Martin St-Louis was not a players' coach yesterday; he was a coach, period. If his men heard his message, we should be in for quite a battle between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.
On Friday morning in Brossard, Montreal Canadiens’ coach Martin St-Louis put his men through their paces after they were obliterated 8-4 by the Washington Capitals on Thursday night. A week earlier, after they had lost 7-0 to the Dallas Stars, the coach ended up deciding that Friday’s practice would be an optional one, but not this time. While it wasn’t a long practice, it was an intense one that focused on forecheck and transition play. He reminded his guys that winning starts with the little things: doing the things that aren't fun but need to be done.
Even though the one-drill exercise lasted only 25 minutes, the players were trying to catch their breath when the coach left the ice. St-Louis then spoke to the media before a 30-minute team meeting, during which the dressing room doors remained shut while the press waited to talk to the players. When the media was finally let in, the mood wasn’t light in the room. The players are well aware of the predicament they find themselves in, and Cole Caufield said it best: the answer is in the mirror.
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While there seemed to be hope that Jake Evans would be able to play on Saturday, the team recalled Florian Xhekaj from the Laval Rocket on Friday night, which would seem to indicate that it won’t be the case. If Evans is unable to play, Saturday night’s game should be the first regular-season game to feature both Xhekaj brothers. If the Habs need a dose of emotion to pull them out of that five-game losing streak, that may just be it.
For the second time this season, the Canadiens will take on the Toronto Maple Leafs, another team struggling at the moment. Toronto just came out of its own five-game losing streak with an overtime win over the St-Louis Blues, only to fall at the next hurdle and lose to the Columbus Blue Jackets in overtime. While the Leafs won the first duel of the season 5-2, the score didn’t tell the whole story. Montreal played a great game, but Toronto prevailed, adding a couple of empty-netters in the last minute.
When the two teams met at the start of the 2024-25 season, Montreal had won the game 1-0 on the back of a fantastic performance from goaltender Samuel Montembeault. The goaltender was unable to perform that way when the curtain fell on the current season, allowing three goals on 25 shots for an .880 save percentage.
St-Louis wouldn’t confirm after Friday’s practice who his starter would be on Saturday night, but Montembeault was pulled in his last start, and it would be fair to give Jakub Dobes the start in my opinion. The Becancour was on the ice early on Friday, taking no shots but working on positioning and movement. Will the coach dare to sit his number one on a Saturday night at the Bell Centre? It remains to be seen. Montembeault has a 3-7-0 record against the visitors with a 3.60 goals-against average and a .891SV. Meanwhile, Dobes has lost his only start against Toronto, a 1-0 overtime loss, finishing with a 0.99 GAA and a .971 SV%.
The Leafs have yet to confirm their starter for the tilt, but Joseph Woll was in net for Thursday night’s defeat and starter Anthony Stolarz is currently sidelined with an upper-body injury. It leaves Craig Berube with two choices, Woll or Dennis Hildeby. The former has a flawless record against Montreal; he’s 3-0-0 with a 1.67 GAA and a .942 SV%, while the latter has never taken on the Sainte-Flanelle.
Stolarz is not the Leafs’ only injured player right now; Auston Matthews, Matthew Knies, Chris Tanev, Brandon Carlo, Nicolas Roy and Marshall Rifai are all sidelined as well right now. Meanwhile Alex Newhook, Kaiden Guhle and Gannon Larocque are the only players who are officially on the Canadiens’ injury list, even though Kirby Dach is out of action for weeks and as for Evans, he hasn’t been ruled out yet, but Xhekaj’s recall from Laval seems to indicate there’s a chance he won’t suit up.
The Leafs are sure to miss Matthews tonight if he’s not ready to return; their captain has picked up 47 points in 38 games against Montreal. Even if he’s out of action, however, the visitors have a lot of players who enjoy scoring against Montreal. John Tavares has 54 points in 60 games, William Nylander has 35 points in 37 games, and Morgan Rielly has 30 points in 51 games. The Leafs may be struggling right now, but they still have quite an arsenal that can explode anytime, and the three players mentioned above are three of the team’s top four scorers.
Meanwhile, Brendan Gallagher, who scored his first goal of the season on Thursday night, is the Canadiens’ leading scorer against the Leafs with 24 points in 48 games, Nick Suzuki has 22 points in 29 games, and Josh Anderson has 17 points in 38 games. Sniper Cole Caufield has 13 points in 17 games, including 10 goals, and the Habs could certainly use his contribution tonight.
Toronto has won nine of the last 10 games between the two sides, and Montreal’s sole win came at home last season, in a 48-save shutout. In that span, the Leafs outscored the Habs 42-18; in other words, Montreal will need strong goaltending to come out on top. Can Montembeault or Dobes answer the call? Puck drop is set for 7:00 PM, and you can catch the game on CBC, Sportsnet and TVA Sports.
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