The 2024-25 season for the Montreal Canadiens has been a tale of two teams. The first, was one of the worst teams in the league, that had fans looking at the draft lottery. Now? The team has gone on the biggest heaters of the season and fans have abandoned the draft lottery and are now looking at the Eastern Conference Wild Card standings.
There have been a number of factors that have changed the fortunes of this team. Patrik Laine returned from his injury in the preseason to as good a form as we have ever seen. He debuted in the regular season against the New York Islanders and scored a goal. He then scored in his next game against the Nashville Predators and has not looked back, so far recording 12 goals and 17 points in 19 games so far.
Speaking of the Nashville Predators, Kent Hughes and Barry Trotz pulled the trigger on a trade. They swapped defenceman one-for-one. The Canadiens sent young defender Justin Barron for the older, more established Alexandre Carrier.
Carrier has solidified the Montreal Canadiens blueline by providing solid play and allowing Guhle to play on his strong side and fully unlocking his potential.
But the biggest thing that has attributed to the Canadiens recent success has been their ability to record comebacks. Just a month or two ago, the Habs would be dead in the water if the opponents score first, or take the lead. But now, the team has proved that no one should change the channel based on the score.
The 16th game of the season was the first game that the Montreal Canadiens won while trailing at any point during the game. It was the Canadiens fifth win, which showed how bad the start of the season was.
Even then, Josh Anderson scored the first goal of the game, and the Canadiens trailed 3-2 and 5-4 before winning 7-5. So 16 games into the season, and the Habs still had yet to win after conceding the first goal.
Game 22 was the second stirring of any kind of resiliency from the Canadiens. Mathieu Olivier scored about half-way through the first period, and Slafkovsky followed with his second goal of the season also in the first. The Canadiens and Blue Jackets traded goals back-and-forth and the game went the distance, and Nick Suzuki scored quickly into overtime to break the curse.
The Canadiens were 7-11-3, before they won their first game after being down 1-0, and even then it took them going to overtime to do it.
And then Patrik Laine returned, and the Habs started to turn their season around.
Game 28, the Canadiens hosted the Anaheim Ducks. Despite Laine scoring first, the Ducks responded with 2 straight goals. But just 11 seconds after Troy Terry put the Ducks up, Kirby Dach brought the teams back even, and the Canadiens went on to win the game in a shootout.
Then we fast forward a little bit to Game 32, against the Detroit Red Wings. Heineman struck first, and the Habs and Wings traded goals before Tyler Motte scored early in the third to put Detroit up 3-2. But instead of folding, Arber Xhekaj scored his first goal of the season, and like clockwork, Laine scored a powerplay goal and the Habs went on to win the game.
That was near the start of the Canadiens hot streak, and many more comebacks were to come. Including maybe their most impressive win of the season.
Game 37, the last day of 2024, the Montreal Canadiens rolled into Vegas, to face the heavily favored Golden Knights. This was a major test, and Vegas came out swinging. Zach Whitecloud and Noah Hanifin scored in the first period, and things were looking dire.
Caufield started the comeback with a goal in the second and Emile Heineman and Kirby Dach both tallied goals in the third period, and the Habs shut down the high flying Golden Knights offense and won 3-2 after being down by 2.
Two games later against the Colorado Avalanche, Mikko Rantanen scored in the first period, but Cole Caufield scored in the third period, and the Habs went on to win again while conceding the first goal.
The very next game, the Vancouver Canucks took a 3-1 lead in the second period, including two goals in 20 seconds, which are absolute back-breakers. But the Canadiens took back the lead with three straight goals, allowing a goal in the third, but winning the game in overtime.
The very next game, the Washington Capitals scored the first goal, only to lose to the Habs in overtime, with the second straight game ending in a Nick Suzuki overtime goal.
Utah came out to a hot start against the Habs, going up 1-0 and 2-1 in the first period. But the Canadiens came back one again and ultimately won 5-3. Again, the next game against Dallas, Jason Robertson scored early in the first period, but the Stars lost 3-1.
And the Montreal Canadiens last two games were masterclasses in coming back.
First, against the New York Rangers: the Rangers scored first, and Brendan Gallagher responded. Then, the Rangers scored again before the end of the first period. Dvorak scored to even the game again, only for Zibanejad to put the Rangers ahead again. Suzuki scored in the second, only for Kreider to score just over a minute later.
Over half-way through the third, Juraj Slafkovsky tied the game for the Habs for the fourth time. Which brought the game into overtime where Kaiden Guhle hit Patrik Laine with a pass, and the Canadiens won 5-4. They won the game after being down a goal four different times in the game.
And most recently, the Tampa Bay Lightning's big guns showed up to play early, as Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel scored the first two goals of the game. But guess what? The Canadiens scored three unanswered goals, including Jake Evans within the final three minutes of the game as the Canadiens won once again.
Now, obviously playing from behind a lot is not always the greatest idea. You generally want to be winning more time than you are losing. And the worst loss the Canadiens have seen of late was against the Toronto Maple Leafs, where they fell victim to their own downfall, going up 3-0 in the first period only to lose the game in embarassing fashion 7-3.
However, this is a fantastic showing of resiliency for a young Montreal Canadiens team. It shows that they are mentally strong, don't give up, and you now can never count them out. The future looks bright, and this is just a preview of what this team can do.