When Nick Suzuki went down against San Jose last Tuesday, I wrote that the Canadiens had to find a way to survive without their captain, and I published Canadiens Without Nick Suzuki: Who Steps Up in His Absence. That was the plan. This report is the result: two road wins in two games without him, a 4-1 win in Chicago and a 2-1 win outdoors in Winnipeg, for a 2-0-1 week and 5 points out of 6. The Canadiens are now 6-3-2 with 14 points.
Here is the full week: how each game was won (or lost) with my take on every one, the Canadiens stats card, the analytics at 5-on-5, and short reports on the Rocket, the Lions and the prospects, with a link to each Stats of the Week page.
Canadiens: 2-0-1, 5 Points
Game 1: Overtime Loss 4-3 vs San Jose
The Canadiens led 3-1 and had the better of this game for most of 60 minutes. The first line scored all three goals: Suzuki tied it late in the first period, Juraj Slafkovský made it 2-1 early in the second, and Cole Caufield made it 3-1. Montreal outshot San Jose 34-30 and had 77 shot attempts to 51, and held a lead for almost 24 minutes. Then the game turned on four plays: a Jake Evans pass that Macklin Celebrini read for a breakaway goal, a Lane Hutson turnover at the blue line that became a 2-on-1 for Michael Misa (5:36 of the third), a four-minute penalty package to Arber Xhekaj that gave Tyler Toffoli the tying power-play goal, and an interference penalty on Jakub Dobeš in overtime. Celebrini scored on that power play 2:13 into overtime.
Suzuki finished with a goal and an assist, but he was hurt blocking a Michael Kesselring shot, and the team later ruled him out two to four weeks (read the injury story). Read the full recap with the four plays: Two Turnovers, Two Penalties: Canadiens Blow a 3-1 Lead and Lose 4-3 in OT.
My take: I will not hang this one on the goalie, and I will not hang it on the system either. The Canadiens did not lose at even strength. They lost on puck management and discipline: a pass the other team could read, a blue-line turnover with a two-goal lead, and two penalties at the worst moments. Every one of those is fixable, and that is why it hurt, because this team had earned two points. The one thing that could not be fixed in the room was Suzuki leaving the lineup.
Game 2: Win 4-1 at Chicago
Everybody asked the same question on Friday: can they win without Suzuki? The answer came fast. The Canadiens fell behind early when Hutson gave the puck away twice in 22 seconds and Connor Bedard scored, but they did not panic. Jake Evans tied it with 2:31 left in the first period, on a shift started by the fourth line (Kirby Dach and Owen Beck on the play). Then came the turning point of the week: after a Chris Kreider high-sticking penalty, Chicago started its power play with the goalie pulled, Montreal held, and Evans scored short-handed at 7:45 of the second period to make it 2-1. Kaiden Guhle made it 3-1 with 1:34 left in the second, and Mike Matheson sealed it with an empty-net goal in his first game back.
Jacob Fowler stopped 20 of 21 shots (.952), the Canadiens outshot Chicago 28-21, won 42 of 67 faceoffs (62.7%) and killed all five Chicago power plays. Evans had two goals and an assist, his first multi-goal game since January 27, 2022. Read the full recap: Evans Scores Twice, Including a Short-Hander, as Canadiens Beat Blackhawks 4-1.
My take: This was the best answer you could ask for from a team without its captain. The Canadiens gave up the first goal on two bad turnovers, and instead of chasing the game they kept the puck in the offensive zone, kept shooting, and let the goals come. The depth scored (Evans, Guhle, Matheson), the penalty kill was a weapon, and the fourth line tied the game. That is what a good culture looks like when somebody is missing. The giveaways are still a problem (20 in this game), and the team knows it, but I liked the response.
Game 3: Win 2-1 at Winnipeg (Heritage Classic)
On Sunday, in front of 32,342 fans at Princess Auto Stadium, the Canadiens won their first outdoor game since the 2016 Winter Classic. The first period was scoreless and Fowler made 10 saves to keep it there. Hutson scored at 7:19 of the second period (Noah Dobson and Caufield on the assists), and Guhle made it 2-0 at 11:04 with a point shot through traffic, his second goal in as many games and the game-winner. Isak Rosen cut it to 2-1 at 15:24 of the third period, and Winnipeg pushed with the goalie pulled and a six-on-four for the final 1:32, but Montreal killed it.
