Bad Breaks Lead To Loss For Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens began their 2025-2026 season by visiting the Maple Leafs in Toronto for what has become somewhat of a tradition for the first game of the season. Despite the somewhat lackluster energy in the Air Canada Centre, there was still a lot of excitement from Habs fans as they were looking to build from what coach Martin St-Louis described as “their best camp since he joined the team” and start the season strong, unlike last season.

Overall, I think it’s fair to say the team did show a lot of good things on the ice. It wasn’t all pretty; things were sloppy from both sides as you’d expect from a first game, but overall it looked promising. They were moving the puck well, didn’t give too many prime chances to Toronto, and, aside from the first minute of the game, where Toronto did whatever they wante,d leading to their first goal, looked like the faster and more talented team on the ice for most of the game.

When they made it to the third period with the score tied 2-2, it felt like Montreal was in a pretty good spot, and fans had every reason to believe their team would eventually bury one to deservedly win the game.

And then…. “it” snapped. “It” being Mike Matheson‘s stick at the blueline after Montreal had been controlling the play in the Leafs zone for a good thirty seconds. As the veteran blueliner was rushing back to prevent a breakaway, Lane Hutson lost his stick after it somewhat collided with Matheson, leaving both defensemen stickless and defenseless to stop Toronto’s counterattack, which resulted in the game-winning goal.

Of course the Leafs deserve credit for shutting things down extremely well afterwards, scoring two empty net goals, but I think it’s a fair assessment to say a little bit of luck ended up being the difference in this one.

Game thoughts

Here are a few thoughts and observations on that first game:

• Montreal’s first line of Caufield, Suzuki, and Slafkovsky was the best one on the ice as they controlled the puck and spent plenty of time in the offensive zone, managing a combined 12 shots on goal out of Montreal’s 31. It was nice to see Slafkovsky get 6 shots on net so early as he looks ready to start the season strong and get rid of that “slow starter” reputation he’s acquired since beginning his NHL career. I’m not worried that these three will contribute offensively sooner rather than later.

• The rest of the forwards’ icetime was split almost evenly across the roster. I wasn’t so sure about the idea of basically having three third lines out there, which is a direct result of not having a bona fide 2nd line centre to round out the top six, and after watching that game… I’m still not entirely convinced. We saw flashes from every line but also some glaring weaknesses from all of them. It’ll be interesting to see if one line steps up its game to win more ice time or even if Martin St-Louis sticks with those combinations for the foreseeable future.

• I was really looking forward to seeing the newly formed defensive group in action, as it needs to be a strength for this team if the Habs are to compete for a playoff spot. I think their puck-moving ability was impressive. They rarely spent time in their zone chasing the puck and managed to cycle it well enough to prevent the Leafs from doing anything more than a “one and out” type of offense. The only outlier here is Arber Xhekaj, who played only 11 minutes and lost his positioning battle against the much smaller Calle Jarnkrök on the Leafs second goal of the game. It’ll be interesting to see if Jayden Struble gets the nod for the second game, as I still believe he’s currently a better defenseman despite not bringing as much physicality as “The Sheriff” on the ice. Although Jan Janik might disagree…

• With Kapanen scoring his first NHL goal, Bolduc (who was one of Montreal’s best forwards yesterday) scoring his first goal as a Canadiens and Dobson playing a smooth, steady game all night long, it’s fair to say the new guys did their part in this one. Excited to see if they’ll keep contributing as the season goes on.

• Montreal is now looking at a completely new setup on the power play and a now potent second wave to help out if the first one isn’t clicking. I think it will take time for everything to get into place, as I didn’t feel some players were entirely comfortable with their new roles. I’m not convinced moving Suzuki from the right circle is the best way to use his skill, and having Caufield so close to the net limits the use of his one timer, but I fully understand the appeal of finally having a player good enough at the bumper position in Bolduc to try it out. They did get a few chances, and we’ll give them time to figure it out. I’m also guessing the coaching staff will try and find a way to give power-play specialists Patrick Laine and Ivan Demidov a chance to shine in these situations as well.

The Habs now move on to Detroit tonight to face the Red Wings in what should be a very long home opener as the team begins their 100th-year celebrations. We’ll likely see Jakub Dobes in action in the first of 17 back-to-back games this season.

Thank you all for reading, and have a nice day!