The Montreal Canadiens continue to find different ways to win games.

They turned over the puck too much for comfort but got a timely late goal from Joel Armia and beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-2 on Wednesday night, to wrap up their five game road trip.

What Martin St Louis touches, seems to turn to gold. Armia was inserted into the lineup for Michael Pezzetta and the move paid off.

Even though Montreal hasn’t been convincing in their recent performances, they are finding ways to get points which is something they struggled to do last season.

It’s not perfect but they’ve won three of their last four games and the road trip ultimately has to be deemed a success.

Pluses:

• Let’s start where we usually start, goaltending. It feels like it’s been awhile since Sam Montembeault played in a game where the Canadiens didn’t at the very least have a chance at getting points. This one was no different, Montembeault kept them in it especially in the first period when the Habs were outplayed. Beautiful save on Boone Jenner on a 2-on-1 as well which was a game changer.
• Chemistry is building between Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovksy. One of the better cycle/possesion shifts we’ve seen in awhile occured in the second period with the two of them on the ice. Caufield scored a 5-on-5 goal after a nice breakout pass by Slafkovsky sprung Christian Dvorak and Caufield on a 2-on-1. It also seems like Montreal’s top sniper might be heating up.
• Jayden Struble continues to look like he belongs. It’s going to be a great development year for him back in the AHL when Montreal heals up from injuries. We will wait to see if his play fizzles out when the high of being called up to the NHL wears off. But he looks like he can be a regular already.
• Montreal got goals from three different lines, talk about balance.
• Another great Martin St Louis quote after the game… “We’re chasing consistency and for me consistency is doing the things that are not fun but doing it like you love them.”
• When Armia goes to the AHL and comes back to the Habs, he scores.
• Alex Newhook now has seven goals on the season.
• Only one penalty against Montreal and it was for puck over glass.
• The game flew by and was over by 9:25pm.

Minuses:

• Poor puck management, a better team will burn them if they turn over the puck this much.
• Sean Monahan continues to be misused. He being saddled with slumping players and they’ve rubbed off on him. He doesn’t have a point in seven games and hasn’t scored in 12-games. If you want to polish the apple and get a nice return on him at the deadline, playing him with a player who hasn’t scored this season probably isn’t the best idea.
• Josh Anderson is never going to score again.

Montreal’s next opponent is the Florida Panthers on Thursday night at the Bell Centre to begin a four game homestand.

The last couple of Saturday games have not gone well for the Montreal Canadiens.

This time, it was a 4-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings and the Habs didn’t look like they belonged on the same ice surface as their opponent.

The skill discrepancy was on full display and Montreal appeared out of gas after three games in four nights on the west coast.

Simply put, the Habs were dominated and it’s challenging to find anything positive this one.

Pluses:

• They picked up four of a possible six points in California and in years past this is the road trip from hell.
• Juraj Slafkovksy stood out and had some good flashes… He still has to develop that shoot first mentality and passed up on some good shot opportunities.
• If you want to see why you should be patient with young raw players, take a look at Quinton Byfield’s development curve.
• Martin St Louis says they were in it until the third period.. If he says so… Seemed like the second period was decently played by Montreal, but that was about it.

Minuses:

• Defending… This one was a coach’s nightmare, almost every goal was the direct result of a miscue on defense. Two goals were scored that Jake Allen could have been better on, but he wasn’t given any rope to work with.
• Offense…? There was no offense to speak of, this was a low event game and the Kings like it that way.
• Johnathan Kovacevic forgot how to play hockey… Or he’s playing too much because of the injuries. Either way, this has been a rough stretch for a player who’s been stable all year.
• Josh Anderson is never going to score again.

The Montreal Canadiens will look to bounce back in the conclusion of this road trip Wednesday night in Columbus against the Blue Jackets at 7pm.

It wasn’t a beautiful Picasso of a game by any stretch of the imagination but the Montreal Canadiens secured two points in the standings with a 3-2 shootout win over the San Jose Sharks Friday afternoon.

