Habs Weekly: Still Perfect Since the Break

While the Habs still have an uphill battle to get back into the playoff picture, they did their best to keep afloat in the chase, picking up wins in all three games to gain a bit of ground in the Wild Card standings.

The Week That Was

Feb. 25: Canadiens 4, Hurricanes 0 – Montreal has had some struggles against Carolina but they did a nice job largely shutting them down offensively.  Frankly, it was a game where scoring chances for either side were few and far between.  But the Habs capitalized on theirs with a pair of goals from the slot in the first period followed by two power play goals against the NHL’s top penalty kill.

Feb. 27: Canadiens 4, Sharks 3 (OT) – This time, the Habs didn’t put their best effort forward; far from it, really.  But they were able to get away with it against one of the weakest teams in the league.  Montreal came back from three separate one-goal deficits, the last of which came in the third from an Alex Newhook goal.  That set the stage for a highlight-reel winner in overtime from Cole Caufield to give the Canadiens the two points.

Mar. 1: Canadiens 4, Sabres 2 – After a very uneventful opening period, things picked up in the second.  After Cole Caufield opened up the scoring, Buffalo responded with a pair of quick ones but Josh Anderson, playing through injury, managed to tie it up off a nice passing play.  Newhook then potted the eventual winner in the dying seconds of the frame, tipping home a Mike Matheson feed with less than three seconds to go.

StatPack

Skaters:

#	Player	GP	G	A	+/-	PIMS	SOG	ATOI
8	Mike Matheson	3	0	1	+2	0	3	26:32
11	Brendan Gallagher	3	0	0	E	0	7	14:44
13	Cole Caufield	3	2	2	+2	0	3	17:22
14	Nick Suzuki	3	3	4	+3	0	7	19:59
15	Alex Newhook	3	2	1	+2	0	6	14:12
17	Josh Anderson	3	1	0	+1	0	5	13:35
20	Juraj Slafkovsky	3	1	1	+2	0	7	17:43
28	Christian Dvorak	3	0	2	+1	0	7	16:22
40	Joel Armia	3	0	0	-1	0	7	14:43
45	Alexandre Carrier	3	0	1	+3	4	3	20:57
47	Jayden Struble	3	0	2	E	9	2	16:19
48	Lane Hutson	3	1	3	+3	0	4	22:02
51	Emil Heineman	3	0	0	-2	2	4	12:40
58	David Savard	3	0	0	-1	0	1	17:04
62	Owen Beck	3	0	1	+1	0	4	11:03
71	Jake Evans	3	1	0	E	0	1	15:45
72	Arber Xhekaj	3	0	0	E	6	1	14:30
92	Patrik Laine	3	1	4	+1	0	8	13:13

Goalies:

#	Player	Record	GAA	SV%	SO
35	Samuel Montembeault	2-0-0	1.46	.935	1
75	Jakub Dobes	1-0-0	2.00	.920	0

Team Leaders:

Goals: Cole Caufield (29)
Assists: Nick Suzuki (43)
Points: Nick Suzuki (61)
+/-: Carrier/Suzuki (+7)
PIMS: Arber Xhekaj (89)
Shots: Cole Caufield (176)

News And Notes

– Kirby Dach’s season has come to an end as he underwent successful surgery on his right knee.  He’s expected to be ready for training camp.  With his absence, Owen Beck was recalled from Laval and it’s likely he has a regular role with Montreal down the stretch now.

– Lane Hutson reached the 40-assist mark this past week.  He’s the first rookie to do so in fewer than 60 games since Nicklas Lidstrom reached that mark as a rookie in the 1991-92 season.

– Montreal’s win over San Jose meant that they swept the season series.  It’s the first time they’ve done that (for a season series consisting of more than one game) since 1992-93.

Last Game’s Lines

Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Newhook – Beck – Laine
Anderson – Dvorak – Gallagher
Heineman – Evans – Armia

Matheson – Carrier
Struble – Hutson
Xhekaj – Savard

The Week Ahead

Monday vs Buffalo – The Sabres won’t have to wait long for a rematch as they look to avoid being swept in the regular season series.  They’re currently without Jason Zucker, one of their top point getters, who’s dealing with a lower-body injury.  They’re a team that a lot of other teams are targeting for a potential trade so it will be interesting to see if anyone’s held out for trade-related reasons as we’re starting to see around the league now.

Thursday at Edmonton – Goaltending has been a problem for Edmonton lately; starter Stuart Skinner had a .867 SV% in February which is a hard number to try to outscore.  Leon Draisaitl is pacing the way offensively, leading the team in goals and points while his 44 tallies lead the NHL as well.  Zach Hyman has reached 20-goal mark after a rough start to his season as well, helping to bolster their attack.

Saturday at Calgary – Dustin Wolf is doing a lot to carry this team and he has them within striking distance of a playoff spot, an unexpected outcome considering the calibre of their roster.  Keep him in mind for Calder Trophy discussion; it’s far from a runaway race for Lane Hutson.  Offence is hard to come by for the Flames who are second-last league-wide in that category although Jonathan Huberdeau has bounced back a bit, leading the way with 22 goals while tying for the team lead in points.

Final Thought

While the injury to Kirby Dach shouldn’t necessarily affect Montreal’s trade deadline plans, I think it will when it comes to Christian Dvorak.  Assuming Jake Evans eventually gets moved, can the Habs realistically lose their second, third, and fourth centres in the span of less than two weeks?  I know when you’re selling, it doesn’t really matter but I also don’t think the Habs want to deplete Laval of basically all of their natural centres, thereby hurting the Rocket for their playoff push.

With a $4.45 million price tag, Dvorak will be hard to trade straight up without salary retention.  But even with retention, what’s his value?  Probably somewhere around a mid-round pick.  If they don’t use that last retention slot on Evans, Joel Armia, David Savard, or someone else, I think they could probably get that same mid-round pick by being a third-party retainer on a move, allowing them to keep Dvorak to remain a serviceable body for the stretch run without foregoing the return they’d have likely gotten for him.

With Evans, it seems like there’s a strong enough market for Montreal to get a good-value return.  That isn’t going to be the case with Dvorak so rather than burning their last remaining retention slot to get a mid-round pick, this might be a case where it makes more sense to hold onto him even as a pending UFA and use that retention slot elsewhere.