The Canadiens Are Spiraling
It’s late November, and the Montreal Canadiens are slipping. A few weeks ago, the conversation was about progress, structure, and promise. Now, oy vey … it’s about survival. Nick Suzuki’s band has hit a wall—losing confidence, losing bodies, and increasingly, losing its identity.
Injuries are piling up, and word is that several players are gutting through lingering issues. Opponents have noticed. The scouting report per ‘mon cher Elliotte Friedman’ on Montreal is simple: play them hard, play them physical, and eventually they’ll bend … if not break. That perception, fair or not (oh, but it’s fair…), has started to spread—and it’s one of the hardest reputations to shake in the NHL.
The Canadiens have been here before, what was it? Oh yeah … every year since I’ve been watching. It’s a familiar pattern: young gun flashes potential, competes hard for a stretch, then unravels when adversity hits. Their skill and speed are meant to define them, yet when the game tightens or turns physical, they often look lost.
This season’s version of the spiral feels particularly troubling because the breakdowns are coming everywhere. Arber Xhekaj has made strides in his overall play but seems to have lost some of the bite that once gave the team swagger. The bottom six is struggling to keep pace with tougher, faster opponents. The Suzuki and … what is it now, I guess the Ivan Demidov line?—meant to drive offence—can’t find sustained chemistry. That recent five-on-three power play a few games back, where confusion reigned and no one seemed sure who should take charge, summed up the problem perfectly.
And yes, I’ve heard the media chatter pointing to “getting back to fundamentals,” but the question is: what are the Canadiens’ fundamentals? Their style is difficult to define. Martin St-Louis’s philosophy emphasizes individual development and freedom—encouraging creativity and growth—but at times, that freedom looks like chaos. When St-Louis says postgame that his team “deserved a better outcome,” it’s clear he’s speaking from the perspective of a teacher proud of his students’ effort. But hockey, especially at this level, is not an individual exercise. It’s a system. And when the system breaks down, effort isn’t enough.
How many times have we heard over the last four years that players themselves are struggling to interpret and execute St-Louis’s approach? When a team under pressure can’t fall back on clear structure, panic sets in, esti, we have some Wayne Gretzky coaching the ‘Yotes flashbacks. The Canadiens’ youth makes that problem even more pronounced. To many observers, Montreal now looks less like a rebuilding team on the rise and more like last year’s Chicago Blackhawks—a group searching for an identity game after game; how long until we have our version of the Bedarded meme?
So where does the fix come from? Coaching tweaks will help, but leadership may be the bigger missing ingredient. Last season, David Savard provided stability until his injury. This year, there’s no comparable veteran presence to steady the bench or reset the tone on the ice. St-Louis is a motivator and a mentor, but what the Canadiens lack is an in-game translator—a player who can enforce structure in real time when everything starts to unravel.
It’s not a new formula. The Tampa Bay Lightning needed Dave Andreychuk in their first championship run. His presence gave shape and accountability to a roster brimming with talent but lacking discipline. Montreal could use its own version of that—a respected veteran who can teach, calm, and connect the dots between system and execution.
If nothing changes, the Canadiens risk more than another cold stretch in the standings. The real danger is philosophical: becoming a team caught between development and direction, where growth replaces results and confusion replaces identity. Come spring, management will have to ask whether St-Louis needs more tactical help behind the bench—or more leadership in front of it.
Because right now, the Canadiens aren’t just losing games. They’re losing the thread.