Eight flowers, seven pots: the Canadiens are on track, but…

5. Tiny Cole Caufield and Brendan Gallagher each have three points in three games . 6. Oliver Kapanen (two goals), Mike Matheson (two points), Kaiden Guhle and Juraj Slafkovsky are all playing great hockey so far this campaign.7. The team is holding its own and behaving like a champion team (Kaiden Guhle). The Canadiens won’t be intimidated again. 8. After a difficult first two games in the face-off circle, Montreal’s centre-forwards bounced back to win 61.5% of face-offs on Saturday in Chicago. Since the start of the season, the team’s efficiency in this area is 48.3%, approaching 50% However, not everything is rosy for the Habs, despite the fact that many fans are unable to hear anything negative about their team.1. The Habs were unable to get off to a good start in any of their three games. Against the Maple Leafs, it allowed a goal after just 60 seconds. In Detroit, Dylan Larkin scored the game’s first goal with less than four minutes to play. In Chicago, he was unable to register more than eight shots on goal in the first period, despite four powerplays. #Martin St-Louis will have to find a way to motivate his troops so that they are ready to play from the first whistle. 2. The line formed by Josh Anderson, Jake Evans and Patrik Laine doesn’t provoke anything (positive). Anderson, Evans and Laine are the only three players on the team not to have picked up a single point last week. Since he’s only used for a few seconds on the second powerplay wave, Laineis hurting more than he’s helping right now. Has Martin St-Louis started thinking seriously about replacing him with Joe Veleno? 3. Ivan Demidov doesn’t shine much alongside Oliver Kapanen and Alex Newhook at five-on-five or on the second power play. Who should Martin St-Louis pair him with to make him shine more and be more useful to the team? 4. Lane Hutson may have been – along with Arber Xhekaj – the Habs’ worst defenseman last week . Let’s hope his new contract will allow him to be less distracted and more focused on his game on the ice 5. Samuel Montembeault wasn’t bad last week, but he wasn’t very good either . I can’t wait to see if he gets all three starts this week, knowing that Dobes is doing well, but that there are no two games in two nights before the end of the month.6. Montreal’s power play is 80% efficient, its penalty kill 20%. Games are often played on special units, and the Habs will have to improve both aspects of the game in order to be over 100% when combining the two.7. The Habs averaged only 25 shots on goal per game. Only the Canucks, Flames, Sharks, Flyers, Lightning and Blackhawks took fewer shots than the Habs (per game) last week. TheCanadiens are currently on track, but they’ll have to make sure they stay there. An NHL season is a marathon, not a sprint!spacer title=’Prolongation’] The Habs don’t have a particularly tough week ahead, with three home games: tonight against the Kraken, Thursday against the Predators and Saturday against the Rangers. The Sabres visit next Monday, before the team heads west, and there’s a chance to pick up three wins before flying to Alberta. Go Habs Go!