by Chris G, Senior Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine

LAVAL, QC. — The Canadiens started off the week on the wrong foot with a 4-0 loss at home against the Bruins on Monday, and a 2-1 loss in Denver against the Avalanche. They turned things around with a 2-1 win in Arizona on Thursday and a 4-3 OT win against Vegas on Saturday afternoon. Paul Byron‘s overtime goal was the team’s first goal in the overtime period since December 14, 2017.

Montreal heads into the Christmas break with the eighth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Canadiens continue their six game road trip as they will travel to the state of Florida to face the Panthers on Friday and the Lightning on Saturday.

Here are my top 5 takes of the week:

1. 1. 1. Players responsibility – After last Monday night’s loss against the Bruins, Claude Julien was asked about the team’s power-play after it went 0-for-3 that night. That extended their scoreless streak with the man advantage to 0-for-25. “The strategy and everything else is the same as it was last year. I think our power play was pretty good. I think the power play has to look at itself and decide whether they want to just pass or whether they want to score [..] The players have to take ownership. They’re your best players on your team and they got to start performing,” Julien answered. I’m in the opinion that coaches generally get too much of the blame when things don’t go well on a team. In this particularly situation, I don’t agree with the coach that all the blame falls on the players and none on him and his staff. The coaching staff’s responsibility is to determine the strategy, and the players responsibility is to execute it. If it isn’t successful, the coach either needs to change the players on the unit that aren’t executing or change the strategy.
      2. Good goal? – Gabriel Landeskog‘s game winning goal on Wednesday against the Habs was challenged for goalie interference. After review, the goal was confirmed by the situation room as they judged that the contact between Landeskog and Carey Price did not impair the goaltender’s ability to defend his goal and had no discernible impact on the play. Julien and Price weren’t pleased with the decision after the game. I understand the decision to allow the goal, but the inconsistency of the calls around the league are frustrating and confusing fans. On Saturday, a Los Angeles Kings’ goal was disallowed cause it was ruled that the actions of Dustin Brown impaired Dustin Jones’ ability to play his position within the crease. On this play, there was no contact between Brown and Jones. All that Brown did was screen the goalie, there was no reason for it to be disallowed. “It’s 50-50 now [..] We have no idea how they’re going to call it,” Julien said after the game versus the Avalanche. Unfortunately, he is right and that’s a problem that the NHL needs to fix.
      3. Galchenyuk skips out – Several members of the media from Montreal arrived to Arizona on Tuesday in order to speak to Alex Galchenyuk in advance to Thursday night’s game against his former team. The journalists had received confirmation from the Coyotes a couple of weeks prior that they would be able to speak to Galchenyuk after his team’s game that night. It was understood that Galchenyuk would not answer any questions about his time with Montreal. After the game, the former Canadiens player left the arena without speaking, even though league rules states that all players that were on the ice must be made available to the media. The networks and newspapers sent their staff to Arizona one day in advance based on the team’s confirmation. Was Galchenyuk frustrated with his minus-2 performance that night? Was he trying to avoid the centre vs left wing questions? I think that the way this situation was handled is unacceptable by Galchenyuk and the Coyotes. What was supposed to be a short update on Galchenyuk with his new team, ended up being a story for three days.
      4. Hudon’s future – After being scratched for nine consecutive games, Charles Hudon returned to the lineup for the back-to-back games against the Avalanche and the Coyotes. “I want him to come in and give us that element with that fourth line, that’s going to give us maybe a little bit more of a scoring look,” said his coach prior to the game against Colorado. Hudon was scratched for Saturday’s game against Vegas with Nicolas Deslauriers replacing him as Julien wanted a bigger physical presence in the lineup. Hudon has sat out 14 games so far this season. He doesn’t seem to be in the team’s plans for the future. LaPresse newspaper spoke to his agent last week and he said that they have not asked for a trade. With Joel Armia scheduled to return on the roster by end of January, the Canadiens will need to make a roster decision. All the forwards besides Jesperi Kotkaniemi require waivers to be sent to the AHL. Based on player usage, I think that Hudon will be the odd man out when it’s time for the decision to be made.
      5. Habs prospects – The World Junior Championships begin on Wednesday in Vancouver and Victoria. The Canadiens will have seven representatives at the tournament: Cayden Primeau, Josh Brook, Ryan Poehling, Nick Suzuki, Alexander Romanov, Jacob Olofsson, and Jesse Ylonen. If you add Kotkaniemi to that list it would make eight players at the tournament. This tournament will allow us to see and evaluate the Habs prospects in a highly competitive environment. It’s been awhile since I have been as excited about the organization’s pipeline.

Leave your comments below. I am looking forward to interacting with all of you.

Happy Holidays!