The Montreal Canadiens rolled into Long Island on Sunday night with a chance to eliminate the New York Islanders from the playoff picture, and move into second place in the Atlantic all at once. An offensive explosion late in the second period helped them do exactly that, and depending on what happens with Buffalo and Tampa Bay from here out, they still have a chance to win their division outright. The Habs are left with just one remaining regular season tilt, which will go on Tuesday night against the Philadelphia Flyers.
But as close to done as their regular season is, the Habs still had some work to do in terms of making history. It started with Nick Suzuki becoming just the fifth player in club history to reach the 100-point mark.
Great play by Juraj Slafkovsky, sets up Nick Suzuki to get him to the 100-point plateau.
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) April 12, 2026
En plus, Caufield high sticked for four minutes, Habs will get a two minute power play. pic.twitter.com/Kak9kAQz3K
Guy Lafleur of course accomplished the feat a whopping six times, but in over 100 years of history, it hasn’t happened for that many players. Pete Mahovlich did it twice, Mats Naslund and Steve Shutt each did it once, and now Nick Suzuki has added his name to the list. An impressive list to be a part of, and more impressive is how he has just been building towards this with each season of his career. Be it through total points, or points per game, he has done nothing but improve, season after season, since joining the club. Being a perennial 100-point player is tough to accomplish, but it feels like we’ve finally found where his ceiling is as a player, and it puts him among the elite centres in the world.
And the Habs weren’t done there. Lane Hutson posted two assists in the win, which gave him 66 on the year and tied him with the legendary Larry Robinson for the most in a single season by a Habs defenceman. Yes, the same Larry Robinson who sits fifth all-time in scoring for the storied club, a hall-of-famer who is among the very best to ever play the position. Hutson hasn’t just surpassed expectations during his first two seasons in the league, he’s blown clean past them, and his eight-year contract extension hasn’t even kicked in yet. The decision to sign that when they did is sure looking like a brilliant move at this juncture, as he’d have a pretty strong case for a higher price tag if he waited until after being in the same breath as Robinson to put pen to paper.
This season has seen several additions to modern club history. While they aren’t on a level of dominance like the dynasties of decades past, they are without a doubt one of the most talented iterations of the team that we’ve seen in quite some time.
The last time the Habs finished a season with 106 points or more was in 2014-15, when they won the Atlantic with 110. I shouldn’t need to remind anyone about how that team didn’t have a 100-point, 90-point, 80-point, or even a 70-point scorer. What it did have was an unbeatable Carey Price who won just about every trophy a goaltender can win in a given season. Collectively, there is more talent on this roster, and while they won’t have best-in-the-world goaltending to rely on, they have a couple of pretty good ones, and a roster that is build to not over-rely on them.
We will soon find out if they can carry all of this history-making ability into the playoffs, and try to make some magic happen.
Click the play button below to listen to your full Bottom Six Minutes, also available wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll be back on Tuesday night for the regular season finale, on the road against the Philadelphia Flyers.
