Not long after learning they’d be without Cole Caufield for the rest of the season, the Habs were in action on Saturday night in Toronto. Rem Pitlick moved up the lineup in Caufield’s absence and made the most of his chances, potting the overtime winner in a 3-2 victory.
Nick Suzuki won’t have his running mate on the top line for the rest of the season as the Canadiens announced Saturday morning that winger Cole Caufield is out for the remainder of the season due to a shoulder injury.
With the first half of the season now past, it’s time to grade the Canadiens players’ performances for the second quarter of the season. We begin, as always, with the goaltenders and defencemen.
Montreal’s struggles against Florida continued on Thursday night. A five-goal second period for the Panthers put the game out of hand before things got particularly physical. In the end, Florida got a bit closer to a playoff spot with a 6-2 victory.
Following an impressive win over the Rangers on Sunday, the Habs looked to make it two straight victories as they hosted the Jets on Tuesday. They got some secondary scoring for a change and Montreal was able to ride that to a 4-1 win.
It was a bit of a turbulent week for the Habs as they mixed in some good efforts along with some poor ones with the end result being a pair of victories in their four games.
After falling to the Islanders on Saturday, the Habs looked to get the split in New York as they faced off against the Rangers on Sunday afternoon. They put forth one of their better efforts in recent weeks and were able to pick up the 2-1 victory.
It was another quiet night offensively for the Canadiens on Saturday as they weren’t able to give Samuel Montembeault much goal support in spite of a strong performance from the netminder. Two early goals were all the Islanders needed as they picked up the 2-1 victory.
Topics in the latest edition of our podcast include Montreal’s recent struggles including another holiday road trip to forget, how their prospects fared at the World Juniors, and much more.
The first half of the season has come and gone and we’ll be doing our next set of grades shortly. But what about assessing the performance of Montreal’s management and coaching staff?