^{Salt Lake City motorists and Canadiens pedestrians beware}

The last time the Montreal Canadiens came to town, Salt Lake welcomed them – more specifically Emil Heineman – by hitting them with a car. In turn, they hit us on the scoreboard beating the then Utah Hockey Club 5 – 3.

Utah has a new look since then, rebranding themselves as the Mammoth. The Canadiens have a new look since then, trading away vehicular target Emil Heineman to the New York Islanders. The Canadiens also sport Noah Dobson, from the aforementioned Islanders trade, as well as Ivan Demidov picked in the 2024 NHL draft.

The Canadiens come to town after playing 8 of their last 10 games at home, including beating the Mammoth on November 8th. That was, thankfully, a game I was indisposed for. The Canadiens at that point of the season were on a massive hot streak, and the Mammoth had just started their nearly month-long slump.

The Canadiens fortunes have changed. Since the win vs. Utah, they lost 5 straight games (0-4-1) before the win versus Toronto on Saturday. The Canadiens currently can best be described as inconsistent. There is one thing the 2025 Montreal Canadiens know how to do though? They go big. Losing games like 7 – 0 vs. Dallas two weeks ago and 8 – 4 vs. Washington on Thursday, they also are capable of scoring quite a bit as well – like the 5 – 2 win against the Leafs on Saturday, and the 6 goals against Utah earlier this month (the 4 in that loss is nothing to slouch at, either).

The Mammoth currently come in having won two games in dominating fashion and Logan Cooley coming off a 4 goal performance versus the Vegas Knights. They have been playing with a renewed intensity after their extended road trip. Tonight closes out their last home game of a 4 game stretch. Utah remains one of the most frequent flier mileage earning teams in the NHL, playing just 10 of their games at home before tonight (with the least home games played in the NHL at the beginning of this homestand).

Since I missed the last game, here are some important notes about the Canadiens so you can prepare properly for tonight’s game:

1) The Canadiens can score. A lot. And they’re similar to Utah in many ways.
Led by captain Nick Suzuki, more than a point per game player over the last two and a quarter seasons, Suzuki made a big transition in his game last year to solidify himself as a leader. He turned his high offensive output into strong two way play – as indicated by the massive turnaround in +/- stats. While a flawed stat, it belies the fact that coach Martin St. Louis trusts him in all situations. He’s been on the ice for +11GF in 5v5 situations and while not a main PK player, hasn’t allowed a goal against while on PK duty. While far less experienced and refined, Logan Cooley has a lot of similarities in the budding two-way play with great vision on the ice, complemented by young teammates who are great goal scorers.

Cole Caufield, his left wing on the top line, is producing stellar numbers as well. He’s massively elevated his goal scoring this year, as Montreal’s top scoring threat. Caufield has 13 goals – and only one of those on the power play. He’s an extreme threat at 5v5 with a devastating snap shot – similar to how people view JJ Peterka’s shot and quick release allows him to be one of the deadliest threats Utah has in a 5v5 situation.

Ivan Demidov is the new kid on the block – well, one of them at least. One of my biggest frustrating picks in the 2024 NHL Draft, I had hoped that he would fall to Utah, but Montreal got him instead. He’s showing why they drafted him so high. In his first full season, 21 games, 17 points with 13 assists to his name already. He’s not playing more than 15 minutes a night in his first year, which will likely increase significantly next year and beyond. He’s a fantastic puck handler with amazing vision – which shows with his 13 assists in a rookie year – and he can pick shots when he needs to. While only posting 4 goals in the NHL this year, his KHL numbers for a kid were impressive, so he’s an all around threat – though he does seem to want to play the role of playmaker rather than star goal scorer early in the season.

On the defensive side, you have aforementioned Noah Dobson from the Islanders trade. I can speak at length about Dobber, but to keep it brief – his defense is decent, his offensive production is fantastic. 2 years ago with the Islanders he closed out nearly at a point per game. Last year his stats were down, as was everyone on the Islanders, but this year he’s resumed his touch. 15 points, from 12 assists, he’s roughly the Montreal equivalent of Sergachev for Utah with ironically the same exact line stats for points this year.

