The Canadiens didn’t waste much time sorting things out after last week’s loss to the Jets. Montreal held an emergency closed-door meeting, and the message carried straight onto the practice ice.
Cole Caufield was at the center of it. During a rebound-control drill with Jakub Dobes, his assignment was to shoot low, and he kept beating the goaltender. It was a sharp follow-up to Caufield’s postgame remarks after the Jets’ 5-4 overtime win, when he said some players thought the game was over before Winnipeg finished the job.
Dobes had already gotten a taste of Caufield’s shot in a different setting. After the overtime win against Utah, he described it this way: that shot made absolutely no sense.
The Canadiens answered the whole sequence with results. On Saturday in Toronto, they beat the Maple Leafs 4-2 for their second straight win.
The standings reflect how well Montreal is rolling right now. The Canadiens are 11-3-3 with 25 points, good for seventh in the NHL and second in the Atlantic Division.
Caufield has been driving the offense. He has 11 goals and 16 points in 17 games, along with three game-winning goals. At that level, he can afford to put his goaltender through a little extra stress in practice.
Dobes has appeared in seven games this season, and a session like that can only help. The rebounds he gave up Friday should give him something to work on before Minnesota comes to town tomorrow night.
For a team that settled things behind closed doors and then backed it up on the ice, this is exactly the kind of response that tends to say plenty.
In Other News...
Canadiens Suddenly Have A Goalie Decision They Cant Ignore
The Canadiens have quietly reached a point where their goaltending picture can no longer be treated like a background issue. Rookie Jacob Fowler has handled road starts with poise, and Jakub Dobes has also been in the mix away from home, giving Montreal a pair of young options to weigh as the schedule keeps moving. For a team trying to sort out its long-term crease while staying competitive now, the next few games could matter more than usual.
Martin St-Louis may soon have to decide how to distribute the starts among Fowler, Dobes and Samuel Montembeault, whose status adds another layer to the discussion. Montreal does not need to settle the entire future of its netminding situation this week, but it does need a plan, and the way it handles this stretch could say plenty about which goalie is earning more trust as the season unfolds. [Read more 🡒]
Arber Xhekaj Just Added Real Edge To Canadiens-Leafs Again
Arber Xhekaj did what he has a habit of doing against the Maple Leafs: he turned a routine game into something with a little more bite. The Canadiens defenseman was left frustrated by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in Montreals latest meeting with Toronto, and he made it clear afterward that he believed officials may have gotten the call wrong. Martin St-Louis also took issue with the ruling, adding another layer to a sequence that already had the feel of a familiar Canadiens-Leafs flashpoint.
What bothered Xhekaj even more was what happened to Kirby Dach during the same sequence, when the play escalated into a two-on-one situation. For Montreal, it was another reminder of how quickly these games can tilt from competitive to combustible, especially when Xhekaj is involved and the Canadiens feel they have a reason to push back. The result is an unresolved little subplot that could easily carry into the next time these teams see each other. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens Suddenly Have A Josh Anderson Question Before Minnesota
Josh Anderson was back on the ice with the Canadiens after missing Saturdays win in Toronto for personal reasons, a welcome sign for a team that has been playing well lately and could use his blend of scoring touch and physical edge. His return to practice at least gets him back into the mix as Montreal turns its attention to Minnesota, where the lineup picture is still being sorted out.
Still, Anderson remains listed as day-to-day, which leaves his availability for the game against the Wild very much up in the air. For a Canadiens group that has found some momentum, the question is less about whether Anderson matters and more about whether theyll have him in the lineup when they need him next. [Read more 🡒]