The Montreal Canadiens were unable to take advantage of suspect goaltending and a disjointed Carolina Hurricanes team losing 5-3 Thursday night in the first game back after the holiday break.

Jordan Harris returned to the lineup after missing 15 games with a lower-body injury. He played on the right side with Jayden Struble and had a quiet night. Strubble meanwhile, continues to excel and it’s going to be hard to take him out of the line up any time soon. It’s going to be a battle between Johnathan Kovacevic and Harris for playing time.

Pluses:

• The Canadiens like they usually do, started from behind and battled their way back into the game. After Carolina quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead, Montreal overcame the deficit to even the game at two. They also came back and tied the game after trailing 3-2, but couldn’t find a way to play with the lead at any point.
• It was one of those games where Mike Matheson was fumbling the puck and it looked like a grenade on his stick. Naturally, that’s the type of game where he scores a beautiful highlight real goal that should have received a little more attention.
• A Josh Anderson breakaway goal! In this economy… Anderson continues to streak and it’s true for some players, the goals come in bunches.
• Mitchell Stephens scored for a second straight game and the goal seemed to go right to his legs. All things considered, the fourth line was effective.
• Martin St Louis won another coach’s challenge… Obviously credit the video crew upstairs, but it was a gutsy called and it worked out. If it didn’t go their way, it could have been a swing point in the game.
• Cool story to have the three players who played at North Eastern all in the lineup for the first time.

Minuses:

• Cayden Primeau was just average… This goes in the minus category because when the Canadiens don’t get stellar goaltending, they rarely win.
• Terrible start and terrible third period. Carolina was vulnerable in the third period and Antti Raanta looked extremely shaky, but Montreal couldn’t muster up much offensively.
• Really tough game for Justin Baron who was on the ice for three of the four even strength goals and was directly responsible for two of them. He could be an option to be scratched if Martin St Louis wants to go back to Kovacevic next game.
• High hit that wasn’t needed by Stephan Noesen on Juraj Slafkovsky. This hit was to the head and should have resulted in a penalty, which it didn’t. Slafkovsky was removed from the game by spotter for a potential concussion. The test came back negative and it appears that he will be fine. But the NHL should look at the play because it wasn’t necessary.
• This game was a missed opportunity for Montreal to get some points because the brutal schedule increases in difficulty with Tampa Bay, Florida and Dallas coming up. Carolina played the previous night, have been very inconsistent with their play and had a goaltending between the pipes that has near zero confidence…

Next up for the Montreal Canadiens will be a match-up with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night at 7pm.