The Montreal Canadiens haven’t qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs since their surprise run to the Stanley Cup Final in the 2020-21 NHL season, which was shortened due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Since then, they’ve seen a pair of top players in defenseman (and captain) Shea Weber and goaltender Carey Price have to cease playing due to injury troubles; both of their careers are over.
In the meantime, the Canadiens have moved forward with a young core of players that include captain Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slavkofsky, and Alex Newhook; Brendan Gallagher almost seems like a grizzled veteran now.
The Canadiens also sought additional goal-scoring help, and thought they found it until the injury bug struck.
They acquired former 40-goal scorer Patrik Laine in a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets, but he has yet to officially debut for the team after suffering a lower-body injury during the exhibition season. The good news is that he continues to be on the mend and is expected to be able to suite up before long.
Sitting in last place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 8-11-3 through 22 games, what are their biggest surprises and disappointments?
The biggest surprise to start the 2024-25 season
While it’s not exactly a surprise that Canadiens forward Cole Caufield has continued his goal-scoring, he’s taking his scoring prowess to completely new heights.
Through 22 games, he’s scored 13 goals and is on pace to set an astonishing career-high of 48 goals, which would easily best his previous career-high set last season when he scored 28 goals and 37 assists.
The biggest disappointment to the start 2024-25 season
The Canadiens expected big things from Juraj Slafkovsky when they selected him first overall in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.
The Slovakian forward got his feet wet at the NHL level by skating in 39 games in 2022-23, scoring four goals and six assists before suffering a knee injury that brought an end to his year and ended any chance of winning the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie.
Related Montreal Canadiens NewsArticle continues below
He enjoyed a much better campaign in 2023-24, skating in all 82 regular-season games while scoring 20 goals and 32 assists. Management saw fit to reward him with a long-term contract extension, an eight-year, $60.8 million contract signed on July 1, 2024; his deal carries a considerable AAV of of $7.6 million.
However, his production has fallen off a cliff so far in the 2024-25 season. Prior to his goal on Wednesday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets, he had only scored one goal all season and had gone pointless in his previous five games.
He even ended up on the fourth line, a brutal demotion from head coach Martin St. Louis, who later explained what the youngster had to do in order to get back into his good graces, via The Hockey News.
“Just focusing on taking what the game is giving him,” St-Louis told reporters Monday about Slafkovsky. “Playing the game, not having your mind made up of what you want to do that night. Just play the game and be ready for anything. Be engaged your whole shift
The Habs are off until Saturday when they pay a visit to the Big Apple to take on the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden; puck drop is scheduled for 1:00 PM EST.