The ménage à trois, the return of Kaiden Guhle and Cole Caufield in history

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
The ménage à trois, the return of Kaiden Guhle and Cole Caufield in history
Credit: Getty Images

The Canadiens have the day off today. Tomorrow, Martin St-Louis' men return to practice at the CN Complex.

It's also press conference day (around noon) for Kent Hughes.

On my return from a (long) trip, I've got a lot of little notes in my head about the Habs. So we're going to take the time to discuss a few things.

I'm not at all surprised to write this, but the Canadiens still have three goalies up top. If we ever wanted to send a guy back to Laval, it would have made sense to do it today, on the heels of the return to Quebec.

You'd think that right now, with Jacob Fowler doing well, with the other two needing to prove themselves, and with the busy January schedule, the club would agree to go with three.

So who will play when?

If the order of the last few games were to be respected, perhaps Jakub Dobes would face the Flames at home on Wednesday. But we don't know what the club has in mind.

(Credit: NHL.com)

2. A few days ago, Eric Engels said we shouldn't be surprised to see Kaiden Guhle back soon after the club returns from its holiday trip.

And by my calculations, Wednesday will be… shortly after the club returns from its trip.

Of course, that doesn't mean that Guhle, who has played in only five games this season, will play in the Calgary game. It's still far too early to say, and we'll have to wait and see whether he'll practice with the others tomorrow.

But let's just say that if he were to come back, it would help everyone.

Alexandre Carrier, even if he does well with Lane Hutson, would surely be called upon to leave the top-4 to play with Jayden Struble or Arber Xhekaj.

And Adam Engstrom would obviously return to Laval.

3. Without Phillip Danault, the Canadiens would be hard-pressed to replace the injured Jake Evans. But with the Québécois back in town, the center line is more solid.

His impact in the face-off circle is very important.

4. Jake Evans isn't the only forward out injured. Patrik Laine and Alex Newhook are also out long-term and not expected back anytime soon, let's say.

Kirby Dach has been injured for a long time, but we don't know when he'll be back, as he's already a bit behind schedule. If all goes well, it shouldn't be long.

As for Josh Anderson, he's missed his team's last two games, but it's also unclear whether he'll be called up for several more games or not.

Aside from those five guys, the club has 12 healthy forwards (the 12 who played yesterday) and no guys were traded to the Rocket back from the holiday trip.

I wonder how eager the Canadiens are to have Kirby Dach back, me. I say that because if he's suffered a setback in his progression, management can't be looking forward to it.

Is testing him on the first line (as in his Montreal debut) an option?

Dach's name comes up because Zachary Bolduc and Alexandre Texier aren't perfect solutions. And right now, he's the Habs' #1 forward need.

The solution would be Juraj Slafkovsky… but breaking up his current line at the start of January would be ridiculous.

5. With or without Slaf, Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki still manage to pick up points. But we know that with more help, it could be even better.

Speaking of which, did you know that Cole Caufield became the first Habs player since Tomas Plekanec to record a fifth straight season of at least 20 goals?


overtime

– Yes, he misses hockey.

– Of note.

– Sad news.

– This is going to be a trend.

– Hey boy.

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