Montreal Canadiens: 24 Thoughts On Habs Slow Start, Loss To Red Wings

The Montreal Canadiens hosted the Detroit Red Wings at the Bell Centre last night in an Atlantic Division matchup.

The Canadiens are near the bottom of the division with 22 points in their first 23 games and the Red Wings are playing well, winning four of five after returning from their trip to Sweden and sit in a wildcard spot as the puck was dropped on last night’s contest.

Here are 24 thoughts, observations, ramblings and complaints on the Habs 24th game of the season.

First Period Thoughts

Jake Allen gets the start which is kind of odd since Sam Montembeault just signed a contract extension. You would expect the guy who just inked a new deal to get the crease right away.

Jeff Petry and Ben Chiarot start the game for the Red Wings. This is a nice ode to a couple of former Canadiens who played a lot of minutes on the Bell Centre ice. They were both acquired as kind of under the radar acquisitions and just got better and better during their time in Montreal. They were a huge reason the Canadiens played in the Stanley Cup Final in 2021.

The Canadiens played in the Stanley Cup Final in 2021? That was only two and a half years ago? It feels like an eternity. This team does not resemble a Stanley Cup finalist.

Juraj Slafkovsky moving down to a line with Jake Evans and Tanner Pearson just seems unfair. He has slowly but surely been getting better every game this season and has put up a few points recently. He has five points in his last eight games. His reward is playing with a center who hasn’t scored a goal since opening night of the season and a winger who has zero goals since October 23rd. I get that the coaching staff wants Slafkovsky to shoot more but forcing him to shoot by giving him no one to pass to seems a bit harsh.

The Canadiens power play is officially putrid again. After two years of next to nothing on the man advantage they looked pretty good for the first 18 games of this season. Since then? They went on an 0-23 run heading into this game and allowed a shorthanded goal on their first power play. Justin Barron mishandled a bouncing puck at the attacking blue line and it sent the Red Wings the other way where Christian Fischer poked in a rebound that Allen couldn’t find.

Of course, their even strength play isn’t much to brag about right now either. That power play began more than halfway through the first period and the Canadiens had one shot on goal at that point in the game. Making it worse was the fact the shot was a dump in by recent callup Mitchell Stephens that trickled to the goalie.

Daniel Sprong, a highly skilled winger who grew up in Montreal, has been available on waivers in the past, could have been signed to a modest contract the past two summers and was never shown interest from the Canadiens, scores late in the period and now has 15 points in 23 games.