The Canadiens woke up Friday morning tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning for first place in the Atlantic Division, both at 28 points after 19 games. Tampa sits ahead only because it has won 11 games in regulation to Montreal’s eight. The Canadiens got there by beating the Boston Bruins 5-2 at TD Garden on a night that Martin St-Louis himself said was not their best.
He is right, and the numbers agree. Boston controlled the puck at five-on-five, and our game recap shows the Bruins ahead 62-33 in shot attempts. So the score is not the story. The story is who stood in front of David Pastrňák.
Mike Matheson came back from a six-game absence, and St-Louis went straight to something he loves to do: he put Matheson next to Kaiden Guhle and pointed that pair at the other team’s best player, even on the road without last change. This article looks at what that pairing did, using our own numbers from the NHL shift charts and outside expected-goals data, then at the season Guhle is having, what it means for the top line, and how the bottom six delivered three of the five goals.
Pastrňák Was Kept Quiet
Pastrňák finished the night without a point, a minus-3, and three shots on goal in 17:08. At five-on-five he played 15:33. Matheson was on the ice against him for 10:22 of that time, Guhle for 8:56, and the two of them were out together for 8:06. Outside tracking data has Matheson at 10:13 and Guhle at 9:10. The differences are under 15 seconds, and the picture is identical.
| 5-on-5 vs. Pastrňák | Time | Shot attempts (MTL-BOS) | Shots on goal (MTL-BOS) | Goals (MTL-BOS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pastrňák on the ice (all) | 15:33 | 13-28 | 10-10 | 3-0 |
| Matheson and Guhle both on | 8:06 | 7-17 | 6-5 | 3-0 |
| Matheson on the ice | 10:22 | 10-17 | 8-5 | 3-0 |
| Matheson off the ice | 5:11 | 3-11 | 2-5 | 0-0 |
Source: NHL play-by-play and shift data, HABSHQ calculations. Shot attempts include goals, shots on goal, misses and blocked shots.
Three Canadiens goals were scored at five-on-five while Pastrňák was on the ice, by Josh Anderson, Jake Evans and Cole Caufield, and Matheson and Guhle were out there for all three. Boston scored twice, both by Casey Mittelstadt, and Pastrňák was on the bench for each. In the minutes Matheson spent against Pastrňák, the Bruins held a 17-10 edge in shot attempts, while the Canadiens led 8-5 in shots on goal and 3-0 in goals.
Outside data adds the part we cannot rebuild from the NHL feed. Using expected goals, which weighs where and how each shot was taken instead of just counting it, the Canadiens held 68.8 percent of the expected goals in the minutes Matheson spent against Pastrňák. That data also shows that Pastrňák has had only five games this season with a lower expected-goal share than he had in Boston.
The pair was also busy without the puck. Guhle blocked five shots and Matheson blocked three, and both finished the night at plus-3. Guhle is 6-foot-3 and 202 pounds, and he used all of it along the boards.
Three Games, 40 Minutes, No Goals Against
The Boston game is only the third time Matheson and Guhle have played together as a pair. Guhle missed the first four games of the season while recovering from offseason surgery, and Matheson then missed 10 of the 13 games before Boston, so Thursday was just the fifth game of the season with both in the lineup. In the first two, on October 25 in Winnipeg and October 27 in St. Louis, they drew the Mark Scheifele line in Winnipeg and had no particular assignment in St. Louis.
| Game | 5-on-5 time | Shot attempts (MTL-opp) | Shots on goal (MTL-opp) | Goals (MTL-opp) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct. 25 at Winnipeg | 16:21 | 14-19 | 6-6 | 1-0 |
| Oct. 27 at St. Louis | 10:47 | 13-8 | 5-2 | 1-0 |
| Nov. 12 at Boston | 13:35 | 12-20 | 9-7 | 3-0 |
| Total | 40:43 | 39-47 | 20-15 | 5-0 |
Source: NHL play-by-play and shift data (shift reports for the first two games), HABSHQ calculations.
Over 40 minutes and 43 seconds, the Canadiens outscored the opposition 5-0 and outshot it 20-15, while the other side had the edge in shot attempts, 47-39. By expected goals, the pair held just over 50 percent despite the difficult opposition. That is an even result against tough opposition, with no goals against.
The Wild game shows the other side of the coin. With Matheson still out on November 10, Guhle and Alexandre Carrier took the heavy minutes against Kirill Kaprizov. In the 9:07 they shared the ice with him at five-on-five, the Wild put five shots on goal and scored no goals. The Wild did lead those minutes 8-2 in shot attempts, so it was a night of limiting the damage rather than dominating.
