The Montreal Canadiens are in California for a three-game road trip. They face the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday, then the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings on Friday and Saturday.
We’re getting closer to the NHL trade deadline set for 3:00 pm. Eastern time on Friday. With the Canadiens in an improved position to a year ago in terms of the playoff picture, the question remains whether Kent Hughes will be active. Last season, when many believed the Habs would sell at the deadline, Hughes rewarded the overachieving squad by keeping the group together.
The reward cost them losing Christian Dvorak, Joel Armia to free agency, and David Savard to retirement without obtaining any assets in return. On the positive side, the three veterans contributed to the team’s successful playoff push. It also allowed Nick Suzuki to take his game to the next level. The Canadiens captain tallied an impressive 37 points in the final 26 regular season games.
Habs Potential Gaps
If Hughes pulls off a trade before the deadline, these are some gaps he might be looking to close.
- Remove a distraction: Patrik Laine has been practising with a regular jersey for six weeks. While he’s still officially on the injury reserve list, it’s hard to believe that he’s not physically ready for game action at this point. TSN’s Pierre Lebrun reported that the Canadiens granted permission to his agent to speak to the other 31 clubs to help facilitate a transaction. If the forward remains with Montreal past the deadline, the team can activate him because the roster no longer has a 23‑player limit for the rest of the season. The good news for the club is that they will be far away from the media circus in Montreal.
- Depth defenceman: Martin St. Louis’ utilization of Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble suggests that he has low confidence in them. In their five last games played, Xhekaj averages 9:22 of ice time, and Struble 10:38. They are the only defencemen that have no role on either special team units. It came to no surprise that they inquired about Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Rasmus Ristolainen.
- Top six forward: The first two lines include two spots where upgrades are possible. Kirby Dach is currently producing on the wing of Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. He has six points in his last six games. The question marks are around Dach’s consistency. The second spot is the second line centre. While it’s a short sample size of two games, the trio of Oliver Kapanen, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Ivan Demidov have been invisible on even strength since the return from the Olympics.
- Goaltending: With a struggling Samuel Montembeault and an inexperienced Jakub Dobes, will the Canadiens look to add a veteran for the playoffs?
Rocket Notes
The Laval Rocket’s began with a whopping 4-1 loss to the Toronto Marlies (Maple Leafs) on Wednesday at Place Bell. The following day, the team packed their bags for a weekend road trip. On Friday, they bounced back with a dominating 9-3 win against the Rochester Americans (Buffalo Sabres). The weekend wrapped up with Laval on the wrong side of a 6-4 offensive matchup against the Syracuse Crunch (Tampa Bay Lightning).
Three games at Place Bell await for the Rocket this week. It begins on Wednesday with a rematch against the Crunch, and followed by back-to-back games against the Americans starting on Friday.
Here are notes from the recent days.
- Tempers got high during Wednesday’s contest against the Marlies. Officials ejected Pascal Vincent from the game late in Wednesday’s third period after he expressed frustration with the officiating.
- The team announced that Adam Engstrom will miss four weeks due to an upper body injury. The defenceman went down with an injury on February 22 in Utica.
- Jacob Fowler sat out the entire week, and he has missed six straight games while dealing with an illness.
- Florian Xhekaj did not play over the weekend due to sickness.
- David Reinbacher had a productive weekend with four assists in two games. Officials also tossed him in the final minutes of Wednesday’s game after he threw several punches in a post‑whistle scrum.
- Samuel Blais, Alex Belzile, and Joshua Roy each obtained an impressive five points in the two road games. Belzile leads the team in goals with a career‑high 26, and Roy shares second place with 15. Blais has collected 22 points in 20 AHL games.
