Line Changes Could be Looming as Canadiens Search for a Spark

The Montreal Canadiens’ scorching start to the 2025–26 regular season has hit a slight halt, with the team losing three of its last four games. Their latest loss was a complete dismantling at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings.

The Kings, a team with one of the oldest defensive cores in the league that should, in theory, be limited skating-wise, managed to disrupt the Canadiens’ speed and forechecking while seemingly intercepting every pass through the neutral zone.

Montreal’s effort over the past week has been lacking, and the results have reflected that. They were able to steal points from Philadelphia and New Jersey but were heavily outshot and fortunate to escape with those points. That luck is not sustainable and will not be an effective method of collecting points.

The Canadiens’ shot totals in their last four games: 20, 19, 23, and 22. Their scoring chances have decreased, their power play has cooled off, and the growing pains of being the NHL’s youngest team have begun to resurface.

Martin St. Louis has had the luxury of maintaining consistent line combinations to begin the season, and for good reason — if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. However, as Maxim Lapierre pointed out on last night’s Sick Podcast postgame show, the effort level has dropped in the past week, and it may be time to change things up.

It should likely begin with Joe Veleno. He remains pointless through 11 games, is a minus-six, has developed no chemistry with anyone, and the Canadiens’ fourth line — typically one of their strongest — has been the team’s worst this season.

It has been discussed for a few weeks now, but recalling Jared Davidson or Florian Xhekaj from the Laval Rocket should be under serious consideration for Thursday night’s game against the Dallas Stars. Davidson has nine goals in 12 games, plays with far more urgency than Veleno has shown so far, and would add speed to complement Josh Anderson on the opposite wing.

Elevating Ivan Demidov to the top line also appears to be something St. Louis is experimenting with, giving Demidov multiple shifts alongside Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield in the third period. Juraj Slafkovsky had arguably his worst game of the season on Tuesday night and was benched for most of the third period as a result.

We have yet to truly see what Demidov could produce on the team’s top line, but if it is anything like his impact on the first wave of the power play, it could elevate an already strong Canadiens top line into an even better one.

Changing the defensive pairings seems less pressing right now, though St. Louis did experiment with them on Tuesday night. Noah Dobson and Lane Hutson took shifts together, as did Mike Matheson and Alexandre Carrier.

Approaching the quarter mark of the season and looking ahead to a tough Thursday night matchup against the Dallas Stars, St. Louis must not be afraid to make impactful changes. The results have faltered as of late, and in a tight Eastern Conference where the Canadiens hope to stay competitive, the time to act is now.