It is a small sample, and 5-0 will not last. Part of it is goaltending, and two of the Boston goals, from Evans and Caufield, were breakaways, which depend on turnovers and finishing as much as on defending. The structure is the interesting part. Both Matheson and Guhle shoot left, so one of them plays his off side, and the pairing still gives St-Louis a pair he trusts against a top line.
Guhle Is Playing the Best Hockey of His Career
Matheson’s return got the headlines in Boston, but the bigger story on the blue line is the season Kaiden Guhle is having. He is 24 years old, the 16th pick in the 2020 draft, and by almost every measure that matters for a defenseman this is the best hockey he has played in the NHL.
| Season | GP | G-A-P | +/- | Avg. ice time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | 44 | 4-14-18 | -19 | 20:31 |
| 2023-24 | 70 | 6-16-22 | -8 | 20:51 |
| 2024-25 | 55 | 6-12-18 | +6 | 21:11 |
| 2025-26 | 39 | 2-9-11 | +5 | 19:28 |
| 2026-27 | 15 | 2-4-6 | +7 | 22:56 |
Source: NHL.com player statistics, regular season.
His average ice time of 22:56 is the highest of his career, almost three and a half minutes more than last season, and it makes him the third most used defenseman on the team behind Lane Hutson and Matheson. His plus-7 after 15 games already beats the best mark he has posted in any previous season (plus-6 in 2024-25). He is scoring at 0.40 points a game, which is his best pace since his first NHL season, and he has two goals, one of them a game-winner.
The work without the puck is just as strong. Guhle has 38 hits and 27 blocked shots in 15 games, and he put five blocks and two hits into the Boston game while he and Matheson were facing the Bruins’ best player. He did that after missing the first four games of the season recovering from offseason surgery, and while Matheson was injured he took on tough defensive matchups next to Alexandre Carrier. It is only 15 games, but he has become a true top-pair defenseman, and it is the reason St-Louis can trust the Matheson-Guhle pairing against a team’s best player.
A Different Job for the Top Line
The second effect is on the top line. On Tuesday against the Wild, Nick Suzuki was hard-matched against Joel Eriksson Ek and the two were out together for 9:21 at five-on-five. Our numbers show a close battle: shot attempts 10-9 and shots on goal 5-3 for the Canadiens, no goals. St-Louis described that kind of matchup after the game as a job where the goal is simply not to lose the shift. It is a fair way to play, but it is a heavy way to use your first line.
In Boston the Suzuki line, with Juraj Slafkovský and Cole Caufield, played 13:34 together at five-on-five and had a hard night: shot attempts 6-19, shots on goal 4-10, one goal for and one against. By expected goals the line held only 18.9 percent, its worst game of the season. Some of that comes from the score, because the Canadiens were leading by a large margin, but not all of it. Suzuki faced Pastrňák for only 4:24, so the assignment was not the reason. With the score out of hand and Matheson and Guhle handling the heavy minutes, one off night is not a worry.
The same thing helps Lane Hutson and Noah Dobson. Tracking data from Sportlogiq has both of them in the top 10 among NHL defensemen in slot-driving plays this season. They are the pair you want attacking, not chasing a star winger. In Boston they had a difficult night, with shot attempts 7-16, shots on goal 4-10 and each at minus-1, but with Matheson and Guhle taking the heavy minutes, they should be able to play to their strengths more often.
Depth: The Bottom Six Delivered
The depth of this team is not only about who plays against the other team’s star. It is about what the players in the middle and bottom of the lineup give you on a night when the top line is quiet, and in Boston they gave the Canadiens three of their five goals.
| Forward line | 5-on-5 time | Shot attempts (MTL-BOS) | Shots on goal (MTL-BOS) | Goals (MTL-BOS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slafkovský – Suzuki – Caufield | 13:34 | 6-19 | 4-10 | 1-1 |
| Kreider – Evans – Anderson | 6:18 | 3-4 | 1-3 | 1-0 |
| Texier – Danault – Bolduc | 10:15 | 11-19 | 8-8 | 1-0 |
| Newhook – Kapanen – Dach | 8:20 | 3-14 | 3-6 | 1-0 |
| Mixed combinations | 9:56 | 10-6 | 5-3 | 1-1 |
| All 5-on-5 | 48:23 | 33-62 | 21-30 | 5-2 |
Source: NHL play-by-play and shift data, HABSHQ calculations. Time is five-on-five minutes with all three forwards on the ice together.
