake Evans | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 2 | 16:05 |
| 72 | Arber Xhekaj | 1 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 0 | 0 | 17:14 |
| 77 | Kirby Dach | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 2 | 0 | 13:43 |
| 92 | Patrik Laine | 1 | 1 | 0 | E | 2 | 2 | 13:04 |
Goalies:
| # | Player | Record | GAA | SV% | SO |
| 35 | Samuel Montembeault | 1-0-0 | 2.00 | .926 | 0 |
Team Leaders:
Goals: Cole Caufield (27)
Assists: Hutson/Suzuki (39)
Points: Nick Suzuki (54)
+/-: Carrier/Suzuki (+4)
PIMS: Arber Xhekaj (83)
Shots: Cole Caufield (173)
News And Notes
– Emil Heineman was activated off injured reserve, giving the Habs a fully healthy forward unit once again. At the moment, Montreal doesn’t have anyone on regular IR; Carey Price is on LTIR while Kaiden Guhle is still on the active roster despite being injured nearly a month ago. With Heineman’s return, no one was recalled from Laval.
– David Reinbacher was activated off season-opening injured reserve and was assigned to Laval.
– Arber Xhekaj won Montreal’s hardest shot competition with a 101.2 mph blast (six mph less than last year) while Alex Newhook repeated as the fastest skater, clocking a lap of 13.573 seconds, just behind his 13.372 second mark last year.
Last Game’s Lines
Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Newhook – Dach – Laine
Anderson – Dvorak – Gallagher
Heineman – Evans – Armia
Matheson – Carrier
Struble – Hutson
Xhekaj – Savard
The Week Ahead
Feb. 25 vs Carolina – The Hurricanes made a big splash on the trade front already, adding Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall in a three-team swap but neither player has produced much so far. Rantanen has just a goal and two assists despite some solid underlying numbers and there’s already speculation that they might flip him if a contract extension can’t be reached while Hall has just one helper in his seven outings. Nonetheless, they already had one of the strongest offensive groups in the league which still has them in second place in the Metropolitan Division.
Feb. 27 vs San Jose – As expected, it has been a rough year for the Sharks who sit last in the NHL and are in the middle of an eight-game road trip. They’ve already moved their top scorer in Mikael Granlund while starting goalie Mackenzie Blackwood was moved early in the season to Colorado and Alexander Georgiev has struggled mightily since being acquired. Tyler Toffoli, the former Hab, leads them in goals with 20 as he keeps scoring at his usual pace no matter where he seems to play.
Mar. 1 at Buffalo – In the first leg of a home-and-home set, the Habs catch a Sabres team that’s actually just outside the top ten in goals scored. Their biggest problem is they can’t keep the puck out of their own net. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has struggled in his first year as the starter while youngster Devon Levi has fared even worse, resulting in a lot of AHL time. Jason Zucker has been a nice addition for them this season and sits third in team scoring; he’ll be someone to keep an eye on at the trade deadline if an extension can’t be reached before then.
Final Thought
With the trade deadline less than two weeks away, the focus is understandably shifting to who the Habs might deal away. While the rental players are understandably garnering the most attention, part of me is wondering if Montreal might be testing the market for another player on an expiring contract.
Jayden Struble is in the final season of his entry-level deal and while he played his way into a regular role last season, things haven’t gone as well this year. He has been a frequent healthy scratch, even ceding time to Logan Mailloux before the break. It’s clear that he doesn’t have the same trust of the coaching staff as last year and the fact he’s a left-shot defender, a side Montreal is pretty deep at, doesn’t help either.
We’ve seen plenty of speculation about how the Habs would like to do a hockey trade and Struble is one of the pieces they could dangle to do that. No, he’s not bringing back a type of player like Kirby Dach or Alex Newhook but if there’s a prospect that isn’t waiver-blocked that they like, I could see them making a move like that. It’s not going to be a big needle-mover but if they want to do something on the back end this summer to bring in a proven piece, it might be better off moving Struble now than potentially having their hand forced closer to training camp.