The Jets outshot Montreal 34-21 and had 13 of the 19 shots in the third period, so this was not a game the Canadiens controlled. It was a game they managed. Fowler stopped 33 of 34 shots (.971), and at 21 years and 335 days he became the youngest goalie in NHL history to start an outdoor game. The penalty kill went 4-for-4 and the Canadiens did not get a power play. Full recap with the numbers by period: Canadiens Beat Jets 2-1 in Heritage Classic; Fowler Stars.
My take: Nobody should pretend the Canadiens dominated this game, and that is fine. They defended the middle of the ice, gave up volume but not many dangerous chances in the third period (4-3 in high-danger chances for Montreal at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick), and when the chances came they finished. Gap control, patience, a goalie who looked calm in a stadium with 32,000 people: that is how you protect a one-goal lead on the road. It was also the second game in a row they kept the lead to the final horn, which is exactly what they could not do against San Jose.
Canadiens: Life Without Suzuki, Two Games, Two Answers
Nick Suzuki had never missed a game since his NHL debut in 2019, so the first question after he went down was simple: what does this team look like without him? Two games is a small sample, and he is out two to four weeks, so this is not the end of the story. But the answers in Chicago and Winnipeg were good ones, and they came in two different ways.
Chicago was the answer of the depth. Before the game, Phillip Danault said that when a team has a good culture, it stays when a good player is lost, and that the next games would say a lot about this one. Jake Evans put it another way afterward: with Suzuki out, everybody felt the need to raise their game a notch. He did, with two goals (one short-handed) and an assist, and the fourth line (Kirby Dach, Owen Beck and Evans) tied the game when it needed it. Kaiden Guhle scored and added an assist in 23:30 of ice time, and Mike Matheson came back from his injury with an empty-net goal. Martin St-Louis praised the effort of his fourth-line center, and he was right to: that is the kind of game a team needs when its best center is not in the lineup.
Winnipeg was the answer of structure. The Jets outshot the Canadiens 34-21 and had the better of the play in the third period, and it did not matter, because Montreal gave up volume and protected the middle of the ice. Defensemen Lane Hutson and Guhle scored the two goals, Fowler made 33 saves, and the penalty kill went 4-for-4, including the last 1:32 against a six-on-four. It was not a pretty game, but it was a game managed the way a team with a lead should manage it.
Look at where the offense came from. In the two games without Suzuki, the Canadiens scored 6 goals: Guhle 2, Evans 2, Matheson 1 and Hutson 1. Four of the six came from defensemen, and the two wingers who normally play with the captain, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovský, had no goals and 3 assists between them. That tells us two things. The depth is real, and the top-line wingers still have to find their finish while the center position gets sorted out. It also shows what is missing: the power play, where Suzuki was part of the first unit, was 0-for-3 in the two games (0-for-5 for the week).
Games 1-9 are the first nine games of the season and include the San Jose game, in which Suzuki was hurt. Goals do not count shootout goals.
The positives, in order of importance. First, only 2 goals against in two games, which is the number that changed the record. Second, the penalty kill stepped up: nine kills in nine tries, after the unit sat at 78.4% (19th in the NHL) through nine games, and it is now 82.6% (11th). Third, the team save percentage is moving in the right direction, and that is Fowler: the team was .857 after nine games, 31st in the league, and it is now .877 for the season (23rd) after Fowler stopped 53 of 55. Fourth, the Canadiens kept the lead twice, in the same week in which they had blown a 3-1 lead against San Jose, which was the fourth two-goal lead they had given away this season. Fifth, the collective play was better: the puck was managed, the clock was managed, and all four lines gave good minutes. Nobody tried to be Suzuki; everyone did a little more of his own job.
