The Habs are now ten games into the 2026-27 and are off to a decent start, with 12 points to show for it despite a long injury list. Here are ten stats from those first ten outings. Some are good, others are cause for concern.
51: The number of minor penalties taken by the Habs this season which is the most in the league, including teams that have played more games than them. Also relevant here is -11, the actual penalty differential, which is the worst in the league. While the penalty kill has been improving, they’re clearly getting tested too much as well.
0:05: Speaking of the penalty kill, this is Chris Kreider’s average SH TOI thus far. For context, he averaged 0:33 per night last year in Anaheim and 1:41 per game in his final season with the Rangers. In the preseason, Kreider was seeing some playing time on the penalty kill but that plan appears to have been abandoned early on.
29.5: Shots on goal per game by the Habs, up from 26.3 the year before. Shots aren’t the most important thing but knowing that a shooting percentage near the top of the league was likely going to tick back down this season, upping the volume a bit to try to offset that should certainly help. To that end, the percentage is down from 12.9% a year ago to 10.9% this season, which is much closer to league average.
+6.8%: Shots on goal alone doesn’t mean a lot as the Habs could have increased their shots on goal by 3.2 but allowed more than that, meaning a net negative. Fortunately, that’s not the case. Per MoneyPuck, they’re sixth in shot attempt percentage at 55.1%. Last year, they were at 48.3%, ranking 24th. The uptick in volume is yielding a net positive overall.
+7.2%: Five-on-five play has been much improved this season. Per MoneyPuck, the Habs are sixth in five-on-five expected goals percentage at 55.1%, compared to their mark of 47.9% a year ago, which was 24th. If the five-on-five qualifier is removed and we look at overall expected goals, the Habs are in the middle of the pack, 50.1% (15th) this season versus 49.5% (14th) last season. The power play is dragging this stat down.
13.8%: Speaking of the power play, this is where it checks in, well below last year’s 23.1% ranking. They have a total of 26 shots at five-on-four in 46:15 of ice time. Basically, for every two minutes of five-on-four time, they are averaging just over one shot on net, at 0.56 shots per minute. That’s remarkably low. By comparison, they had 286 shots in 375 five-on-four minutes last year, or 0.76 shots per minute. They’ve improved the shot volume at full strength but here, it has taken a step back.
59.1%: This is Alex Newhook’s faceoff percentage. We’re not talking about him taking a handful per game and dealing with a really small sample size either. He’s taken 93 draws, more than a third of the faceoffs he took last season, when he had a success rate of 47.5% (which was still well above his career average). I don’t think this is sustainable but it’s clear that there is some improvement on that front.
-.093: This is the decrease in save percentage for Jakub Dobes from last year to this year through his first five starts (across Montreal’s first ten games). His numbers weren’t the prettiest by the time Jacob Fowler came up last year but that was after a hot start that simply hasn’t been there thus far this season. This is still a very small sample size but the Canadiens are certainly counting on their starter to turn things around.
+2: The thought of the second period is scary for Montreal fans and players alike, who are all too used to their struggles in the middle frame, particularly last season. But this number represents their goal differential in the second period. Yes, the Habs have outscored their opponents in the second. Technically, the two goals in Chicago put them over but even without that, they were breaking even which I don’t think many would have guessed. For reference, the problem period is now the third where the Canadiens have a -6-goal differential.
101: This is Montreal’s current points pace. In spite of the injuries, some struggles, and some inconsistency, the Habs are still on pace for a point total that should be good enough to get into the playoffs, even with the two extra games on the schedule. It hasn’t been the most fun of starts to the season – especially relative to expectations – but things could be a whole lot worse.