After falling 4-0 to the Detroit Red Wings [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/detroit-red-wings] on Saturday night, the Montreal Canadiens [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens] were hoping to bounce back by taking on the Vancouver Canucks [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/vancouver-canucks]. The British Columbia outfit rolled into two, having lost its last three games in regulation and its last six games if you count extra time, which should have made it easy prey on paper. Unfortunately for the Habs, the game isn’t played on paper, and no matter how badly a team is doing, there isn’t a single squad in the NHL that will give you the win. If you repeatedly shoot yourself in the foot, there’s not a single team that won’t make life complicated for you, and the Canadiens must have realized that tonight. Canadiens’ AHL Affiliate To Honour Rocket Richard [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/latest-news/canadiens-ahl-affiliate-to-honour-rocket-richard] Canadiens: Big Dilemma Ahead [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/latest-news/canadiens-big-dilemma-ahead] Canadiens: Taking On The Struggling Canucks [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/game-day/canadiens-taking-on-the-struggling-canucks] A COMEDY OF ERRORS After 40 minutes, goaltender Jakub Dobes had given up three goals on just 14 shots, giving him a .786 save percentage. While that’s clearly not good enough, it was hard not to feel bad for the masked man since each of those goals came from glaring defensive mistakes. On the first goal, it was Oliver Kapanen who missed his defensive coverage and wasn’t in a position to make life complicated for Ellias Pettersen as he jumped on a rebound. On the second one, Arber Xhekaj, who had been playing very well since the start of the new year, was under pressure in his own zone with two Canucks hot on his tail. He opted for a no-look backhand pass at the top of the defensive zone, which, of course, became a giveaway and was in the net seconds later. Then, on the third goal, Xhekaj and Kaiden Guhle collided, taking themselves out of the play, and the Canucks had an easy two-on-zero to score easily. Nobody expects the defensive game to be flawless, but there’s a world of difference between playing a perfect match and making such enormous mistakes. The Canadiens played a much better defensive game in the third period, and Dobes shut the door on the eight shots he faced in the final frame, although he did get some help from his posts a couple of times. CARRIER’S MILESTONE Before Monday night’s game, the Habs had a single goal from their blueliner on the power play and Noah Dobson, freshly inserted on the first man advantage unit, added one to that small tally. In the second frame, fellow defenseman Alexandre Carrier scored a pair of goals, which turned out to be his 100th and 101st points in the NHL. The Quebec City native now has five points in his last five games and must really enjoy being paired with Lane Hutson. Interestingly, in 245 games with the Nashville Predators, the right-shot rearguard had only 69 points, averaging 0.28 points per game. With the Canadiens, he now has 32 points in 97 games, averaging 0.33 points per game, a slight increase. The Habs now have the second-most productive blueline in the league with 119 points, second only behind the Colorado Avalanche, who had 144 points from their defensemen at the time of writing. TURNING IT ON IN THE FINAL FRAME After making a lot of mistakes through 40 minutes, the Canadiens came out strong in the third frame. It was almost as if the players felt bad for their goaltender and decided to go and get two points for him. After six minutes in the third, the Habs scored three times to take a three-goal lead, which would hold until the end of the game. It was a strong frame for the second line as the three youngsters scored two of the three goals. In two games against the Canucks this season, the duo of Juraj Slafkovsky and Ivan Demidov has put up 11 points (five for the Slovak and six for the Russian). They certainly wouldn’t complain if they had to play them more often. ABOUT THE ROSTER On Monday night, Arber Xhekaj played his worst game since the calendar turned to 2026, and it will be interesting to see if Martin St-Louis decides to replace him with Jayden Struble on Tuesday night in Washington. Will his strong start to the year have bought him a bit of leeway, or will his minus-three rating and juicy giveaway prove fatal? It’s also worth mentioning that Tom Wilson plays for the Caps and is a tough customer. While Dobes has won four of his last five games, he has received a lot of offensive support, and his stats are not great. On Monday night, he finished the game with a .870 SV, and with Kent Hughes having said the Canadiens wouldn’t keep three goalies around for too long, one can wonder if the Slovak netminder might not be the one to go down. Speaking to the press after the game, Dobes said that he wouldn’t understand if he were sent back down to the Laval Rocket. Asked about that comment during his post-game media availability, the coach said whoever asked Dobes how he would feel if he was sent down had asked a bad question and did not say anything further. After Monday morning’s practice, the coach said that it was a possibility that Josh Anderson could come back in the lineup on Tuesday night to face the Washington Capitals [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/washington-capitals]. If he is, in fact, inserted in the lineup, someone will have to come out. Against the Canucks, the fourth liners were the least-used forwards: Owen Beck spent 11:03 on the ice, Sammy Blais 11:06, and Joe Veleno 12:40. After the game, the Canadiens took off for Washington, where they’ll join Samuel Montembeault, who had flown earlier to be fresh and ready for Tuesday night’s tilt—a wise move from the Habs who decided to take advantage of having three goaltenders around. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Follow Karine on X @KarineHains [https://x.com/KarineHains] Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/karinehains.bsky.social] and Threads @karinehains [https://www.threads.net/@karinehains]. 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