Montreal spotted the worst team in hockey with a 2-0 lead but got timely goals from Johnathan Kovacevic and Cole Caufield to tie the game and then Jesse Ylonen scored the winner in the shootout.

“It’s not an easy league, we battled until the end and got two points,” said head coach Martin St Louis after the game.

Pluses:

• Cayden Primeau turned in another solid night at the office. There haven’t been too many nights this season where the goaltenders (all three) haven’t given them a chance to win.
• Juraj Slafkovksy is in the midst of a strong stretch of games. He was strong on the puck, made plays in tight areas and is taking the puck into good spots in the offensive zone. Slafkovksy was rewarded with an assist on the tying goal, got time on the ice in overtime and put a nice move on Mackenzie Blackwood in the shootout, although he didn’t score. Many encouraging signs for the former first overall selection.
• Cole Caufield finally score a goal at 5-on-5, we’ll see if this provides a bit of a spark and he can go on a heater.
• Nick Suzuki’s shooutout goal, pure filth. He’s the NHL’s best shooter.
• Jesse Ylonen, doesn’t play in the third period or overtime and then scores the shootout winner on a move equally as nice to Suzuki’s.
• Steady Struble got his first NHL point.

Minuses:

• The San Jose Sharks are awful and this game shouldn’t have needed shootout. It could have been a stats padding night and it wasn’t.
• Johnathan Kovacevic is lost right now defensively (yes he scored again)
• Josh Anderson is never going to score again.

The Montreal Canadiens wrap up their trip to California with a game against the LA Kings at 4pm on Saturday.

The Montreal Canadiens played their worst game of the season and got dominated by the Boston Bruins 5-2 Saturday night to begin a five game road trip.

The situation wasn’t ideal, Boston played just twice last week while Montreal was saddled with a heavy schedule of four games. Last Saturday’s loss was also still fresh on the minds of the Bruins players who were hungry for revenge.

There was some room for optimism early in the game with head coach Martin St Louis putting the lines into a blender. Cole Caufield was back with Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky finally had Sean Monahan has his center, something many people had be clamoring for.

But the Bruins stepped on the Canadiens right from puck drop and never slowed down. It was 60-minutes of domination and midway through the game, it looked like Montreal’s players couldn’t wait for the game to end.

This, on a Saturday night, in Boston against the rival Bruins with their fathers in the crowd as part of the annual “Dad’s Trip.” Ouff…

“Boston was strong tonight, I thought tonight it’s not that we didn’t work hard, we worked badly,” said St Louis in his post game comments. “And I thought we were soft a bit as well.”

Pluses:

• Juraj Slafkovsky had a goal and an assist. Good release on his goal and didn’t waste time getting his shot off when sent a pass from Nick Suzuki. It wasn’t his strongest game, but at least the production was there.
• Jake Allen… If not for him, Bruins could have beat the Habs by a touchdown and a field goal on Grey Cup weekend.
• Gustav Lindstrom landed a thunderous open ice hit on Matt Proitas.
• Nobody will be talking about the Habs game on Monday, the talk of the town will be the Montreal Alouettes
• They get to hide on the road for the next week and a half.

Minuses:

• Soft in every area.
• Sleeping to start the game, Boston went to the first intermission with a 2-0 lead and had 27-shot attempts at 5-on-5 to go with six high danger chances.
• Very little in the physicality department, it didn’t feel like a rivalry game. That’s what happens when one team is chasing the other team all over the ice.
• None of the new lines clicked, yes it’s just one game.
• Josh Anderson will never score again.

Montreal’s next match up will be a late one out on the west coast when the Canadiens take on the Anaheim Ducks.

The Montreal Canadiens had one of their worst performances of the season and lost to the Vegas Golden Knights 6-5 Thursday night at the Bell Centre.

“In Vegas we deserved better and tonight we deserve what we got,” said head coach Martin St Louis post game.

The score didn’t reflect the game. Montreal defended poorly, were outshot and severely outplayed.