The thing to correct is discipline. The Canadiens took 10 minor penalties in the two wins, the same 5 a game they were taking before the injury. Chicago got six (one of them a bench minor for too many men, and two to Slafkovský), and Winnipeg got four: Carrier for interference, Newhook for high-sticking and tripping, and Anderson for tripping, which gave the Jets a six-on-four for the last 1:32. The penalty kill saved all nine, but a team cannot count on that every night, and the details are small ones: a stick, a late hit, a line change. A team that wants to be good for two to four weeks without its captain has to give the other team fewer chances.
Two games down. The next three (St. Louis, Dallas and Pittsburgh) will tell us if this is a trend or a good week. For the full story of the injury and who has to step up, read Canadiens Without Nick Suzuki: Who Steps Up in His Absence and Suzuki Out 2-4 Weeks: Canadiens Lose Their Engine.
Canadiens: Week 4 Stats
Here is the stats card for the week. Twelve Canadiens skaters got a point, three defensemen scored (4 of the team’s 9 goals came from the blue line), and Suzuki has 2 points in his one game.
Cole Caufield led the team with 4 points (1 goal, 3 assists, 7 shots on goal, +3). Guhle and Evans each had 2 goals, and Evans was +4. Suzuki scored in the one game he played and was +3. Phillip Danault had 2 assists and tied Josh Anderson for the team lead with 8 shots on goal, and Slafkovský had 3 points (1 goal, 2 assists) and 7 shots on goal, but also took 6 penalty minutes. In goal, Fowler went 2-0-0 with a .964 save percentage (53 saves, 2 goals against), and Dobeš took the overtime loss (26 saves on 30 shots, .867).
Canadiens: Team Performance Overview
Here is how the Canadiens look after 11 games. The Week 4 numbers cover the three games from October 20 to October 25, and the season numbers cover all 11. NHL rank is the league ranking as of Monday, October 26. Shootout goals are not counted in goals for or against.
Rank 1 is the best in the league for every category. The week is built on goaltending and the penalty kill: Montreal was outshot 85-83, scored 3 goals a game, and allowed only 2. The power play, on the other hand, went 0-for-5 and is 28th in the NHL, so I would not count on 2.00 goals against a game to last. Even with this week’s .929 team save percentage, the season mark is only .877, 23rd in the NHL. Another number to watch is discipline: the Canadiens were called for 16 minor penalties this week (some offset by opponent penalties) and the opponents for 8, and Montreal’s opponents had 12 power plays to the Canadiens’ 5. The penalty kill did the job, but a team that gives away 12 power plays in three games is asking for trouble.
Canadiens: The Analytics
The record says 2-0-1. The shot attempts say a little more. At 5-on-5 over the three games, the Canadiens out-attempted their opponents 165-124 (57.1%), out-shot them 72-64 on goal (53.0%) and outscored them 7-4. All of these numbers come from my own count of the play-by-play at 5-on-5, so they can differ by an attempt or two from Natural Stat Trick or MoneyPuck.
Two games were one-sided and one was not. The Canadiens had a big edge against San Jose (and lost in overtime) and Chicago (and won), and Winnipeg out-attempted them 55-52. Natural Stat Trick has Winnipeg ahead in 5-on-5 expected goals, 2.57 to 2.34, but Montreal ahead in high-danger chances, 10-9. MoneyPuck, which adjusts for score and venue, has the Canadiens slightly ahead at 5-on-5 (2.35 to 2.13). That is why I would call the Heritage Classic an even game that went to the team with the better goalie. Fowler faced 4.22 expected goals against in all situations (MoneyPuck) and allowed 1, which is 3.22 goals saved above expected.
There is one number to be careful with. The Canadiens scored on 9.7% of their 5-on-5 shots on goal and the opposing shooters scored on only 6.3% (4 goals on 64 shots). Add them together and you get a PDO of about 1.035, and anything above 1.000 usually comes back down. A good week, but a little lucky, and part of that luck was Fowler.