Finally, Lane Hutson, a rookie defenseman phenom who wears #48. Uh… we’ve seen one of those already this year, and while the Islander fan in me loves that, the Utah fan in me hates this. As a defenseman, Hutton has 18 points from the blue line. He’s 10th in scoring for all defensemen in the league. He doesn’t have the goal scoring touch of the other 48 we saw, but he has great vision on the ice and knows how to QB a power play unit as well.

2) Montreal scores a lot. They also get scored on a lot.
Montreal is 9th in the league in goals against. Being top 10 in giving up goals is bad, but it’s worse when you’ve played the fewest games in the league. They just recently dropped to 6th worse goals against average in the league, giving up more than 3.5 GA. This is a combination of poor defensive play and poor goaltending.

Hutson, who I praised above, is as terrible defending 5v5 as he is scoring on it. He’s been on the ice with 21 goals against, second most on the Canadiens. He’s young, he’s caught out of position a lot, and he’s prone to errors.

Dobson, also above, is even worse, giving up 23 even strength goals when he’s on the ice. Dobber’s always looking for the offensive play, which causes him to fumble the puck at the blue line more than other offensive minded defensemen. He’s fortunate enough to have some speed, but not so much he can prevent all of his mistakes. Mike Matheson does offer him some reprieve now, as Montreal’s shutdown 1D, but there’s still porous defense from #53 often.

Goaltending was supposed to be somewhat fixed for Montreal this year, with Sam Montembeault having a few consistent above .900 save percentage seasons. However, he’s struggled a lot this year, giving up more than 3.7 goals a game – tied with a career worst, and just an .852 save percentage. His backup, Jakub Dobes, started out extremely hot, but has been about as bad since.

Dobes, presumed starter for Montreal according to the NHL, has been rough in November. Since the calendar changed, he’s posted only one game over .900 save percentage – Saturday vs. Toronto – and has given up 3+ games in all but the Toronto matchup. His low point, against Dallas, he gave up 5 goals on 13 shots.

Combined, a porous defenseman on each of the top 2 lines, with goalies hovering in the .860 save range, means Montreal gives up as good as it gets – if not worse.

Key points to secure a victory today:

Morale is a potential problem today. There’s a real possibility goal lights in the Delta Center will burn out, as both teams have seen defensive struggles – especially in net. Utah’s done a great job of shutting down shots and offensive chances, but Montreal doesn’t need many. Montreal is 28th in the league with shots on net – and 4th in the league in goals per game.

Meanwhile, Montreal is middle of the pack in shots against, giving up about 27 per game, while Utah has been putting up big shot numbers, just not the goals to follow.

Utah just needs to do what they can to take advantage of Dobes and realize they will get scored on. If they can rebound well from the goals against, push hard, and capitalize on Montreal’s inevitably mistakes, this should be a fun run-and-gun open sort of game that fans love and goalies have nightmares about.

Power Play it’s basically now or never. The PP needs to wake up, badly, and Montreal seems to be a potential cure-all. With a bottom 10 PK unit, the Canadiens are giving up a lot power plays as well; a result of young kids lacking the veteran discipline that can prevent mistakes. The Montreal PK is just about 76%, the Utah power play is -76%. One of those changes positively for a group tonight… might as well be ours!

Take advantage of altitude The Canadiens are as close to a mirror of Utah as any team in the league in my opinion. Top lines – Cooley vs. Suzuki. Guenther/Peterka vs. Caufield. Dobson vs. Sergachev. John Marino vs Mike Matheson. These players play the exact roles in very, very similar ways across the teams. Factor in goaltending being below average for both teams, and you find analogs up and down the lineup.

The Canadiens have youth, just like Utah. The Canadiens are speedy, just like Utah. The Canadiens can score, just like Utah.

Know what Utah has that Montreal doesn’t? A few thousand feet… er meters… and lower oxygen. Going full out will take a toll towards the end of the game. If Utah falls behind – though we hope they don’t! – they need to keep it as close as possible into the third. The Canadien kids’ inexperience and lack of road games – especially in environments over 800 feet high – could turn into power play chances as I mentioned above.

Projected Lineups:
Going to try to take a stab at these 10 hours before they even hit the ice. I’m calling it a hunch, I believe today is Durzi’s return game for the Mammoth. I don’t expect changes to the top lines:

TUSKS UP!