Memo from Poor Len Canayen to Martin St-Louis: Rest Hutson!

Ed. here. The condition of the front room of Walt's cabin in the pines when I walked in this morning was such that I doubt we're going to get anything useful out of him. Two large jars of Ma Nifkins' jellied gin -- both empty -- are not a good sign. 

So I called our National Sport (As Long As It's Hockey) Editor, Poor Len Canayen, and asked him if we could make public his memorandum to Martin St-Louis, head coach of Montréal Canadiens. He said "ben ouais", which I take as a yes. Here `tis. 

Slt Martin! St'une belle équipe là mais [Oops, forgot to turn on the translator. Ed.] but you'd better keep one eye on the rear-view mirror. We can't afford to lose two more games in a row like we did this weekend. Especially not by just one goal. (Yes, I know it was technically 4-2 on Saturday, but that fourth goal was an empty-netter so it was really 3-2)

What is to be done to make sure Boston or Ottawa don't leapfrog over us? Here's my view from the nosebleed seats.

Marty, the guys are tired, especially the rookies. Ivan Demidov, Oliver Kapanen and Lane Hutson have never played a full season in the NHL. The grind of playing 3-4 games a week, week in and week out, is getting to them. And don't forget that Hutson isn't that big -- just 5'9" and 160 lbs. You can't keep giving him big minutes -- over 20 per game -- and expect him to keep up the same torrid pace.

My advice? Rest Hutson a bit. But how to do that, absent a reliable sixth defenceman? Answer: Revamp the power play. Let Noah Dobson QB the first unit at the point for Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slavkovsky and Demidov.

Then, for the second unit, you can put Mike Matheson on the point, maybe alterenating with Hutson. Who's gonna be up front, then? Here's my counter-intuitive brilliant suggestion. Activate Patrick Laine! 

Laine's healthy (although probably a bit rusty for lack of playing time) and has been showing up for practice. Put him on the fourth line, and put him in his "office" on the power play, with Phillip Danault and/or Kapanen at centre, and Brendan Gallagher and Alexandre Texier. That's going to put a lot of pressure on Matheson to concentrate on foiling a counter-attack, but hey, he's a horse!

If  you think I'm crazy, consider that the Habs' power play went 0 for 4 against the Ducks(!) last night. The PP has got to be fixed. What's your idea?

Go Habs go!  Len

Poor Len analyzes Canadiens' first 6 games

Ed. here. Walt is still in Canada. I suspect he is indulging in Boneshaker IPA with our National Sports Editor, Poor Len Canayen, who has send these comments on the Montréal Canadiens season, thus far. 

Tank youse, Hed. Let's start with stats. Following last night's loss to the New York Rangers -- which the Habs deserved, by the way -- they have registered 4 wins and 2 losses, for 8 points and a .667 average.

That's good for second place in the Atlantic Division, behind the much improved Detroit Red Wings, who also have 8 points but have a game in hand. 

If la Sainte Flannelle can maintain the .667 average through the season, they should wind up with 109 point and a berth in the playoffs. 

But I did say "if".

The 2025-26 Canadiens are fast and super-exciting to watch, especially when Lane Hutson and Ivan Demidov. Yet, of the four games they won, they had to come from behind to win two in overtime. And the power play still hasn't hit top gear. Last night, Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki extended their point streaks to five games. Caufield sniped five goals in the first five games.

Noah Dobson scored his first goal in a Habs sweater and has fitted in nicely. After scoring three goals in each of the first three games, Zach Bolduc has gone a bit quiet but looks like a good acquisition. Kirby Dach appeared to have shaken off the rust, but is still injury-prone, missing last night's game with a lower-bodyinjury, as did Kaiden Guhle, who's going to be out for a month.

If the Habs are to sustain their early momentum, some tweaks must be made, not to the strategy of coach Martin St-Louis, but to the lineup. The power play has struggled. Too much passing and not enough presence4 in front of the enemy's net. How about putting Demidov on the right and dropping Juray Slavkovsky down to second, with Dach at centre and, say, Bolduc at left. 

Notice I didn't mention Patrik Laine? Apart from some time on the power play, he's been relegated to the fourth line, where, if he doesn't do much good, at least does little harm. Did anyone else note that while he sat out of last night's game (lower body injury, they said), Jonathan Marchessault was absent from the Nashville Predators lineup vs Winnipeg. Marchessault was showcased in Thursday night's game vs Montréal and I wonder if a trade for Laine is in the works. Marchessault would love to be at home in Québec and It would be a great deal for the Habs.

