Montreal Canadiens: Five Things Habs Need To Get For Christmas
The Montreal Canadiens entered their short Christmas break with a record of 15-13-5 to give them 35 points in 33 games played.
They remain outside the playoff picture at the moment, but are on pace for 87 points which is more than anyone predicted for them at the beginning of the season. That would keep them alive in the postseason chase for a while, but they would need to be better in the second half of the season to actually get in.
The team should be proud of what they accomplished, especially when everyone expected a bottom five finish and they lost top six center Kirby Dach in the second game of the season. However, they could always look and hope to be better in the final 49 games of the season.
In order to be better over the rest of the season, they will need a little help. Today is the day to be asking for help, and here are the five things the Canadiens should be hoping for as Christmas gifts this holiday season.
Health
Every hockey team could use good health in the coming year and the Canadiens are no expection to that rule.
In addition to Dach being out long term after just four periods of hockey this season, Alex Newhook will be out for a while, Rafael Harvey-Pinard is on injured reserve, Tanner Pearson is hurt, Chris Wideman hasn't played yet and Jordan Harris has missed more time than anyone expected. We also saw David Savard, Christian Dvorak and Kaiden Guhle miss time with injuries.
Hopefully the Canadiens can get a little more injury luck in 2024 than they have had in recent years. That would surely lead to better results but also, and more importantly, it would mean better development from the team's youngest players which is the main goal this season.
Juraj Slafkovsky's Offensive Breakout
The Canadiens rolled the dice on a big left winger with all kinds of tools with the first overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. Juraj Slafkovsky really didn't look like he was ready for the National Hockey League as a rooke in 2022-23.
The big Slovakian scored four goals and ten points in 39 games during his first NHL campaign. He was also run over in just about every game he played as he just couldn't seem to read the play properly or have the hockey sense to avoid putting himself in dangerous spots on the ice. An inability to be elusive on the ice is what resulted in him being injured for more than half the season.
This season has looked different. After a bit of a slow start, he began to look like a dominant winger. At least in flashes on the ice. He would drive the net frequently and win battles in the corners while staying on his feet way more often than he could a year ago. His passes are crisper and harder and he is getting to the net and finding room by using his frame and his smarts to get to the open areas.
But it hasn't resulted in much more offense. In fact, in 33 games this season, Slafkovsky has four goals and 12 points. That is the same number of goals and two more points than last season in six less games played. Technically that is progress, but not much.
Hopefully, this Christmas, Slafkovsky gets the gift of putting all his tools together. Call it a mental toolbox for the first overall pick. He just needs to organize everything that he can do on the ice and finally translate it into points on the scoresheet.
Solution to the three goaltender problem
One problem the team has the ability to solve on its own, or gift it can give itself so to speak, is a solution to the three goaltender rotation they have been dealing with all season.
The Canadiens have carried Sam Montembeault, Jake Allen and Cayden Primeau on their roster for all 33 games. Montembeault and Allen have played most of the games, while Primeau has now suited up for just seven on the season.
His most recent start was the Habs final game before the Christmas break, but it was just his second game in the month of December. Primeau was excellent against the Buffalo Sabres on December 9th, stopping 46 of 48 shots, but with three guys pushing for time in the crease, it was nearly two weeks later before Primeau faced another shot.
He was steady against the Chicago Blackhawks, leading the team to a 5-2 win, but who knows when he will get the crease again? His numbers have been better than Allen's and not far off Montembeault's, so it may be time to clear the crease for the 24 year old to play more often.
Hopefully general manager Kent Hughes is given the gift of a great trade offer for Allen this Christmas. With top contending teams like the New Jersey Devils, Carolina Hurricanes, Edmonton Oilers and now, reportedly, the Toronto Maple Leafs looking for a goaltending upgrade, it isn't crazy to think the Habs could get a good return from one of them for a goaltender.
That is what Hughes should be hoping to unwrap this week.
Entering The Playoff Race
The Canadiens have missed the playoffs each of the past two seasons and it really wasn't even close. Both years we kind of knew by Christmas that the team was going to be a bottom feeder and would miss the playoffs by a wide margin.
This had fans cheering for losses instead of wins for most of the season which is a sort of cannibalistic scenario teams can not find themselves in for too long or they risk becoming the next Buffalo Sabres or Ottawa Senators.
Take last season for example. Getting Connor Bedard would have been fantastic, but the only way to get him would have been to have a roster that was even worse than the Chicago Blackhawks had. Would you want a completely abysmal lineup plus Bedard, or a young team that is closer to being ready to compete and adding David Reinbacher.
The Senators have been adding that "next top prospect" that is supposed to turn the franchise around for a decade yet it hasn't worked out.
The Canadiens would be better off sticking around the playoff race as long as possible this season. They already have an impressive group of young defensemen to build around. Getting them a taste of playoff-type hockey, and maybe even a little playoff action would be great for their development.
Losing 8-1 to the Florida Panthers in February and March was not great for their development. We did that for two years and that is enough. Hopefully this season, the Canadiens get the gift of a playoff race which is something we have sorely missed in Montreal for the past few years.
Cole Caufield's Goal Scoring Touch
Even more importantly than joining the playoff race, is getting the old version of Cole Caufield back. We just have not seen the best of the Canadiens yougnster this season and they are going to need him to start putting pucks in the net once again.
The 22 year old has had a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde start to his NHL career. Shortly after joining the team from college he was on the first line in a run to the Stanley Cup Final. He looked great right away and was a big reason the Canadiens had as much success as they did that spring.
The next season did not start as well. He would a long period of time having scored just one goal and was demoted to the AHL for a short stint. Once Martin St. Louis was hired in February of 2022, Caufiled started scoring again and fired pucks in the net at about a 40 goal pace over the next year.
This season? He now has eight goals in 33 games. He is barely on pace for 20 goals this season, when 30 seemed low as a prediction at the start of the season. That's just not good enough for a player in the first year of a contract with a cap hit of $7.85 million.
The most important thing for the Canadiens is that Caufield wakes up on Christmas morning and unwraps his own goal scoring ability. It would be like getting an old toy you already owned but sort of forgot about which sounds really lame, but it would be extremely exciting for the Montreal Canadiens and their entire fanbase.