Topics in our latest podcast include Montreal’s strong start to the season, new deals for Lane Hutson, Kent Hughes, and Jeff Gorton, and yet another long-term absence for Patrik Laine.

David Reinbacher has been cleared to return from his preseason hand injury as the Habs announced on Thursday that he has been activated off season-opening IR and assigned to Laval of the AHL.

We’re way too early into the 2025-26 NHL season to make definitive conclusions and predictions concerning the Montreal Canadiens but here are a few this-and-thats on all things Habs-related thus far.

The Habs are certainly off to a strong start to their season as one of the top-scoring teams in the league. On the other hand, the stats through their first ten games show that their defence is still very much a work in progress.

The Habs embarked on their second multi-game road trip of the early season this week. With a pair of wins in those three games plus a victory on home ice, they find themselves sitting atop the Atlantic Division through their first ten games of the season.

A big second half push from the Habs on Saturday made the difference. They scored four times in the back half of the game while Ivan Demidov’s second goal of the season stood as the winner in a 4-3 game.

For the second year in a row, the Habs will be missing Patrik Laine for a big chunk of the season.  The team announced Saturday that he will miss the next three to four months after undergoing surgery to repair a core muscle injury.

In a back-and-forth affair on Thursday night that also featured some questionable officiating, the Habs came up just short in Edmonton as Vasily Podkolzin’s late winner gave the Oilers the 6-5 win.

The Habs weren’t able to muster up much offence on Dustin Wolf on Wednesday in Calgary but, backed by another strong showing from Jakub Dobes, what they had was enough as Mike Matheson’s overtime goal gave Montreal a 2-1 victory.