After taking wins in their first two preseason contests, the Montreal Canadiens hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night hoping to make it three straight. That didn’t happen, and in fact the game completely got away from them as they dropped a 7-2 decision in front of their home crowd. It was certainly one of the more frustrating preseason games in recent memory, but hopefully there were a few things they can take away to improve future results.
About the only thing working for them on the night was their power play, which went two for five.
Ivan Demidov with some great patience, better pass across to Patrik Laine, and he's not gonna miss on that. #gohabsgo pic.twitter.com/mvuvGCDkxK
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) September 26, 2025
Some chemistry between Ivan Demidov and Patrik Laine on the power play is certainly a welcome silver lining from the blowout loss. Their time together at even strength has left something to be desired, but we know they’ll be seeing significant time together with the man advantage as well. If they can continue to develop more of a shorthand together, they should be able to find ways to produce throughout the season.
At times, the puck movement was a little sloppy on the power play, but despite that, they clearly showed that they have a dangerous group. Once they clean up that movement a little bit, there is reason to believe that they’ll be more productive than last year, which would bode well for their goal of getting back into playoff contention. If you’re searching for a positive from last night’s debacle, this is as good as you’re going to find.
Everything else that could go wrong? Well, it did. Samuel Montembeault and Jacob Fowler both let in some uncharacteristic goals. Noah Dobson and David Reinbacher both had to leave late in the game with lower-body injuries, and are considered day-to-day as of this writing. The team looked largely disinterested at five-on-five, and mustered a paltry 13 shots on goal through 60 minutes of play. These games don’t count, but it should come as no surprise that Martin St-Louis wasn’t thrilled with the team’s effort even if a better one wouldn’t help their mission of returning to the playoffs.
I feel that a quote from the great Carey Price rings true in this moment: “Relax, chill out. We’ve got lots of time.” Obviously the injuries are a valid concern, but the game itself should serve as nothing more than a learning experience for a roster that is still taking shape. They’ll get a chance to show a little more on Saturday night, and there’s still plenty of time for them to weed efforts like this out of themselves before the real games get going.
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