The Montreal Canadiens have a long history of fantastic offence, and some of the greatest power plays of all time. Usually, we talk about the great Montreal Canadiens offence and power plays in the past tense. But this year, we might be seeing the start of something special.
The Montreal Canadiens in 2025-26 have not only one, but two fantastic, full power play lines. Time will tell whether any of these groups can compare with the greats, but on paper, we should be having a lot of fun when the Habs are up a man this season.
The greatest power play of all time
In today's NHL, when a goal is scored on a two-minute minor penalty, the penalized player comes out of the box after the goal. But that was not how it always was. It was changed because of one team: the Montreal Canadiens of the 1950s.
The Canadiens won the Stanley Cup four years in a row in the '50s, off the strength of Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, Bernie Geoffrion, Bert Olmstead, Doug Harvey, Dickie Moore and Henri Richard, all of which had power play time and made the Hockey Hall of Fame.
That is just unfair, and after a game where Jean Beliveau scored a hat-trick in 44 seconds in one power play, the rest of the league decided enough was enough. In a vote of 5 to 6, the league enacted a rule that minor penalties ended after a goal was scored.
Is that good, or not? Depends on your point of view, but you might see more fun stuff like this if we kept the full 2-minute rule:
Unit #1: Cole Caufield - Nick Suzuki - Juraj Slafkovsky - Lane Hutson - Zachary Bolduc
The really scary thing about this group is that Nick Suzuki is the oldest of this group at 26, and all, except Zachary Bolduc, are guaranteed to stick around for a long time. And Bolduc will likely resign if all goes well this year.
First off is the reigning Calder Trophy winner and quarterback of the unit, Lane Hutson. Hutson can skate, stickhandle and has the vision to use his skills as best as possible. Further development of his shot this year should help him become more of a threat.
Cole Caufield is the shooter of the group, mostly hanging around the Patrik Laine spot for his deadly shot by the faceoff dot. With Suzuki and Hutson feeding him pucks, Caufield is the main scoring threat.
Suzuki is the truest double threat that the first power play unit has. He is really good at feathering passes through the centre of the ice, but also has a deadly wrister from the opposite circle from Caufield. Penalty killers have to respect both the shot and the pass, but can rarely defend both.
Juraj Slafkovsky should be a great front of the net presence. At 6 feet 3, 225 pounds, Slafkovsky is an imposing physical presence that can provide screens and tips and be really hard to move out of the way. He also has the skill that if the puck gets to him, he can do some great things with it.
Bolduc is the only player who hasn't played with this group, but he should slot in well in the bumper slot. He had a lot of success with that spot in St. Louis last year, so if they decide to move him to the top unit, it makes sense that is where he would slot in, and should find success.
Unit 2 - Patrik Laine - Ivan Demidov - Kirby Dach - Brendan Gallagher - Noah Dobson
It is wild that the "second" unit for the Montreal Canadiens has one of the best shots in the entire league. Any power play with Laine is going to be at least dangerous. Coming back from his preseason injury and missing significant time, Laine still finished the season 4th overall in powerplay goals.
But Laine can't do it all, and that's why you have some extremely talented players around him, namely Ivan Demidov. Demidov takes the Suzuki place on the second unit, being the biggest double threat. He can find Laine from almost any spot on the ice, but he can also dangle any defender out of the building and take a dangerous shot as well.
Noah Dobson will be the quarterback for this group, and last season, he was the quarterback for the first power play with the New York Islanders. Any time you have a different team's number one option on the power play on the second unit, you have something great going on.
The other player, similar to Slafkovsky, should be great on the power play if he hits his potential, and that is Kirby Dach. Dach is also big, skilled and strong. He is obviously coming off of major injuries, but this is his spot to lose, whether that be to weak play or, god forbid, another injury.
The last member isn't as important, but there are a couple of options. Brendan Gallagher is a fun option, being very wily and tenacious at the front of the net. The Canadiens could also go for two defenders and have Mike Matheson, who has played on the power play extensively as well.
Either way, both of these units are incredible. Penalty kill units cannot take a second off, and there will be no safe shifts. Penalty killers beware, the Montreal Canadiens are coming.