5-on-5 by Player
Here is every skater’s 5-on-5 shot attempts for (CF) and against (CA) while on the ice, and the goals scored and allowed, sorted by attempts share (CF%). Small samples: Florian Xhekaj and Owen Beck played one game each, Suzuki played one game, and Matheson and Adam Engström played two or fewer.
Three things stand out. First, the depth lines carried the play. Evans (75.9%), Dach (72.9%), Texier (67.6%), Danault (64.9%) and Bolduc (64.8%) were all on the ice for far more attempts for than against, and Evans was on the ice for 3 goals for and 1 against. Second, the defense was good where it counts: Dobson (64.4%) and Hutson (62.5%) were both well above 60%, and Hutson was on the ice for 4 goals for and 1 against even though his turnovers got the headlines in San Jose and Chicago. Third, the bottom of the table is the same group that was out-chanced against San Jose: Kreider (43.6%), Anderson (41.7%) and Newhook (39.0%) were each on the ice for more attempts against than for, and Matheson (44.6%) was under 50% in his two games back, although that is a small sample after an injury. Those are the players and pairings the coaching staff has to look at while Suzuki is out.
One more number for the Caufield fans: he was on the ice for 5 of the 7 Montreal goals at 5-on-5 and 2 against, while sitting at 55.3% attempts. Suzuki was on the ice for 3 goals for and none against in his one game, and the first line was +8 in that game.
Canadiens: The Week in Review
Last week, the Canadiens surprised a lot of Habs fans by winning two games without their captain. Nick Suzuki had never missed a game since his NHL debut in 2019, but he was hurt blocking a Michael Kesselring shot against San Jose, and the team announced he could be out two to four weeks. Panic spread through the fan base, and not many people believed Montreal could win two games without him.
The group regrouped and answered with simple, efficient hockey. Two things made the difference: the big saves from Jacob Fowler, and a true team effort. Fowler allowed 2 goals on 55 shots in the two wins, and the structure in front of him was better in both games. The Canadiens protected their lead each time, which is exactly what they could not do against the Sharks, and every player managed the game well, which means managing the puck, the clock and the lead. There were not many passengers this week.
It was not perfect, but the penalty kill was excellent: Montreal killed all nine penalties in the two wins (5-for-5 in Chicago and 4-for-4 in Winnipeg) and did not allow a power-play goal in either one. The defensive coverage was better, and the team stayed patient and waited for the right opportunity to score. They also got good hockey from all four lines in the last two games, with goals from Evans, Guhle, Hutson and Matheson.
Yes, the Canadiens need to be more disciplined, with 10 minor penalties in those two games and 16 minors for the week (some offset by opponent penalties), and the power play (0-for-5, 28th in the NHL) has to give them something back. I would also be careful with the PDO and with Fowler’s .964, because a goalie cannot be that good every night. But winning the first two games of a road trip without the captain is a great accomplishment for this group, and they are now 6-3-2. Is it mission accomplished? For these two games, yes. For the next two to four weeks, we will see: the real test is St. Louis on Tuesday, Dallas on Thursday and Pittsburgh at home on Saturday, and I want to see the same structure when the opponent is rested and the game is not outdoors.
Canadiens: 3 Stars of the Week
Canadiens: Weekly News
- Nick Suzuki is out 2 to 4 weeks with a hand injury after blocking a shot against San Jose. Read the injury story.
- Owen Beck and David Reinbacher were loaned to Laval on Wednesday. Beck was recalled on Thursday and played in Chicago.
- Mike Matheson returned to the lineup and played in Chicago and Winnipeg.
- Florian Xhekaj returned to the lineup on Sunday against the Jets in the Heritage Classic, and he and Arber Xhekaj became the third set of brothers to appear in the same outdoor game.
- The Canadiens announced that Samuel Montembeault will need two more weeks before he returns.
- Jacob Fowler became the youngest goalie in NHL history to start an outdoor game.