The mixed row covers the shifts where the lines were changed, and it is where one goal each way happened. Anderson scored at 8:36 of the first period with Evans and Dach, and Boston’s first goal (14:53 of the second) came against Anderson and Evans with Newhook on the ice. Boston’s second goal, early in the third, came against the Suzuki line and Hutson and Dobson. That is why the four lines add up to four Canadiens goals and one against, and why all 5-on-5 time shows the full 5-2.
Kirby Dach, Jake Evans and Phillip Danault each scored, the depth centers of this lineup, and that is three of the five goals from the bottom six. Josh Anderson added one from the second line, so Caufield’s goal was the only one from the top line. It was the second goal of the season for Dach and Danault and the third for Evans, and none of the three is a player the team counts on for goals every night.
Our shift data shows how each forward group played at five-on-five. Danault’s line with Alexandre Texier and Bolduc was the most used of the depth lines, with 10:15 together and an even 8-8 in shots on goal. The Dach line with Newhook and Oliver Kapanen was outattempted 14-3 in 8:20 and still scored. Evans, between Chris Kreider and Anderson, had just 6:18 together and still got a goal. All four forward groups scored, even when the shot totals did not favor them, and that is what depth gives you.
The season numbers say the same thing. Twenty-one of the 24 skaters the Canadiens have used have scored, 13 of them have at least seven points, and the defense has produced 50 points. The team also went 5-0-1 in the six games Suzuki missed in late October and early November. St-Louis also had no last change in Boston, so he rotated the forwards against Pastrňák, and not one of them played more than 4:40 against him. The Canadiens are not asking one line to carry the night, and that is a big reason why they are tied for first.
Matheson’s return also means the blue line is whole again. The pairs in Boston were Hutson and Dobson, Matheson and Guhle, and Arber Xhekaj with Alexandre Carrier, which is a lineup St-Louis can match against almost any opponent.
Fewer Goals Against, a Better Penalty Kill
Defense is more than the pairing, and the recent results show it. Over their last ten games the Canadiens have allowed 23 goals, 2.30 per game. The Canadiens allowed two goals in each of their last three games, six in total, after giving up 15 in the four games before that (2, 4, 5 and 4). Part of that is the group in front of the net, and part of it is Jacob Fowler, who is 9-1-2 with a .926 save percentage and a 2.13 goals-against average this season and stopped 78 of 84 shots over those three games. Better defense in front of him and a goalie who is on his game feed each other, and right now both are working.
The penalty kill is where the return of Matheson shows up most clearly. For six straight games before Boston, the Canadiens gave up a power-play goal every night: eight goals on 23 times shorthanded, a 65.2 percent kill. In Boston they killed their only penalty and did not give up a power-play goal for the first time in seven games. Matheson played 1:06 of that two-minute kill. It is one penalty, so we are not drawing a conclusion from it alone, but the season numbers say the same thing. With Matheson in the lineup the Canadiens have killed 85.3 percent of their penalties (5 goals against on 34 times shorthanded, nine games). Without him it is 71.8 percent (11 on 39, ten games). He is on the ice for 66 percent of the team’s penalty-kill time and averages 4:05 shorthanded per game. Discipline played a part too. Boston was the first game this season in which the Canadiens took fewer than three penalties: they had been shorthanded four times a game over the first 18 (72 times), and in Boston they took one. The last time they had two or fewer in a regular-season game was April 14 against Philadelphia (none), and the last time with exactly one or two was April 12 against the Islanders (two).
He also carried the closing minutes. Once the Canadiens went up 5-2 early in the third period, Matheson was the most used skater on the team in that period at 7:27, ahead of Nick Suzuki (7:23), Lane Hutson (6:45) and Alexandre Carrier (6:07), and he finished the night at 21:11. At even strength in the third he played 6:28, the most of any skater. That is what a coach does with the player he trusts to protect a lead, and it explains why Matheson matters to this defensive group beyond the pairing numbers against Pastrňák.
What It Means for Saturday
The next test comes on Saturday night at the Bell Centre against the Colorado Avalanche (7 p.m. ET), and this time St-Louis will have last change. The question to watch is whether he puts Matheson and Guhle on Colorado’s top line at every opportunity, as he did in Boston without it, or keeps splitting the work. Check our Lineup Tonight page for the pairs and the Injury Report for any late changes. Where they stand in the race is on our standings page.
If the pairing keeps working, the benefits are easy to see: Suzuki’s line plays with more freedom, Hutson and Dobson attack from better spots, and the Canadiens get the defensive matchup they want without giving up offense. With Tampa Bay level at 28 points and Boston one point back, that edge could be worth a few points before the season is over.
Sources: NHL play-by-play, shift and game data (NHL.com); NHL.com; The Athletic (expected-goals and Sportlogiq data); HABSHQ calculations.
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