Then there's the goaltending conundrum. Les Glorieux have scored 21 goals in their first six games, but have allowed 18, a differential of +3. Problem: it wasn't backup goalie Jakub Dobes who allowed most of those. It was the supposed starter Samuel Montembeault. His GAA is 3.26 (sv% .857), compared with Dobes' 1.46 (.940), although the latter played in just two games. Monty's record is 2-2, while Dobes' is 2-0. Do I need to say more? [Please do. Ed.]

Hokay den, here's what dey shoujld do. Send Montembeault down to Laval for some reconditioning, and bring up hot prospect Jacob Fowler to play backup to Dobes for the next few games. See what happens.

[You seem to have a liking for goalies named "Jacob". Ed.] Yeah, well, remember Jake Allen? At the ripe old age of 35, he's still playing for the New Jersey Devils, and putting up respectable numbers. I rest my case. [I think there's still one in there that hasn't been opened. Ed.] Tank youse, Hed.

Poor Len's first look at the 2025-2026 Montréal Canadiens

Our National Sports (as long as it's hockey) Editor, Poor Len Canayen, was thrilled yesterday to find that RDS is carrying all the Montréal Canadiens pre-season games. Here's how he saw last night's match with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Thank youse, Hed. For an exhibition game, last  night's contest was good, entertaining hockey, and le bleu, blanc et rouge won 2-1 in a 5-round shootout. That said, one would have thought that the supposedly improved Habs could do better against a Pittsburgh team that rested Crosby, Malkin, Letang and its other top players. The narrow victory doesn't inspire confidence.

Preliminary indications are that the Habs, in spite of strengthening their defensive corps over the summer, remain a team with just one good line. They rested Cole Caufield, Jury Slavkovsky, and captain Nick Suzuki, as well as ace-to-be defenceman Lane Hutson, leaving fans wondering who could be counted on to score. 

Answer: no-one. The Habs' goals came Owen Beck and, in the shoot-out, Oliver Kapanen, both of whom played a couple of games with the team last season and failed to impress. Give Beck his due, though. He was 70% at the faceoff dot, had 4 shots, and deserved the first star. He played the kind of game he needed to have a shot at filling the only available (on paper) vacancy on the forward lines.

Another forward with a shot, albeit a long one, is Filip Mesar, who played on Beck's right last night. With Laval last year, he had a disappointing 18 points in 42 games. But he made his presence felt yesterday, showing good puck control and patience, as well as willingness to get into the dirty areas, à la Brendan Gallagher. It was he who began the sequence that led to Beck's third-period goal. 

It was nice to see Mesar trying to show some finesse, for he had declared at the rookie training camp that he wanted to show more meanness, and was willing to drop the gloves, although at 5'10" and 184 lbs he's far from the heavyweight class. "We're not looking for a new Chris Nilan," said Coach Martin St-Louis. "You can see he's got good hands and good intelligence. His game has matured, and that's good to see."

And then there was the guy the fans came to see, Ivan Demidov. The problem with him, it says here, is that he needs someone to play with. Last night he was on the right of Jake Evans, not a top centre, with Patrik Laine on the left. I won't riff on Laine for being lazy because in the pre-season one doesn't expect the established players to give their all. Still, he could have done more than take one shot and then go into flotation mode.

It was Demidov who brought the Habs to life in the third period. Tired of waiting for someone to pass the puck to him, he showed that he can keep the puck out of reach of any defender, making moves which decades ago would have been described as "Savardian". He did have a couple of shots but was a bit off-target on one and foiled by the Penguins goalie on the other. No worries about his future with the "A" team. Just please, please put him on a line with a good centre and a mates who like to be part of tic-tac-toe  plays.

And that's it except to say that Jacob Fowler, making his debut between the pipes, looked calm and collected, and pulled off one spectacular save to preserve the tie and force overtime. I could see the coach going with a three-goalie rotation (with Samuel Montembault and Jacub Dobes) for the first 10 or15 games, before deciding which two will be the regular goaltenders. Is it possible to have a Jake as a starter and another Jake as the backup?