Canadiens Stats of the Week: click here
Rocket: 2-1-0, 4 Points
The Rocket beat Syracuse 5-1 on Wednesday (Reilly Walsh scored twice, and the loaned Beck and Reinbacher both scored), beat Hamilton 4-2 on Friday for their seventh straight win, and then lost 2-1 to Hamilton on Saturday, one win short of the franchise record of eight in a row. Laval outshot Hamilton 34-28 in that game, and Dillan Bentley scored his first AHL goal. Recaps: Walsh Double Lifts Rocket Past Crunch, Rocket Beat Hammers 4-2 for Seventh Straight Win and Hammers End Rocket’s Winning Streak at Seven.
Rocket: The Week in Review
The Rocket came one win short of the franchise record, losing 2-1 to Hamilton on Saturday. The score does not tell the whole story. Laval outshot Hamilton 34-28, controlled the puck for most of the game and had its chances in the third period, but could not capitalize. The power play, which ranks second in the AHL at 30.9%, went 0-for-3, and that ended the streak at seven wins.
On Friday night, the Rocket beat the Hammers 4-2 with speed and good game management, and they held Hamilton to 22 shots. When you look at both games, the biggest difference is the defensemen. They played solid hockey at both ends of the ice. Luke Mittelstadt has had a great start to the season with 15 points in 9 games, but he is not the only one, and Reilly Walsh had another great weekend with 4 points. All the defensemen contribute on offense and on defense, and the forwards chip in too, because every line contributes for the Rocket.
Yes, the streak is over, but I am not worried about this team. They are fun to watch, and even though they scored only one goal on Saturday, expect many games this season where the Rocket score a ton of goals. They are at the top of the North Division in the AHL.
Rocket: 3 Stars of the Week
Rocket Stats of the Week: click here
Lions: 3-0-0, 6 Points
The Trois-Rivières Lions swept the Norfolk Admirals on the road: 6-3 on Friday, 4-3 in a shootout on Saturday and 7-1 on Sunday. Brooklyn Kalmikov had 4 goals and 3 assists in the three games, Mathieu Bizier had the winning goal on Friday and an empty-netter, and Hunter Jones went 2-0-0 with a .925 save percentage.
Lions: The Week in Review
What a great weekend for the Lions. They swept Norfolk with three wins on the road. They won the second game in a shootout, and on Sunday they dominated the Admirals 7-1. Hunter Jones was excellent between the pipes, and some players stepped up, like Brooklyn Kalmikov with 4 goals and 7 points, and Mathieu Bizier with 2 goals and 5 points. The Lions are undefeated after five games, and they have played solid hockey through the first two weeks of the season.
Lions: 3 Stars of the Week
Lions Stats of the Week: click here
Prospects: Deakos Leads the Way, Zharovsky Stays Hot
The best week of any prospect belonged to Tyler Deakos (Penticton, WHL), with 7 points (2 goals, 5 assists) in 3 games, including a 3-point game on Sunday in Edmonton. He now has 15 points in 15 games. Arseni Radkov played one game and made it count: 31 saves on 34 shots (.912) in a 4-3 overtime win over Québec, and he is 5-0-1 with a 2.41 goals-against average.
In Europe, Alexander Zharovsky had 4 points (2 goals, 2 assists) in 3 games, including two incredible goals from the 19-year-old, and he now has 14 points in 20 games in the KHL. One of those goals was among the best of the season in the KHL. Vinzenz Rohrer scored twice and has 11 points in 10 games, but he has been inconsistent. In the NCAA, Ben Merrill had the best weekend (1 goal, 2 assists against UConn), Sam Harris scored his fourth goal of the season, and Quentin Miller took his first loss of the season, 3-2 at Michigan, and still has a 1.00 GAA and a .956 save percentage for Western Michigan.
Prospects: 3 Stars of the Week
Prospects Stats of the Week: click here
Preview Week
Canadiens: 3 Games
Rocket: 2 Games on the Road
Lions: 2 Games at Home
Want this in your inbox every Monday? The HABSHQ weekly newsletter has the week in brief, Doc Facts, the Habs tracker and a trivia question: subscribe free here. For the grades after 10 games, see Canadiens 10-Game Report Card.
Sources: NHL game data, Natural Stat Trick, MoneyPuck and RDS.
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