BROSSARD, Que. — With the arrival of Halloween, it marks the end of the first main segment of the Montreal Canadiens schedule, one where they faced only two teams that made the playoffs last season in their first 11 games.
The Canadiens lost both those games — 5-2 on opening night in Toronto and 6-5 in Edmonton last week — but otherwise they took advantage of the favourable run, finishing the month with an 8-3-0 record despite playing far from perfect hockey.
On Saturday night against the Ottawa Senators, the Canadiens begin the second segment of their schedule, which is just as favourable — for a different reason. The game on Saturday will be the first of a run of eight of 10 games to be played at the Bell Centre.
Home ice is always favourable, but since the Canadiens lost Kaiden Guhle to a lower-body injury on Oct. 16, it has become an even bigger factor for them. Guhle is a player who is almost more valuable on the road than at home, because you can send him onto the ice in any situation without worrying about what the opposing coach will do.
The Canadiens have a limited number of those players on the blue line. With Guhle gone, Martin St. Louis and defence coach Stephane Robidas are basically down to three: Mike Matheson, Noah Dobson and Alexandre Carrier.
Lane Hutson is getting there, and Jayden Struble is as well. However, Arber Xhekaj has a ways to go, and on the road, it isn’t easy to get into a flow on defence because of that. His regular partner, Carrier, plays with a variety of partners on the road.
Before the game in Seattle on Tuesday, St. Louis noted that they are trying to give Xhekaj more regular ice time, particularly early in the game, and they did so against the Kraken. However, the management of the blue line will become much easier over the coming stretch of 10 games.
“It’s always easier at home,” St. Louis said after practice Thursday. “Do we get it perfect? Not necessarily, because sometimes you want matchups, but you want the right flow for your players as well. So sometimes you’re caught in between and you try to make a quick decision on the spot and you’re going to make mistakes at times.
“But in general, at home, you get the last say, and you have the opportunity to make those decisions, whereas on the road you have to be more calculated that way.”
This stretch of home games will end on Nov. 22, which will be five weeks after Guhle was diagnosed with an injury that will keep him out for four to six weeks. The Canadiens will leave for a three-game road trip over four nights in Utah, Las Vegas and Colorado on Nov. 24. Guhle’s ability to get on that plane and play will likely be a significant factor in the Canadiens surviving that trip.
Because that is what makes this upcoming home-heavy stretch so important: what awaits them on the other side will not be fun. Starting with that trip and running through the Christmas break, the Canadiens will play 16 games in 27 days, with 10 of those coming as part of five sets of back-to-back games, something they will do over every weekend of December. All but one of those five back-to-backs will include travel.
That will require depth to survive, and while Guhle will be back for most of that tough stretch, the Canadiens will need to get more from their depth up front.
St. Louis answered a lot of questions about Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield on Thursday, which is normal when Suzuki was tied for the league lead in assists and Caufield was tied for the league lead in goals.
Sur cette photo : Le meneur de la LNH pour les mentions d’aide et le meneur (à égalité) pour les buts
Pictured: The NHL leaders in assists and (tied for) goals#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/267SbgW8DD
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) October 29, 2025
However, for a team that has always been criticized for lacking star power, the Canadiens are a very top-heavy team right now.
When they have the Suzuki line out there with Matheson and Dobson at five-on-five, the Canadiens are a total wagon. When they don’t, they are, uhhh, not.
With Suzuki/Matheson/Dobson and without
CF%SF%GF%XGF%
With
59.81
65.38
100
69.74
Without
41.69
41.71
42.11
38.45
St. Louis was asked about Suzuki on Thursday, noting that he has not missed an NHL game in his career. Before the question was finished, St. Louis knocked on his desk.
It is clear why he felt the need to knock on wood.
The Suzuki line has left few questions for St. Louis to answer. They are objectively one of the best forward lines in the NHL.
It is what happens when they are not on the ice that will need to improve over this next segment, when St. Louis will be able to control matchups and perhaps tinker with forward combinations even if the wins keep coming.
When you are a losing team, wins should prevent you from making changes. However, when you are a winning team, if you allow wins to prevent change — even when the need for change is evident — those changes might come too late.
Because by the end of this home-heavy stretch, those “without” numbers will need to improve if the Canadiens are to survive their next segment.
However, St. Louis doesn’t look at puck possession in a vacuum. Those numbers are lacking something he considers crucial.
“Context, you know?” he said Thursday.
“I love possession,” he continued. “So we always go look at how much time we spent in the O-zone, and we’ve done a pretty good job in relation to other teams that we play against. I feel we’ve done a good job of generating more offensive zone time than the other teams.
“But what does that look like? Are we generating enough chances with that time? I feel we’re improving in that department.”
Again, possession does not exist in a vacuum. Score effects are something the Canadiens have been grappling with of late, because trailing teams are more likely to get overly risky. In contrast, leading teams are more likely to get excessively conservative.
Or at least they should.
The Canadiens’ last road trip was somewhat defined by their inexperience playing with leads, and that, to St. Louis, is the context he was referring to.
“But also, as we’re learning to play with leads, I don’t really care — with leads late in games — to try to force to get scoring chances. Can we keep possessing and be more calculated in the O-zone and take care of the puck versus trying some ‘almosts’ and now it’s going the other way? So we’ve got to be more calculated, and to me, that’s why I say context.
“Because if you’re up a couple of goals in the third, you want possession in the O-zone but not necessarily generating scoring chances. But I feel like we’ve had a lot of great first periods where we’re generating a lot, and just not separating and keeping teams in the game. But we don’t want to just be a possession team; we want to be an attacking team as well. But it’s hard to attack if you don’t have possession in the O-zone. There’s got to be context attached to it, but I like where we’re trending.”
The Canadiens’ forward lines, aside from the Suzuki line, have had moments and games when they were effective. However, there are improvements to be found there.
On defence, awaiting Guhle’s return, there is a need to raise the floor, to make everyone reliable enough to be trusted on the road. And in goal, Sam Montembeault will get the start Saturday against the Senators, and that will also be an opportunity for him to find his game, because the Canadiens will need him, especially with five sets of back-to-backs coming out of this home-heavy stretch.
St. Louis announced his starter for Saturday’s game on Thursday, two days before, when he usually doesn’t even announce it one day before. It showed the extent to which he wanted to give his No. 1 goalie a vote of public confidence and turn down the noise surrounding him.
The Canadiens have a 10-game stretch to figure all that stuff out.
The beauty of the Canadiens’ season so far is that they have issues — obvious ones — and they are 8-3-0. After this run of eight out of 10 games at home, they will need to resolve those issues while continuing to bank points.
Because after that, it’s going to get challenging to make improvements on the fly.