This week, the NHL has been revealing some of the finalists for its end-of-season awards. The Lady Byng Memorial Trophy finalists were revealed on Thursday with Habs winger Cole Caufield among them.
After a bye in the opening round of the playoffs as a result of winning the North Division, Laval will get their postseason officially underway on Wednesday as they begin a best-of-five series against Toronto.
The Habs entered their best-of-seven series against Tampa Bay with some high hopes. It’s now a best-of-three series after this past week but it’s one that Montreal should have some confidence that they can still win.
The Habs have taken two of the first three games of their first-round series against Tampa Bay which is impressive. What’s particularly impressive is that they’ve done it without any meaningful five-on-five contributions from their top line.
It wasn’t a great final week of the regular season for Laval who went to Toronto for a pair of games and lost them both. However, with Syracuse only winning one of their games, the Rocket finished the season atop the North Division, giving them home ice advantage for two rounds if they advance that far.
It was a light week for the Habs, who only played twice. They didn’t muster up a great effort to end the regular season but they bounced back with an important victory in Tampa Bay to start their playoff series on a good note.
Come playoff time, teams need their top players to be their top players. But to get through a series, someone else will also need to step up to make some key contributions. Our writers make their predictions on who might fill that role for the Habs this spring.
Laval finished up the home portion of the 2025-26 regular season schedule last week with a pair of games against the Senators. They managed to get three of four points but the one they left on the table could come back to bite them.
It was a week of milestones for the Habs as several of their core players all set personal bests or reached totals rarely seen in recent years. On top of that, they managed to pick up three of four wins to give them a shot at home-ice advantage in the first round although they sustained a key injury along the way.
After a tough loss to Columbus on Saturday, the Habs looked to rebound on Sunday against the Islanders. One big minute in the second period gave them a lead they never looked back from in a 4-1 victory.