After they added Patrik Laine this summer to a lineup that features Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield along with 2022 No. 1 pick Juraj Slafkovský as well as a newly healthy Kirby Dach and defensemen Kaiden Guhle and rookie Lane Hutson, there are a few reasons to think the Habs could be one of those teams that ruins a contender’s night by giving them all they can handle.
There’s a lot of experience with this group, and veterans Brendan Gallagher, Josh Anderson and David Savard will be asked to provide guidance for everyone. But after a few seasons of being stuck at the bottom of the Atlantic, their hope is they can climb out of the basement. That means the newer guys will have to get more mature to be able to win those close games inexperience may have cost them in recent years. Coach Martin St. Louis has pushed a lot of the right buttons with his team, but even he will need to know how to help them take another step forward despite being relatively new to coaching.