MONTREAL — A team that lacks confidence protecting a lead blew one, but won the game anyway.
A goalie who lacked confidence winning a game won a game.
A defenceman who lacked confidence because he felt he cost his team one game prior did something his team needed him to do.
A young offensive wizard who lacked confidence to shoot took a shot that tied the game, and saved his team from that blown lead.
A player who hit the post on a shot from the high slot earlier in the game took basically the same shot in overtime and scored, maintaining his confidence in his ability to score on that shot.
The Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators 4-3 in overtime Saturday night, but it was more than that. It was indicative of what the Canadiens have done this season: how imperfect collective wins have allowed individuals the luxury of losing confidence and getting it back without suffering the ultimate consequence of a loss.
The Canadiens are 9-3-0 through 12 games and know they can be better. They know they led this game 2-0 and should have been able to lock that down without requiring overtime to settle it.
And while that is a bit of a red flag — that they only have four regulation wins through 12 games could cost them later on — there is something to be said about allowing players to work through some things while also winning.
It makes working through those things far more pleasant.
Goaltender Sam Montembeault has had a bad start to the season. He was being outplayed by his backup, Jakub Dobeš, but his team was winning. He got an exceptionally early vote of confidence from coach Martin St. Louis when he was told Wednesday, on the flight home from Seattle, three days in advance, that he would start this game.
Montembeault didn’t hide the fact that he was feeling an elevated level of pressure to perform in this game.
“A little bit,” he said. “A little bit nervous, obviously with how things have been going.”
At first, St. Louis said he didn’t know how Montembeault was feeling. He quickly corrected that, however, and specified he was trying to manage it.
“It’s not necessarily that I didn’t know how he felt,” St. Louis said, moments after he said he didn’t know how Montembeault felt. “If I go to somebody, ‘Hey, how you doing?’ If it’s constant, they might interpret that I’m worried. So for me, I give him his space. But I was very direct, ‘Monty, you’re playing.’ He knew that when we landed from Seattle, you’re playing the next game. So maybe that can clear his mind and he can do whatever he wants with that information. I don’t know what he’s going to do.”
That flight from Seattle could have been difficult for Jayden Struble. However, the Canadiens won that game in overtime despite blowing a 3-0 third-period lead, a slide that began with a Struble penalty on a play he could have prevented by being smarter.
Aside from wanting to make amends for his last game, Struble had a side mission against the Senators. However, he was smart about it. He wanted to avenge a vicious two-handed slash from Senators forward Nick Cousins on Canadiens super-rookie Ivan Demidov in the preseason, and he tried in the first period, but Cousins wouldn’t engage.
Cousins tried instead to invite Brendan Gallagher and Alexandre Carrier to fight, according to Struble, but they both told him he had to go with Struble. In the third period, it finally happened, and Struble dropped Cousins with a solid right to the jaw. Struble turned toward his bench and threw his hands in the air. The game was tied 2-2 and he wanted to fire up his guys.
Nick Cousins makes the ill-advised decision to fight Jayden Struble. pic.twitter.com/EAfQNRbPLe
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) November 2, 2025
“Going back to last game, it was so big that we won that game. I would have been really down in the dumps,” Struble said. “But we just keep finding ways to win. Obviously, today, that was just my thing that I had to do to help the team, and I was glad I was able to do it.”
About 10 minutes after Struble decisively won that fight, the Senators took a 3-2 lead when Mike Matheson got caught up ice and Tim Stützle tucked a shot just under the crossbar on a two-on-one break. The Canadiens were in a position to lose a game they had under control.
And then Demidov went to work.
He had a shift in the offensive zone that, once again, showed how special he can be, a shift that culminated with him sending a pass to Lane Hutson, Hutson sending it back to him and Demidov not hesitating to fire a one-timer that beat Linus Ullmark to tie the game 3-3 with 2:23 left to play.
SPOOKY DEMI!!!#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/J5RtN5214U
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) November 2, 2025
It was his fourth shot on goal of the game, a game and season high. He entered the game with 10 shots on goal in 11 games.
“I always tell him to shoot more, and he always tells me to shoot more,” Hutson said earlier this week in Seattle. “The thing with him is he wants every shot to go in.”
Hutson’s point was that Demidov was being overly selective; that he didn’t realize that while shooting to score was good, shooting to create chaos and create an opportunity for someone else to score was also good. He and Hutson had a similar give-and-go sequence earlier this season that did not result in a shot on goal. This one did, and it went in, just as Demidov likes it.
Once it got to overtime, Alex Newhook made an excellent read and took advantage of an irresponsible cross-ice pass from Drake Batherson to break in alone on goal. Earlier in the game, Newhook took a shot from the high slot that rang off the left post behind Ullmark. This time, Newhook was on a breakaway, and he opted for essentially the same shot that hadn’t worked earlier, only he aimed just inside the right post.
And it went in.
FRISSONS GARANTIS
WICKED#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/h8AG3RE3RB
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) November 2, 2025
“Yeah, I figured why not try it again,” he said, “just on the other side.”
That takes confidence, and confidence comes from winning, no matter how it happens. However, that confidence also needs to be nurtured, and the Canadiens are fortunate to have a coach who understands that intimately.
“As a coach, I think you only have so many bullets, and you’ve got to be careful when you use them, and I try to be calculated when I do,” St. Louis said. “I feel like I have patience, empathy, and I feel like I can help my players whenever they’ve made a mistake or they’re going through a hard time.”
That answer was in reference to Struble and what happened in Seattle, but was indicative of how St. Louis is able to nurture confidence. The same as his handling of Montembeault.
A team that is 9-3-0 through 12 games shouldn’t need such nurturing, but it is needed because of how the Canadiens have reached that record. It has been far from perfect.
There are players on this team working through some things, and their ability to work through those things is not only aided by these imperfect wins, but also aided by a coach who understands the vulnerability of an NHL player, how fragile that confidence can be, and how critical it is to perform.