It turns out that Samuel Blais’ time with his hometown team was rather short-lived.  After being placed on waivers on Sunday, the Maple Leafs announced Monday that they have claimed him off waivers from Montreal.

With season-opening rosters due on Monday, Sunday is a busy day in the NHL as teams make cuts and send many, many players to waivers.  The Habs were active on both fronts, sending three players to Laval while placing two more on the waiver wire.

Saturday’s rematch against the Senators didn’t feature anywhere near the level of physicality of Tuesday’s game but it also didn’t feature much offence from the Habs as they fell 3-1.

Lane Hutson was one of the wild cards heading into last season. After a Calder-winning campaign, he’s now someone the Canadiens are heavily counting on. What should they be expecting from him in his sophomore year?

As the 2025-26 regular season approaches, let’s look at some common arguments about the Canadiens last season and see how those themes held up statistically.

There are few consistencies in preseason hockey. One is a complaint about fitness testing. One is that people say it’s too long. Evidently, another one is Montreal and Ottawa matchups devolving into sheer stupidity, most recently evidenced by Tuesday’s contest.

Tuesday’s penultimate preseason game was an eventful affair as the Habs and Senators combined for over 150 penalty minutes. Meanwhile, the Canadiens had plenty of on-ice success, leading to a 5-0 victory.

On Sunday, Montreal put five players on waivers for the purpose of assignment to Laval. All five of them cleared on Monday and were sent down to the Rocket.

With the Habs going into Saturday’s game with 60 players on their training camp roster, cuts were bound to happen at some point.  That has now happened with Montreal trimming that roster by 25 players.

After getting outclassed by a much weaker Toronto lineup on Thursday, the Habs flipped the script on Saturday in the rematch. The Canadiens sent a much weaker lineup on the road but it didn’t matter as Montreal picked up the 4-2 win.