Game 8: Montreal Canadiens vs. St. Louis Blues
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Blues region: Bally Sports Midwest
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
The Canadiens may have looked ahead when the the NHL schedule was first released to see three off days this week and believed that would be a good break following the opening seven matches. Instead, they spent that time working on basic details of their defensive game because they’ve not only gotten off to a 2-4-1 start, but haven’t shown any real progress in their play since the season began over two weeks ago.
Martin St-Louis has lamented the passivity of the players in the defensive zone. It’s a strange occurrence because the Canadiens have used an aggressive penalty kill to be one of the most successful short-handed teams so far, correcting a part of their game that ranked near the bottom of the league a season ago. The loss of their most stable defenceman, Kaiden Guhle, has only further exposed the defensive issues in the past couple of games, and some glaring errors by the young additions to the blue line exacerbated the situation, resulting in the team’s worst loss of the campaign on Tuesday.
We’ve seen so far that offence isn’t really the issue for the team; their 25th-ranked average of 2.57 goals per game is largely a product of how little time they’ve been able to spend in the offensive zone than a lack of skill or creativity. The power play is in the top third of the league, proving that the talent is in place to score goals. The record looks bad to start, but it’s really just one area holding the Canadiens back from beginning to achieve the potential that has been building up through the prospect pool over the past few years and now into the professional ranks.
The first test following this week’s lessons are the St. Louis Blues, a team that posted scores in last year’s season series similar to the one the Habs were dealt by the New York Rangers three days ago. A 6-3 loss last November was followed up by a 7-2 loss in February as the Blues swept the two-game set. The aim is to prevent such a number from ticking up on the Bell Centre scoreboard this evening.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Blues |
|---|---|---|
| 2-4-1 | Record | 5-3-0 |
| 42.5% (31st) | Scoring-chances-for % | 48.2% (19th) |
| 2.57 (25th) | Goals per game | 3.00 (19th) |
| 3.86 (28th) | Goals against per game | 2.63 (7th) |
| 23.1% (11th) | PP% | 17.7% (21st) |
| 88.0% (4th) | PK% | 76.2% (20th) |
| 0-2-0 | Head-to-Head Record (23-24) | 2-0-0 |
The Blues’ chances of reaching six or more goals have been lowered by an ankle injury to Robert Thomas He amassed two goals and four assists in the two-game series in 2023-24 as he went on to contribute a total of 86 points on the season. But they do still have Jordan Kyrou, their second-leading scorer from last year, leading the way with nine points through eight games so far.
A top storyline of this NHL season were the dual offer sheets St. Louis signed Edmonton Oilers restricted free agents Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway to, contracts that weren’t matched by the 2024 Stanley Cup runner-up. That story has only grown richer now that the season has started and those two additions have become key members of the Blues’ lineup. Defenceman Broberg is second on the team with seven points, playing about 20 minutes per night with his new team. Holloway has four points to rank sixth on the squad, boosted by a two-goal performance in the last game. That was a 5-1 dismantling of the Toronto Maple Leafs, showing that even without Thomas this can be a dangerous offensive team.
They will need to maintain this level to stay in a very competitive race for Central Division playoff seeds. It’s the only division with four teams holding double-digit point totals, and even a 5-3 record is only good for fourth and a place in a wild-card slot. The Winnipeg Jets (14 points), Minnesota Wild (12), and Dallas Stars (12) rank above with no signs of letting up, Utah HC is riding the energy of the new fanbase in Salt Lake City to a great start just behind them, and the Colorado Avalanche and Nashville Predators are perhaps the two biggest underachievers of the season so far with better results sure to come. It will be a fight all season long in what may currently stand as the toughest group in the league this year.
St. Louis has gotten off to a 3-1 start on the road, adding even more confidence to the group for its second stop on a four-game trip away from Enterprise Center. The Canadiens are rapidly burning through their home schedule with tonight already being the sixth of 41 games they’ll play in Montreal, and they have lost the last three of those contests. A home crowd eager for a win, a team stumbling as it tries to the take the next step in its progression, and the fact that this is the first game of a back-to-back and three games in four nights are all reasons for the Habs to put together their best performance of the season and get back in the win column.
