If anyone bought tickets to see the Colorado Avalanche’s stars at the Bell Centre on Saturday night, they were likely disappointed, as the Avs were missing two of their best players against the Montreal Canadiens: Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar. Meanwhile, the Habs were without Chris Kreider, who suffered a lower-body injury in Thursday night’s game and who’ll be out for the next six to eight weeks. However, one man’s loss is another man’s gain, and it gave Florian Xhekaj a chance to play alongside Jake Evans and Josh Anderson, which could conceivably be one of the Sainte-Flanelle’s future lines.

If some thought the Habs would make short work of the Avs without MacKinnon and Makar, they must have been very surprised. The Canadiens fell right into the trap set for them and lost 4-1 (with an empty-net goal) to a team that was better on the ice, if not on paper.

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The Canadiens were going nowhere until captain Nick Suzuki scored a fantastic goal that mixed a spin-o-rama with a backhand on a Juraj Slafkovsky assist. While most Habs players didn’t seem focused on the game Saturday night, the pivot was as sharp as ever, and his goal seemed to breathe new life into his teammates.

In addition to his goal, Suzuki won 63% of his faceoffs and landed two hits. He participated in every aspect of the play and led by example, as always. Unfortunately, the Canadiens couldn't build on the momentum he gave them with his second-frame lamplighter. The night might have ended differently if Alex Newhook's lamplighter wasn't taken away because the puck was tipped too high, but we'll never know. 

The highest-paid player on the Sainte-Flanelle isn’t Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Lane Hutson or Ivan Demidov; no, it’s Noah Dobson, and he’s not playing like it so far this season. Once again tonight, he made questionable decisions about when to pinch and help the attack, along with some very soft plays in his zone.

When the Canadiens were in the Avalanche zone, he unleashed a few booming shots, but over 40 minutes, none were on target. When Dobson became available in the 2025 offseason, Kent Hughes jumped on the opportunity to acquire a big-right shot defenseman, and he had no qualms about giving him a big contract, but now it’s Dobson’s turn to deliver.

After 60 minutes, the right-shot had nine attempts on net; four were blocked, and five missed the net altogether. While credit must be given to the visitors, who had very active sticks, Dobson’s decision-making and timing to unleash his shots weren’t great.

While Jakub Dobes didn’t have a bad game per se, he made 23 saves on the 26 shots received, he doesn’t look as confident as he once did in the net. During the playoffs, much of his success came from his confidence level and his swagger. He had a Patrick Roy-like competitiveness and oozed confidence, but that’s not the kind of goaltender we saw on Saturday night. Starting the game and giving up a goal is hardly a good confidence builder:

"I mean, just a bounce; I don’t feel any different. I feel like every time we start a game, they somehow get one in. I mean, it’s hard to start a game like that, but last time against Cooley, maybe I could have played differently. But today, it got deflected. I don’t know what else I can do. The shooter had nothing to shoot at, but it was just unfortunate. We’ll talk about it, and we’ll start better next game."

Unsurprisingly, he was also asked if there was a period of adaptation to the fact that games don’t come his way quite as often this season, and he explained:

"Obviously, I wish I could play more, but, like, that’s the situation, and I've got to adjust to that and take the most out of it. I’ll keep working, and we’ll get a better result next time."

That was an interesting answer by the netminder. I would have expected him to say something along the lines of “I’ll work hard, and the starts will start coming my way”; that would have shown he had some fight in him, but his answer almost sounded like he had accepted the idea that he’s now second on the depth chart.

It was about as surprising as the start of the third frame, when the Avalanche scored a little over four minutes in on the power play; Dobes looked like he thought he'd been beaten twice on two different occasions before that goal. His body language made it seem like the puck was in the net even though it wasn’t; he didn’t agree with our assessment on that after the game, but that’s what it looked like from up above.

Did the Canadiens think it would be easy to beat the Avalanche tonight? Hard to say, but there was definitely a problem with the execution. Players were getting chances, but they weren’t shooting or moving the puck fast enough; by the time they decided what to do, the opportunity was gone. In the end, the Avs took the two points, and for the first time in 13 games, Montreal didn’t get a single point.

The Habs will practice in Brossard tomorrow before traveling to New York to kick off a three-game road trip that will include a back-to-back. Will the Canadiens get reinforcements on their trip? That’s unknown for now, as the coach said when asked whether Ivan Demidov would be traveling with the team.

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