It was a Saturday night, on a national stage, facing the Maple Leafs in Toronto, when the Montreal Canadiens hit rock bottom.
A 4-1 loss to Toronto left the Canadiens tied for last in the NHL with the San Jose Sharks with a 4-9-2 record.
Their following game was on a Monday afternoon in Buffalo, Nov. 11, and it was far from perfect. The Canadiens blew three leads that day. Starting goaltender Cayden Primeau was pulled from the game early in the third period after allowing his fifth goal on 14 shots and his second in the opening four minutes of the third period, turning a 4-3 Canadiens lead into a 5-4 deficit.
But the Canadiens hung on, scored twice midway through the third and again into an empty net and held on to win a sloppy game 7-5.
After that game, Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis admitted how heavy the opening 15 games of the season had been for both him and his young team. A win was sorely needed to alleviate that heaviness.
“It’s not an easy league,” St. Louis said that day in Buffalo. “I said this to the boys after the game, I said, listen, I remember as a player thinking sometimes I’d never have another game in the league. And once I was in the league, I thought sometimes I would never score another goal in the league. And as a young coach, I swear, there are moments recently, you tell yourself, damn, will I win another game in this league? The league is tough sometimes. And sometimes, it’s not the way you play, but it’s the results that hit you hard emotionally. We stayed together, we kept working on our issues, and we got a win we needed.
“But it’s one game.”
On Saturday afternoon in Sunrise, Fla., the Canadiens played their 20th game since that loss in Toronto on Hockey Night in Canada, since hitting rock bottom. They beat the defending Stanley Cup-champion Florida Panthers 4-0 to run their record in those 20 games to 11-8-1, a .575 points percentage. That is a sample equivalent to a quarter of the season. That is not a rounding error or a short hot streak.
This is a stretch that had some low moments, for sure — home games against the Vegas Golden Knights and Pittsburgh Penguins stand out here — but overall, the Canadiens have found a way to play winning hockey over a quarter of a season. And it’s been because some of the things that were holding the Canadiens back were corrected over that time.
Patrik Laine’s return from injury on Dec. 7 and Lane Hutson being promoted to the top unit has breathed new life into the power play. Getting consistently reliable performances from the third and fourth lines has allowed St. Louis to roll four lines regularly. And the arrival of Alexandre Carrier in a trade with the Nashville Predators has brought more balance and stability to a defence corps that was in a state of constant flux.
It should not be lost that this shutout win was backstopped by 33 saves from Jakub Dobeš making his NHL debut after Primeau — the starting goalie in the game that began this stretch, a game he did not finish — was placed on waivers during the first intermission of the game in Florida. It’s still too early to say Dobeš represents a long-term correction to the backup goalie problem that has been there all season, but it would be basically impossible for him to get off to a better start.
premier match ✅
première victoire ✅
premier blanchissage ✅first game ✅
first win ✅
first shutout ✅#GoHabsGo | Casino de Montréal pic.twitter.com/NIWIzHksJF— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 28, 2024
And the main problem that was plaguing the Canadiens 20 games ago, that their best players were playing like their worst players, has also mostly righted itself. That game in Toronto was the fourth in a row where Nick Suzuki was held without a point.
“I expect a lot out of myself, so it hasn’t been fun lately. Just trying to do the best I can and help the team,” he said then. “My job is to produce, so I’m not doing my job right now.”
In the 20 games since, Suzuki has 22 points, as does Cole Caufield after scoring his 18th goal of the season to seal the win Saturday afternoon. Lane Hutson has 18 points in those 20 games despite being held off the scoresheet Saturday, and Jake Evans has 15 points — a 60-point pace over a full season. There is still room for improvement here, and we’ve seen encouraging play lately from Juraj Slafkovský, Kirby Dach — with two goals Saturday to double his season total to 4 — and Alex Newhook.
The Canadiens — prior to Saturday evening’s games — were 14th in the NHL in points percentage since Nov. 11. They have not lost more than two games in a row since that date. They were tied for eighth in the league in goals per game at 3.25, and perhaps more importantly, they are only allowing 3.05 goals per game, tied for 17th best in the league, but more notably below the number they are scoring.
“I feel comfortable with how we’re evolving as a team,” St. Louis told reporters in Sunrise after the game Saturday.
It is not something St. Louis could credibly say a quarter of a season ago. But the Canadiens’ next 20 games will be far from easy, starting Sunday afternoon in Tampa against the Lightning. That stretch will get them to Super Bowl Sunday, when the Canadiens will again host the Lightning on Feb. 9, and to within seven games of the NHL trade deadline.
The schedule is a meat grinder, the degree of difficulty in each game will be high, but the way the Canadiens played over their last 20 games, if it continues, will at least give them a chance to survive this stretch.
You don’t get to simply erase the first 15 games of a season. Those games counted, and those games are the biggest reason the Canadiens find themselves so low in the standings, far from where they wanted to be this season. But when you’re not worried about contending for a Stanley Cup, or even playing in the playoffs, you can allow yourself to segment the season a bit more to look for signs of progression.
And no matter how you measure progress, no one can argue the Canadiens have not progressed over their last 20 games, and Saturday afternoon in Florida was simply an exclamation point on that progress.
(Photo: Sam Navarro / Imagn Images)
