Stick Taps or Hate Your Guts: Nashville Predators vs. Montréal Canadiens (10/16/2025)

This team is on an absolute heater to start the season. What a refreshing change of pace this is compared to the last couple of seasons. The Habs haven’t got out of the gate this hot since the shortened 2019-20 NHL season, when they started 7-4-2. Yes, they have not really played anyone of real competition yet (save for the Maple Leafs on opening night), but even in that game, most will agree that the Canadiens outplayed the Leafs. On Thursday night, the Habs staged another incredible comeback resulting in back-to-back overtime wins.

Stick Taps

Cole Caufield – Everything #13 touches is gold right now. He’s got the touch. His game-tying goal late in the 3^rd had no business finding the back on the net, and Juuse Saros really should do better, but Caufield slightly pulls his blade back to change the angle on the shot at the last second. He cleanly beat Saros short-side and the Habs were heading to overtime for the second straight night. If Caufield keeps having nights like this, it is going to be tough for USA Hockey to keep him off the Olympic roster.

Jakob Dobeš – The young goaltender made several tough plays in the 3^rd period and overtime. In particular, Dobeš made a strong play on Roman Josi’s overtime rush, where he initially made the stop, but the rebound fell in front to Jonathan Marchessault. Dobeš did well to keep his pads down and prevent Marchessault from knocking in a game-winner.

Oliver Kapanen – Kappy is starting to look like a full-time NHL player. Prior to this season, I wasn’t sure there was a spot for him on this team. However, the Canadiens coaching staff clearly saw something in Kapanen’s preseason as he opened the year as the 3^rd line centre. On the Habs first goal, Kapanen stuck with the play until the puck ended up in the back of the net. I’ll be the first to admit the Predators defence were late on the play, but Kapanen showed the tenacity that the Canadiens have come to expect at the start of this season.

Just OK

Josh Anderson – It has been an unremarkable start to the 2025-26 season for the Burlington, ON native. This isn’t to say Anderson has a negative impact when on the ice, but we have become accustomed to him being very involved every night. Tonight was actually the first night, I could say I noticed him when he found himself open in the slot with 15:00 to go in the 3^rd. It would be great to see him at least make a physical impact regularly when he is not involved on the scoresheet.

Hate Your Guts

Patrik Laine – Laine was very unnoticeable throughout the game and seemed to not have his feet moving on Nick Perbix’s go-ahead goal late in the 3^rd. A light tap on the pants, and a peel off to pick up the other player isn’t going to sit well with Martin St. Louis and the rest of the Canadiens coaching staff. This is the type of effort that found Laine fall out of grace in the postseason last year. If Laine isn’t making a contribution offensively, then he isn’t making much of a positive impact on the final result for the Habs. The Canadiens just have to hope he will rebound to the offensive form that he found last season, and mitigate the negatives on the defensive side.