Habs News: Matheson Ready, Goalie Logjam, Full Roster

Wednesday brought good news and a growing list of decisions for Martin St-Louis and Kent Hughes. Mike Matheson is ready to play, Samuel Montembeault is ready to come back, and the roster is full: 23 players, not counting Montembeault and Ivan Demidov, for 20 spots in the lineup.

Thursday night in Boston, the Canadiens (11-3-4, 26 points, second in the Atlantic) visit the Bruins (13-4-1, 27 points, first in the division). Before that game, here is what is happening around the team and why each piece matters.

Practice Notes: Treatment Day for Suzuki and Evans

Nick Suzuki and Jake Evans did not take part in Wednesday’s practice. Both were with the medical staff for treatment, and the team has given no diagnosis and no timeline for either player.

Suzuki’s situation is easy to follow. In the third period against Minnesota he lost his balance and his head hit Wild forward Ryan Hartman, then he blocked a shot from Joel Eriksson Ek shortly after. He went to the dressing room for a short time, came back, and scored the tying goal with the goalie pulled at 18:22. Evans was hurt at Monday’s practice but still played against the Wild.

A treatment day is not a diagnosis, and veterans who log heavy minutes often get one. Still, both players matter on Thursday. If they are on the ice at the morning skate in Boston, this was maintenance. We will update the Lineup Tonight and Injury Report pages as soon as the team confirms the lines.

Ménage à Trois: Montembeault Is Ready and the Crease Gets Crowded

Montembeault is healthy again, and that brings back a conversation the Canadiens hoped to avoid. A three-goalie crowd is something this team has already lived with, and at the golf tournament Kent Hughes said he did not want a ménage à trois in net this season. The problem is that Jacob Fowler changed the plan.

Fowler is 8-1-2 in 11 games with a .925 save percentage and a 2.14 goals-against average, and he has taken the number one job. Jakub Dobeš is 3-2-2 with a .847 and a 4.04 in seven games. Montembeault has not played a game this season. When the best goalie on your roster is a 21-year-old who has won eight of eleven starts, the summer plan stops fitting the facts, and that complicates what Hughes told us at the golf tournament.

What can Hughes do? There are two realistic paths. The first is a conditioning stint in Laval: a short assignment that lets a goalie coming off an injury get game action and gives the front office time to think. The second is a trade. Montembeault’s contract expires at the end of the season, which makes him a natural candidate to move, but any deal needs a team that wants a goalie right now.

Neither move will happen overnight. We expect at least two to three weeks before Hughes makes a final decision. Until then, the Habs carry three NHL goalies and one clear starter.

The Roster Is Full, and That Is a Good Problem

Matheson’s return adds another name to a lineup with no free seats. He has played 8 of the team’s 18 games and has not dressed since October 27 in St. Louis. If he plays Thursday, the Canadiens will be at 23 players, the NHL roster limit, without counting Montembeault and Demidov. There is no roster crunch today. The question is who sits.

Up front, 14 healthy forwards compete for 12 spots, so two forwards watch every game from the press box. Florian Xhekaj has not played since November 3 in Winnipeg, and Owen Beck sat against the Wild after playing in Toronto. Beck has points in three of his last four games, and in our view he does not deserve to be out of the lineup. Our article on the kid line explains why that unit works.

Kirby Dach and Alexandre Texier are playing good hockey, so those two spots look safe. That leaves Oliver Kapanen as the most logical healthy scratch: he has 1 goal and 1 assist in 11 games and played 10:17 against the Wild. But the Canadiens do not like to keep young players out of the lineup for long, so St-Louis will have to find a rotation that keeps everyone sharp.

The back end has the same issue in smaller form: with Matheson back, seven defensemen compete for six spots.

For a coach, this is the best problem to have. Competition for lineup spots keeps a team honest in the middle of November, and the Canadiens are 7-0-3 in their last 10 games. St-Louis can go with the hot hand every night.

Demidov: The Biggest Secret in the Canadiens’ Room

Ivan Demidov has played two games this season and has been out ever since. When the injury was announced on October 6, the team said two to four weeks. We are now more than five weeks later.

Here is what we know. Demidov blocked a hard shot in the preseason game against Ottawa on September 21, and the Canadiens still let him play the first two regular-season games, where he scored 1 goal and added 1 assist. In our view, that was a mistake: playing through the injury turned a short absence into a long one. His agent said on November 4 that the injury is a fractured ankle, which the team has not confirmed. We covered it in our earlier article.

He skated twice last week, then disappeared from the ice again. Hughes said on November 5 that there was no setback, but a player expected back in about four weeks is still out at five, and nobody in the organization explains why.

Hughes also introduced a new rule: the team will only give an update on a setback, an aggravation, or when recovery takes much longer than announced. By that standard, an update is due now. A healthy Demidov would also change the forward math described above, so the sooner we have answers, the sooner we can plan.

What to Watch Thursday in Boston

Puck drop is 7:00 PM ET against a Bruins team that leads the Atlantic. Three things will tell us a lot before the game starts: whether Matheson is in the lineup, how Suzuki and Evans look at the morning skate, and who starts in net. Fowler has earned the first call.

Stay with HABSHQ for the lines and the injury news as soon as they are official.

Sources: NHL game data, RDS and The Hockey News.

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