And the game was put away by the Golden Knights following a brutal double minor assessed to Brendan Gallagher for high sticking. It might be time St Louis staples a player to the bench when it’s called for. He’s been hesitant to pull out that card so far during his time as head coach, but it could send an important message especially if it’s a veteran that rides the pine.

Pluses:

• Alex Newhook scored a nice goal on a deceptive shot where he was looking to pass at first. He had gone 13-games without a goal.
• Jesse Ylonen… Who is this guy?! Looked like a natural goal scorer with a strong finish on a breakaway. At some point, he should get more opportunity and a look higher in the lineup.
• Cayden Primeau played a tremendous first period. He made several saves from high danger areas and made 18-saves. Montreal’s young goalie didn’t deserve to be hung out to dry in his third start of the season.
• They did score five goals… Free wings!

Minuses:

• Six goals allowed. Yes, Vegas has a lot of offensive weapons but so many self inflicted wounds by Montreal. The game was a coach’s nightmare.
• Arber Xhekaj left in the second period and didn’t return. Looked like a shoulder injury (not the same shoulder that he hurt last season). It would be VERY surprising if he didn’t miss time.
• After a flashy game where he didn’t get any bounces against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday, Cole Caufield was invisible.
• Brendan Gallagher’s double minor cost them the game. He was flat footed and could have been called for either high sticking or hooking. “It can’t happen,” said St Louis.
• Kaiden Guhle has been getting a ton of praise as of late. Not his best outing.
• Josh Anderson is never going to score again.

The Montreal Canadiens next opponent is the Boston Bruins Saturday night in a rematch of last week’s game.

The Montreal Canadiens drastically outplayed the Calgary Flames but weren’t rewarded for their efforts and lost 2-1 Tuesday night at the Bell Centre.

Jacob Markstrom made several critical saves for the Flames, including one with about a minute to go, robbing Josh Anderson of what looked like a sure goal. Anderson is still searching for his first goal 16-games into the season.

“I’m going to have to change something; maybe a new stick? I don’t know… We’ll see tomorrow,” said Anderson following the game.

Montreal won just about every metric with the exception of the most important one, the scoreboard. While encouraging that overall the team played a good game, it also showcased the Canadiens’ greatest deficiency which is offensive depth.

Anderson isn’t the only player shooting blanks right now…

Pluses:

• Sam Montembeault turned in another solid performance. Jake Allen won the Molson Cup as top player for the month of October and it looks like Montembeault will do the same thing for November. He was fortunate to have an Andrew Mangiapane goal taken off the board because of offside.
• Juraj Slafkovsky looks confident. And he picked up an assist. The hesitancy in his game is gone.
• Some line juggling in the third period as Martin St Louis looked for a spark had Slafkovsky with Sean Monahan as his centre… That could be a good idea longterm…
• Kaiden Guhle… Should just write his name in the plus column every game at this point.
• A lot of talk about Cole Caufield at 5-on-5 recently… He was Montreal’s most threatening forward with 8 shots on goal and 10 shot attempts.
• First goal as a Montreal Canadien for Gustav Lindstrom.

Minuses:

• The officiating is a story just about every game. Brendan Gallagher was called on a tripping penalty that never happened. I understand missing a call, I’ll never understand calling something that didn’t occur. The referees are making it up most nights, or reacting to fans or the players on the benches. It’s brutal. Oh, and when they make a mistake, they fix it by making a second mistake… “Can’t happen, he’s in the neutral zone. It’s a terrible call,” said Gallagher. “You can’t make that mistake, it’s as simple as that.” He’s not wrong…
• Another goal taken off the board (this time an opposition goal) because of the stupid ability to challenge offside plays.
• Guhle got hit in the face with Elias Lindholm’s skate. Always terrifying to see, luckily he was fine and didn’t miss a shift. It could have been much worse.
• Josh Anderson is never going to score again. Not only was he robbed in the final moments of the game, but also ripped a shot past Markstrom in the second period that rang off the cross bar. At that point, all he could do was look to the rafters and laugh it off.
• Alex Newhook, Tanner Pearson, Jake Evans and Raphael Harvey Pinard are all doing little to chip in offensively.

