Canadiens Notes: Leaning on Habs Top Line

The Montreal Canadiens begin the week with two home games. First, the Carolina Hurricanes visit the Bell Centre on Tuesday, followed by the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday. After that, the squad packs their bags for a five-game road trip, beginning with the Nashville Predators on Saturday, and the Hurricanes on Sunday.

Habs Notes

Here are my notes on various topics surrounding the team.

The trio of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Juraj Slafkovsky stepped up in Saturday’s important win against the New York Islanders. The three of them combined a total of five goals and 13 points.
Cole Caufield earned himself the title of ‘Mr. Saturday Night’ this season bringing his total to 19 goals and 31 points in 20 Saturday games. His three-goal performance versus the Islanders brought his total to 43 in the season. Caufield is on pace for 51 goals, and is only two goals behind Nathan MacKinnon for the race to the Maurice Richard trophy.
Remarkably, Caufield has yet to score an empty‑net goal in his career. Although his defensive play has progressed, coaches still don’t use him on empty‑net chances.
Suzuki is now on pace for 101 points this season. He has been consistent throughout the year, and did not suffer an Olympic hangover. Since returning from Milan, the captain has 20 points in 12 games.
Slafkovsky is having the best year of his young career. His 27 goals smash his previous season high 20 from the 2023-24 season. The Slovak set a franchise record with 26 power play goals before turning 22.
Even though Jakub Dobes had a great performance in his last start, the Habs turned to Jacob Fowler on Saturday. The staff has followed a pattern since January 27th to select the starting netminder regardless of individual performance. Over the 17 games from that date, every time Montreal won, the same goalie started the following game. And every time they lost, there was a goalie change. The only exception was during a back-to-back when Fowler played the second match after Dobes won the previous night.

Rocket Notes

The Laval Rocket had a quiet week on the schedule with only two home games on the calendar. On Wednesday, the Rocket clinched a playoff spot with a convincing 5-1 win against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (Pittsburgh). Two days later, after allowing the first goal, Laval answered back with four goals to head to a 4-1 victory against the Springfield Thunderbirds (St. Louis Blues).

This week, the Utica Comets (New Jersey Devils) visit Place Bell, and the week wraps up with a road trip to face the Bridgeport Islanders (New York) on Friday, and the Penguins on Saturday.

Here are my notes on the headlines from Laval.

This will be Pascal Vincent’s second playoff appearance with the Rocket in two seasons. Last year, they reached the Eastern Conference finals, where the Charlotte Checkers (Carolina Hurricanes) swept them.
Luke Mittelstadt made his professional debut on Friday. He played on a pairing with veteran Nate Clurman. The rookie defenceman had a typical first game as a pro, going through moments where he looked nervous and then looking comfortable.
David Reinbacher had a good week. In both games he made strong first passes out of his own zone and used his body to protect the puck when necessary. As the season progresses, the defenceman is looking more comfortable and consistent on the ice.
Florian Xhekaj is currently lighting up offensively with five goals and one assist in the last six games. Two of those goals came into empty nets, but it still shows Vincent trusts him to be on the ice in those situations.
Jared Davidson ended a 17-game scoring drought with goals in both games. During that stretch he added two assists and sat out one contest as a healthy scratch.