After a disappointing shutout loss on Sunday, the Montreal Canadiens were back at it on Tuesday night, hosting the already playoff-eliminated Florida Panthers. It would seem like a perfect opportunity to get back on track with a convincing win, but the Habs struggled yet again, and found themselves staring down a one-goal deficit in the dying minutes. As they have many times before, they pulled a rabbit out of their hat, forcing overtime, and ultimately a shootout to take the two points, tying themselves with Tampa and Buffalo at the top of their division.
It wasn’t the kind of overall performance that will usually earn two points. If you don’t want to hear it from me, take it from captain Nick Suzuki.
If you're harping on any of your fellow fans for not liking that performance, take it from the captain.
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) April 8, 2026
If you didn't like it, you're right to not like it, and it is definitely a good thing that the guys in the room didn't like it themselves.
Two points is two points, but… pic.twitter.com/WFvQlXzQFK
There’s no sugar-coating the fact that they didn’t play well, and it was comforting to hear the captain admit as much. They were struggling to connect plays offensively, looked lost defensively, and their power play could barely muster shots on goal until Ivan Demidov blasted home a one-timer in the second period. Everything seemed to be going wrong, and the fact they pulled off a win against an injury-riddled, playoff-eliminated team shouldn’t be taken as confirmation that they were where they needed to be in that game.
Even towards the end of their recent winning streak, there were some signs that bad habits were starting to creep into their game. We’ve seen this happen at times throughout the season, it isn’t all that surprising with a young roster, but it is certainly a concerning time of year for that to be happening. While it is certainly better for issues to be identified now than during the playoffs, they need to address them quickly so that they’re not relying solely on individual efforts to get by in playoff games.
Speaking of individual efforts, Suzuki called his game-tying effort perhaps the easiest goal of his career. How did that happen?
PARLEZ-NOUS DONC DE ÇA
— x – Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) April 8, 2026
CAPTAIN FREAKING CLUTCH#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/uA0s3gugwm
After his own high stick, which negated an icing and send the Habs back into their own zone, Lane Hutson decided it was on him to tie that game. He essentially goes one-on-four, flying into the offensive zone and making every Florida player look at him before giving Suzuki an empty net to shoot at. It was a ridiculous, game-saving play that showcased how some of the individual talent on this team can help them overcome an objectively bad performance.
And there were several individuals contributing to that against Florida. Demidov was dragging the team to the fight for much of the game. Jakub Dobeš may have given up a bad rebound early in the game, but made a number of key saves to give them a chance. In years past, this team was either cooked if they had an off night, or they’d need an otherworldly performance in net. The way that they can pull rabbits out of their hat like they did on Tuesday has a lot to do with the rebuild giving this team the talent it needs to make that possible.
Still, they will need to come together for better performances in their remaining games if they have aspirations of finishing in the top two of their division. They didn’t get to 102 points this season on individual efforts alone, they have played far more complete games, and need to get back to that before the games really start to count. The good news is that Suzuki’s comments suggest that they’re well aware of how much better they can play, and they’re not taking wins like last night’s as confirmation that they did their best.
They know they have better hockey in them, and they’ve got four more regular season games to find it.
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 Thursday night for a massive Atlantic Division tilt between the Habs and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
