Oct 14, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens forward Cole Caufield (13) plays the puck during the first period of the game against the Seattle Kraken at the Bell Centre. | Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images
A very nice tribute to Ken Dryden with a comment from Bob Gainey and Dryden’s mask on the home net during the video tribute.
I think the team got the production team behind The Rebuild to put together the intro video. It was a big production.
Introductions start with the players introducing the training and minor staffs.
A long, loud ovation for Martin St-Louis.
The biggest ovation of all goes to Lane Hutson after signing his team-friendly deal yesterday.
Also a loud cheer for Zachary Bolduc and his hot start.
And now to the hockey.
First period
A chance for the top line right off the hop.
Montreal looks good to start, but again it’s not leading to shots.
Brendan Gallagher beats Josh Mahura to the puck on an icing call, but the linesman had already decided he was going to blow it down.
Unfazed by the call, Bolduc and Gallagher come down on a two-on-one, with Gallagher unable to corral a tough pass.
The pass was anything but tough from Ivan Demidov, as he found Alex Newhook at the top of the crease on the opposite side of the ice for the tap-in.
Ivan Demidov slams the brakes in transition, fires a beautiful pass to Alex Newhook to make it 1-0 #Habs
— Matt Drake (@drakemt.bsky.social) October 14, 2025 at 8:29 PM
The goal came on Montreal’s second shot on target of the game.
Great defensive work from Patrik Laine to see that Hutson is in trouble along the boards and come back out of the zone to collect the puck.
Too much passing from the top power-play unit after Mahura went off for interference.
At least Laine is firing from his spot, so they got one shot.
The crowd boos because the refs missed a slash. The ref says, “I must have missed something, so I better make sure the call the next one.” The next one is Caufield knocking the stick out of the one-handed grip of his defender.
Vince Dunn steps into Jake Evans to gain some space for his teammate, and you can’t do that unless you play for a team from Florida.
Ivan Demidov does the exact same thing at four-on-four. He also isn’t a member of the Lightning or Panthers.
Hutson goes to the net when the game returns to four-on-four. He completely fooled Joey Daccord with a fake, but just couldn’t free his stick off the goalie’s pads to tuck the puck in.
Strong work from Laine to shield the puck on the wall before slinging it to his defenceman on the blue line. I think he’s been playing well this season.
The puck is very bouncy to end this period, and it hadn’t been great for the whole period. That might explain why many of these attempted plays are just missing.
Nick Suzuki just tried twice to bat the puck down as it hopped its way over the offensive blue line. Like trying to play with a jet ball right now.
Montreal was all over Seattle other than in the brief penalty kills. Only four shots to show for it, but at least they scored on one of them.
Second period
Matheson gets his stick in the feet of Penny Oleksiak’s brother and will go to the box early in the second.
It’s a costly penalty as Shane Wright sets up Jaden Schwartz for the tying goal.
The ice didn’t recover at all during the intermission. It looks terrible.
The top line wastes little time in getting the lead back. Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovský go to work on the boards and pop the puck free, right to Caufield in the slot, where he turns, fires, and scores.
Smol Goals Boi, Big Boi Snipe
2-1 Habs!
— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) October 14, 2025 at 9:29 PM
The officials missed a high stick on Oliver Kapanen.
Slafkovský is off for a hook. The only time the Kraken have looked dangerous tonight is on the power play.
Montreal did well to kill that one off with some aggressive stickwork.
Kirby Dach tries to lay the puck up for Gallagher on a tap-in, but they can’t quite connect. That’s really the story of the season so far. On one hand, it’s good that they’re being creative. On the other, a little less creativity would probably be good enough to at least get some rebounds or deflections for more goals.
Kaiden Guhle fires a shot that deflects off the post. That’s what can happen when you put the puck toward the net.
Seattle puts together what may have been its first proper offensive-zone cycle of the night, and it result in a misfired shot going straight across the ice, off the back of Arber Xhekaj’s leg, and into the net to tie the game.
Montreal’s level started to drop late in the period. Being the better team overall through 40 minutes doesn’t matter to the scoreboard, which reads 2-2.
Third period
Noah Dobson just holds the puck in at the blue line on a pass from Matheson, and Dach, despite having his stick tied up, deflects the puck in with his skate.
Kirby Dach gets a tip on the Dobson shot and it’s 3-2 Habs!
— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) October 14, 2025 at 10:15 PM
I don’t know why a section of the crowd has begun singing “Olé!” but anyway.
Seattle goes offside on a five-on-two. They also had a player about 40 feet from the bench behind the play.
Oleksiak takes a wrist shot from the blue line and solves Montembeault through a screen. Montreal can’t maintain a lead tonight.
The linesman calls icing even though Demidov wins the race to the hashmarks. The Kraken score immediately off the faceoff in Montreal’s zone.
The game is down to one linesman, but that’s still a momentum-shifting call.
Hutson sprints up to get his stick on a shot that had a good chance of making it a 5-3 game.
Laine shifts back to play defence with Matheson in the zone.
Carrier gets held as he tries to play the puck, and Montreal goes to an important power play.
The top unit is too focused on creating the perfect setup.
They almost squandered it. With no shots and Montembeault banging his stick to alert them to the final seconds, Demidov shows great patience as he pulls the puck through the slot and delays an extra second as he glides out of Daccord’s reach for the backhand goal.
The absolute patience by Ivan Demidov to wait out the play and tie the game on his backhand
4-4 in Montreal!
— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) October 14, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Montreal forgot the game was still going on and allowed two quality chances for Seattle right off the next faceoff.
That’s a point for Montreal that we can say the power-play helped earn for them.
Overtime
Caufield gets taken down on his way to the front of the net and crashes into Daccord, and that spoils what was looking like the best chance for either team in the opening three minutes. No penalty though.
St-Louis calls his timeout, presumably to settle everyone down after a rough start to three-on-three.
The plan works, and it’s an absolutely perfect shot to the short-side top corner from Caufield for his second goal of the game.
Montreal wins 5-4 in overtime and is 3-1-0. Tied for top spot in the Eastern Conference.
Next game is Thursday at home versus Nashville.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) A quality ceremony, as they always are
2) From Kent Hughes’s pen to Hutson’s feet
1) He’s going to be a special one