Montreal’s next matchup will be on Thursday night when they welcome the Vegas Golden Knights to the Bell Centre.

It was going to be a challenge to match the emotions of playing against the Boston Bruins on a Saturday night. The Canadiens competed hard and right until the end but lost to Canada’s best team, the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday.

The 5-2 score doesn’t tell the whole story, two of Vancouver’s goals were empty netters and Arber Xhekaj scored a late meaningless goal as well.

“We got to look at the group guys here and even when we’re behind we’re still finding ways to keep ourselves in games and compete and find ways to get points and that’s big,” said goaltender Jake Allen.

Pluses:

• It was Juraj Slafkovsky most dominant performance of the season, maybe of his NHL career. Early in the game he was broke in on the left side on a 2-on-1 with Cole Caufield. Slafkovsky looked like he was caught between wanting to pass or shoot and fumbled the puck, negating what could have been a prime scoring chance. From that moment, he looked determined to shoot the puck every time he got a chance to do so. The former first overall pick ended up with six shots on goal and 10 shot attempts, which were career highs. His struggles seem well behind him at this point and with this type of volume shooting, goals will follow. Slafkovsky’s progression seems to coincide with Alex Newhook moving to the wing and Christian Dvorak returning to the line up. He’s not ready to drive a line on his own, and stable play at centre has benefitted him greatly.
• The powerplay continues to click, this time Mike Matheson capitalized on a chance from the high slot. It’s refreshing that this hasn’t been a focal talking point 15-games into the season.
• Xhekaj got on the board with a goal when the game was all but over. It’s always nice to get the first one out of the way.

Minuses:

• Jake Allen played well for the most part, but the Ilya Mikheyev goal is one that needs to be stopped. It turned out to be the game winner.
• Cole Caufield looks invisible at 5-on-5 and the production isn’t there. He has to get going because all his moments have come on the powerplay or in overtime. Caufield has just one goal at 5-on-5 and in came in the second game of the season.
• Another goal called back because of the stupid, ridiculous, annoying ability to challenge off-side. It wasn’t that long ago that this was a play that couldn’t be challenge… Was it THAT big an issue back then? Did we see an abundance of missed calls that led to goals? Can’t recall that being the case…
• Josh Anderson is never going to score again.

“Life’s hard, I always say winning is not loyal. You can do everything right doesn’t mean you’re going to win and right now Josh is doing a lot of good things,” said head coach Martin St Louis. “He’s just not winning right now so sometimes you just almost have to laugh at it a little bit and keep at it.”

The Montreal Canadiens’ next game is on Tuesday night when they host the Calgary Flames at the Bell Centre.

For years, the Montreal Canadiens seem to have the ability to raise their game to the level of their opponent. Saturday night was no exception and they beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 in overtime.

Kaiden Guhle scored the game winner and was deserving of the praise he received post game. He was a beast on the penalty kill, came up with some big shot blocks and assisted on a Brendan Gallagher goal earlier in the game.

“Our good is really good, when we’re on top of it, we can beat any team in the league,” said Guhle after the game.

It was a feisty game between the two rivals and we only have to wait a week to see the rematch.

Pluses:

• Kaiden Guhle was the first star and played hero in overtime. He’s looking more like a legit top pair defenseman every game.
• Brendan Gallagher scored again and was the most noticeable Montreal Canadiens’ forward. No surprise against Boston.
• Sam Montembeault let up a goal on the first shot of the game but settled in nicely after that and was a big factor in the win.
• The Canadiens remain perfect in overtime this season. There’s something about 3-on-3 that clicks with this group.
• The beat Boston.

Minuses:

• Montreal has surrendered the first goal of the game in 7 of their last 8 games.
• They’ve allowed a goal in the first 30-seconds in two of their last three games.
• Josh Anderson is never going to score again.
• Jordan Harris went down with an injury and is listed as day-to-day.
• The officiating (both sides) was horrendous again. Oh, Chris Lee was one of the referees, shocker.

Montreal’s next matchup is a clash with Canada’s best team, the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday night at the Bell Centre.