Habs improve but can’t score on PP in 3-2 loss to Bruins

Mired in their first slump of the 2025-26 season, the Habs welcomed the Bruins to the Bell Centre for the traditional Saturday night tangle. Would the team manage to turn things around after two rather embarrassing showings, and overcome the loss of Alex Newhook (adding to Patrik Laine and Kaiden Guhle, already out of the lineup)? The home team has an edge for the season, but Boston came in with an 8-2 record in their last 10 games.

It turned out to be a third consecutive loss, but on the positive side, they played far better and got better goaltending than the previous two defeats, so maybe this one is something to build on. Samuel Montembeault might be back, Jared Davidson looked like he belonged, and there were far fewer self-inflicted defensive disasters. Tweak that power play and we might see the bleu blanc et rouge climbing out of the current losing streak.

Starting Lines

Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Dach – Kapanen – Demidov
Bolduc – Evans – Anderson
Davidson – Veleno – Gallagher

Matheson – Dobson
Struble – Hutson
Xhekaj – Carrier

Montembeault
Dobes

Ten Thoughts

1) The Habs took on the Bruins on the heels of a demoralizing 7-0 loss to Dallas on Thursday. Montreal certainly did not deserve to win that game, but neither did the final score reflect the play on ice. The xG were roughly even, but Casey DeSmith played an excellent game, while the Canadiens combined defensive breakdowns with the weakest goaltending of the season, with both Jakub Dobes and Samuel Montembeault allowing roughly every third shot past them. Following on the 5-1 loss to the Kings on Tuesday, the combined score of 12-1 is one of the worst shellackings of modern times for the Canadiens, and the question for this game was whether that would produce a rebound or a further slump as the Bruins arrived in town.

2) Worse than the score in the Dallas game was the loss of Newhook for most of the rest of the season. Ilya Lyubushkin hooked Newhook as the speedy Canadiens forward was racing for the puck in the Dallas end of the ice, causing him to crash into the end boards awkwardly and fracture his ankle. For tonight’s game, Martin St-Louis had to shuffle the lines, moving Kirby Dach to the second line alongside Oliver Kapanen and Ivan Demidov, and inserting Jake Evans in Dach’s place on the Zachary Bolduc-Josh Anderson line. Jared Davidson was called up from Laval to take on the empty spot on the fourth line.

3) I found little point in the fight at the opening puck drop between Jayden Struble and Nikita Zadorov. Did it really achieve anything useful, other than removing Lane Hutson’s defence partner from the game for five minutes? And then Arber Xhekaj dropped the team down to four defenders by fighting Tanner Jeannot …

4) The Montreal power play was all-conquering for some time, once Demidov moved to the PP1 unit, but all that now seems to be in the distant past. Seven power plays on the night, including three two-man advantages, and the team had nothing to show for it. The passing and the puck movement were still crisp, but there were very few shot attempts, and Jeremy Swayman had good visibility on all of those. The players are looking for the perfect shot but are not able to find those opportunities. The skills are there, but something has to change in the approach in order to get the pucks going into the net again.

5) Shortly after the first Montreal power play, there was yet another tussle, this time with Josh Anderson and Fraser Minten, and that took the play to four on four. That should have been an advantage for the bleu blanc et rouge, but it was the Bruins that took advantage, with David Pastrnak finding Marat Khusnutdinov open on the opposite side of the net. A quick cross-ice pass, and Khusnutdinov one-timed it past Montembeault for a 1-0 lead.

6) The penalty kill looked much better than the power play, though. While the Bruins had some chances with the advantage, it was the Canadiens with two strong counterattacks with Jake Evans and Matheson. On the second one, Evans and Matheson skated hard to make it a two-on-one, and Charlie McAvoy allowed Evans to get a clear shot on Swayman. Evans made no mistake in lifting the puck into the net above Swayman’s glove to tie the game back up.

7) Montembeault made a solid save on a Morgan Geekie breakaway two minutes into the second period, but the Bruins got the goal seconds later as the Habs were unable to gain possession after the ensuing faceoff. Mason Lohrei lobbed a shot in from the top of the left-side circle through some heavy traffic, and it appeared that Montembeault could not see the shot until it was too late.

8) The third Boston goal was a power play marker by Viktor Arvidsson, standing in front of Montembeault, who slammed home a Pavel Zacha pass from behind the net. Not much Montembeault could do on that one. Overall, Montembeault played one of his best games of the season so far, keeping the Habs in range when the Bruins were exerting heavy pressure.

9) The home team got their four-on-four payback later in the third. The Bruins were controlling the play but lost the puck while entering the Montreal zone, and Struble made an excellent pass to Nick Suzuki to catch the Bruins’ attackers unaware. The Habs’ captain carried the puck into the Boston zone along the left-hand boards and then sent a pass across to Cole Caufield, who had caught up with the play. The sniper got Swayman to commit and then switched to his backhand, flipping the puck high into the net, over Swayman’s outstretched pad. That narrowed the Boston lead to 3-2, but, alas, it would be as close as the Habs would get.

10) The pressure at the end of regulation time was a positive, but it suffered from some of the same problems as the power play. At least in this case, there were shots (and attempted shots)–and Juraj Slafkovsky parked in front of Swayman — but here, too, the Canadiens had trouble creating dangerous shot opportunities, and finally they left the ice empty-handed again.

HW Habs Three Stars

First Star: Samuel Montembeault (22 shots, 19 saves, .864 save%, +1.96 GSAx) played the game he needed to play after two confidence-shaking losses to LA Kings and Dallas Stars. He kept the team in the game, making repeated saves as the Bruins pressed midway through the second, and again twice in the third. None of the goals he allowed were particularly soft, and this game should help him rebuild his confidence.

Second Star: Brendan Gallagher (0g, 0a, 5 shots, +0, 12:25 TOI) was a force on the ice, as he has often been against the Bruins. Driving the fourth line with two bubble NHL players (Joe Veleno and Jared Davidson), they had a highly impressive six shots and 81% of the expected goals.

Third Star: Kirby Dach (0g, 0a, 1 shot, +0, looked good alongside Demidov and Kapanen, and while the trio did not score, they were defensively responsible and did not allow high-danger chances to the Bruins. A good first step on this line, I think.