Habs’ team effort routs the Avalanche in Montreal
The best team in the National Hockey league, the Québec Nordiques Colorado Avalanche, rolled into the Bell Centre on Thursday night for the final game there before the Olympic break. Keeping pace in the hotly contested Atlantic Division required the Montreal Canadiens to find a way to earn points against a formidable opponent that had routed them 7-2 in their last meeting. As a group, they came together to do precisely that, returning the favour from back in November with a 7-3 rout of their own.
The offensive explosion was led by captain Nick Suzuki, who showed the Bell Centre faithful why he’s going to Italy to represent Canada at the Olympics.
Shorthanded, Oliver Kapanen just lobs the puck out, and Nick Suzuki gets a breakaway with some great anticipation. 3-1 #Habs pic.twitter.com/clfUbyMzyE
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) January 30, 2026
Two goals and an assist against the best team in the league was quite the way to say arrivederci to the Bell Centre. Suzuki’s line struggled at five-on-five – we may soon need to have a conversation about Alexandre Texier’s spot there – but he found ways to produce anyways. Power play, shorthanded, leading a two-on-one with a defenceman not known for scoring to his left, it didn’t matter what situation he was in, Suzuki was looking to manufacture goals in a game where he knew his team was going to need them.
His production was massive, but with his line struggling at five-on-five, the team needed others to step up, and that they did. Kirby Dach had his best game since returning from injury, Jake Evans chipped in, Lane Hutson and Noah Dobson were excellent, and the second line was perhaps the team’s best at even strength, thriving in the face of the torrid pace that Colorado plays with.
Demidov starts it with a great cross-ice pass, Kapanen ends up shoveling it out front and Juraj Slafkovsky makes it 7-3 #Habs pic.twitter.com/EeYzai9wyT
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) January 30, 2026
Ivan Demidov in particular seemed to thoroughly enjoy the speed of that game. Colorado’s game is to try and make you run a marathon at a sprinter’s pace, and when he was on the ice, they were the ones trying to figure out how to slow things down. The same could be said for Hutson, who used his absurd misdirection abilities to force the Avalanche into backing off and figuring out how to defend. They knew from the last meeting that the game would come down to filling the net, and they were determined as a group to make sure it wasn’t theirs that was filled.
Speaking of which, it is a lot easier to not have your net filled when you’re getting high quality goaltending.
Jakub Dobes doing his thing. pic.twitter.com/nQ4MdIuuLO
— William Dubé (@williamdube_) January 30, 2026
I feel quite vindicated for my opinion in the last Bottom Six Minutes; that Jakub Dobeš should get every remaining game before the Olympics if he’s able to play them. The first goal that he gave up to Brock Nelson is likely one that he’d want back, but he was lights out after that, ensuring the run support his teammates gave him was more than enough to secure two points. The final score belied how close that game really was, and if the Habs had subpar goaltending, we could have been talking about quite the barn burner. That didn’t happen because Dobeš played as well as he did.
In all, it was a great team victory, with contributions from every single position. If they can come together like that for three more games, they will be in an excellent spot when the Olympic break starts.
Click the play button below to listen to your full Bottom Six Minutes, also available wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll be back on Saturday night, when the Habs will get a chance to avenge their last two losses to the Buffalo Sabres, in Buffalo.
