Five habs players earn two points in a victory against the Hurricanes

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Five habs players earn two points in a victory against the Hurricanes

The Montreal Canadiens faced the Hurricanes in Carolina on New Year's Day 2026.

Minutes before tipoff, the Habs announced that Mike Matheson won't be fit due to an upper body injury.

Here's Martin St. Louis' lineup for tonight's game:

Jayden Struble took Matheson's place, and Engstrom was deployed on the first pairing of guards along with Noah Dobson.

Interestingly, the Habs haven't won in Carolina in almost 10 years…

It didn't take long for the Canadiens to open the scoring in this game. The captain needed just three minutes to put his team ahead. Sammy Blais blocked the run, passed to Alexandre Texier, who then sent it to Nick Suzuki in the slot.

And less than a minute later, Juraj Slafkovski made another accurate blind pass to Ivan Demidov, who completely mocked the defender before passing to Oliver Kapanen. The last one had only to thread it into the abandoned net.

In the game, Arber Chekai distinguished himself with several strong checks, including this one. This is the kind of Chekai we want to see.

However, two quick goals were not enough to maintain the lead in the first period. Nikolai Ehlers, Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov scored unanswered to take the lead.

However, Jakub Dobes was not necessarily weak in achieving these goals. Lane Hutson, on the other hand, didn't really have his best period, and even overall it wasn't a good one for the young defenseman. However, in the second half of the game he pulled himself together.

After 20 minutes of play the score was 3-2 in favor of the team. Canes.

However, the Hurricanes were not going to rest on their laurels: young defenseman Alexander Nikishin scored from the point.

A few minutes later newbie Sammy Blais scored his third goal of the season after a wonderful pass from Brendan Gallagher was deflected by Hutson to Blais.

With three minutes left in the second period, Cole Caufield tied the game with a beautiful pass from Alexandre Texier, his second assist of the game.

Bill Guerin must be wondering if he should name Caufield to the U.S. Olympic team given his 20 goals this season.


23 seconds later Nikolaj Ehlers was feeling very generous on January 1st, giving Josh Anderson a very nice Christmas present a little late.

How bad it was for Ehlers…

After 40 minutes of play, the Habs lead 5–4.

Early in the third and final twenty minutes, Eric Engels noticed that Noah Dobson and Josh Anderson were not on the Habs bench.

However, moments later he added that Dobson had returned.

Unfortunately for the Habs, it was announced midway through the final frame that Anderson would not be returning to the lineup… Another loss for the Habs. It's getting to be a lot.

Fortunately, according to Engels, Kayden Guhle could return to action sooner than expectedafter the Montreal club's away trip.

However, the list of injured players is long… very long: Kayden Guhle, Kirby Dach, Patrik Laine, Alex Newhook, Mike Matheson and Jake Evans.

In the third period, Jakub Dobes, despite not being very busy, made several big saves to maintain the lead. And moments later, Slafkovskiy decided to cover the entire area before beating the goalkeeper from a very narrow angle.

The Slovakian looked like Paul Coffey in this episode.

The Hurricanes pulled out all the stops with just under four minutes remaining in the third period, and it paid off as Ehlers cut the deficit to one. In this sequence, Aho scored his fifth (!!!) point of the game. His second five-point game of his career.

Fortunately, with two minutes left in the game, Lane Hutson fired the puck from deep in his zone into the empty net to restore his team's two-goal lead.

The goal gave five Habs players two points in the game.

Final score: 7-5 in favor of the Habs.

The Habs' next game is this Saturday in St. Louis against the Blues.

Extra time

– As I mentioned about Kapanen's goal, Slafkovskiy made another no-look pass (successfully), and Grant McCagg notes that in the last five games (at least) he's managed to make one pass per game.

– Indeed, the absence of Matheson (and Goulet, of course) in this game is clearly a hindrance, and the defense is much more permeable.

– With a goal in the first period, Nick Suzuki became the Habs player with the most points in the first 40 games of a season since Saku Koivu in 1996-97.

– It’s interesting that Juraj Slafkovsky blocked at least five shots in this game, and also made three checks (and two points).

– Once again, Philippe Danault performed excellently on the faceoff circle with an efficiency of 62%.

– Brandon Bussey, Hurricanes goaltender, has played very well this season but still allowed six goals on 20 shots (the seventh goal was an empty net).

– Lane Hutson bounced back after a shaky start to play some big minutes in Matheson's absence. Dobson and Hutson each spent about 24 minutes of ice time in this game.

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