Last Wednesday, Josh Anderson said he was happy with how things were going for the team, not so much for his line with Jake Evans and Patrik Laine.

“I don’t think we’ve played our best in the four games that I’ve watched or that I’ve played,” Anderson, the Montreal Canadiens right wing, said after practice. “We need to do a better job of supporting each other and putting pucks in the right spots for us to get on the forecheck and creating space for one another.”

That’s when Anderson was told that’s not really Laine’s game. He didn’t disagree.

“It’s not, but I think we’ve got to adjust to each other, too,” he said. “I think that’s more of Jakey and I’s game, but we’re trying to give him the puck as much as possible for him to make plays. We kind of just have to read off each other.”

The next night, the Canadiens pulled off a last-minute tying goal and overtime winner with two seconds left, but Anderson, Evans and Laine struggled again. They were outscored 1-0 at five-on-five but generally played low-event hockey. Shot attempts were 5-4 Predators at five-on-five with those three on the ice, and shots on goal were even 2-2.

Not the most thrilling display of hockey.

And the issue, perhaps, was that reading off each other is difficult when Evans and Anderson play such a different game from Laine. Anderson, to his credit, refused to see it that way.

“It’s us working together, too,” Anderson said. “Can I help him out better in leading him in that direction? Skating towards him a little bit more and making him make that play? Or am I too far from him to see that? Those are things that I have to look at and realize. I’ve watched the last four games, and we haven’t really got much O-zone time. It’s hard.”

Laine, as it turns out, got hurt in that game against the Predators and missed the Canadiens’ 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers at home Saturday. He was replaced on that line by Brendan Gallagher, something coach Martin St. Louis said before the game gave him a strong matchup line, a momentum line of sorts, something he had in abundance last season.

This season, however, St. Louis has more talent than last season, so momentum lines are harder to put together. But momentum lines still have value.

That line of Anderson, Evans and Gallagher faced a steady stream of the Rangers’ top two lines Saturday, something that likely would not have happened if Laine were on the line with them instead of Gallagher.

Lines need an identity, and it is pretty obvious what that line’s identity is with Gallagher on it. It’s a bit more difficult to pin down with Laine on it.

“Yeah, there’s pros and cons,” Evans said after the game Saturday. “Patty’s obviously got one of the better shots on the team, so it’s about figuring that out, which I don’t think we did. Gally, it’s pretty straightforward. It’s easy to read off of him a bit. I thought we were pretty good tonight.”

They were pretty good. Sometimes, when forced into decisions by injuries, those decisions can become solutions.

The problem, however, is the reason St. Louis put Laine with Anderson and Evans was that he wanted Gallagher with Zack Bolduc and, most importantly, Kirby Dach. He wanted Dach’s line to have an identity, and the combination of Gallagher and Bolduc created that identity.

“You just want to play north-south hockey, the same way, each shift,” Dach said last Tuesday morning. “It doesn’t matter what happened the shift prior, it’s kind of a new series, a new game for us every time we step out there. We just want to focus on trying to get pucks below the other team’s goal line and maintaining possession and making sure we give up nothing defensively as well.”

Sounds kind of like the identity the Evans line wants as well, an identity that’s hard to create with Laine on the line. Dach, too, missed the game Saturday with a lower-body injury. Dach, too, is day-to-day.

And it looks like whenever Dach and Laine return, St. Louis will be faced with a difficult decision. Does he form his lines to help Dach, or does he form his lines to help his team? The reality is that both options help the team because putting Dach in a position to succeed helps in the long term, but having a momentum line, a matchup line, helps the team right now.

A draft-heavy matchup

There was a rare appearance at the Bell Centre on Saturday, as Canadiens co-director of amateur scouting Nick Bobrov was on hand for the morning skates. And after the game that night, Canadiens president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton was seen hanging around the visiting room waiting to speak to someone.

The two of them, Bobrov and Gorton, were in a very unique position Saturday because on the ice, between the Canadiens and Rangers, there were 10 players they drafted, six for the Rangers and four for the Canadiens.

On the Rangers, there were New York’s first three picks from the 2020 draft, Alexis Lafrenière, Braden Schneider and Will Cuylle, the 60th overall pick that year. There was also Matt Rempe, taken at No. 165 that year. And from the previous year, there was No. 49 pick Matthew Robertson, who scored his first career NHL goal that night, and No. 161 pick Adam Edström.

On the Canadiens there was, from the 2022 draft, Juraj Slafkovský, Owen Beck and Lane Hutson, and from the 2024 draft, Ivan Demidov.

Has there ever been a head of hockey operations and an amateur scout who watched two players they drafted No. 1 overall go head-to-head before? Or watched 10 players they drafted between two teams face off?

Must have been a cool evening for both of them.

Dobson’s decision and the Gorton/Hughes extensions

Last Tuesday evening, after the Canadiens announced contract extensions for both Gorton and general manager Kent Hughes a few hours before the game, they played their home opener.

Early in the third period, Dach gave the Canadiens a 3-2 lead, one they would squander but eventually reclaim in overtime. The play, however, was created by Noah Dobson.

FONCER 👏 AU 👏 FILET

CRASH 👏 THE 👏 NET#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/TRuPllE0We

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) October 15, 2025

That was not a random bounce. Dobson was looking for Dach when he shot that puck.

“I was trying to, yeah, throw it at him,” Dobson said after the game. “I find goalies now, they come out so far, I always tell the guys to try to go to that backside because even if it goes off your skate, it counts. I kind of saw him back there and tried to put it in an area for him. Yeah, good bounce.

“I’m probably not beating the goalie clean from there, so go for that back side play.”

That play happening on the same day Gorton and Hughes were extended for five years each couldn’t have been more appropriate. Because perhaps the biggest endorsement of what Gorton and Hughes have built in Montreal is embodied in Dobson.

Dobson had options heading into the draft in terms of where he would continue his career, and Montreal was always the number one option for him.

“We had permission (to talk to other teams) and you kind of work through teams,” Dobson said. “At the end it kind of came down to probably two, three teams maybe. Obviously the Habs were at the top of the list from the start, but at the end of the day they had to agree to a trade with the Islanders so you never really know.

“But they were (the team) from the start and obviously super happy with how it turned out.”

Did Gorton and Hughes have to sell him on the virtues of playing in Montreal once he got that permission from the New York Islanders to talk to them?

“They didn’t really have to sell me at all, honestly,” Dobson said. “I’ve heard such great things. I think they have a tremendous organization, top to bottom. It starts with the ownership, Kent and Gorts do a great job, I’ve got a lot of faith and trust in them. They’ve been building this right and they’re going to continue to do that.

“So I’m happy to see them get their extensions, it’s super deserving.”

If there is one thing above all else that Gorton and Hughes have created over almost the last four years, it is that they didn’t have to sell Dobson on anything. He’d already heard what they created here. They’ve made the Canadiens relevant and made the Canadiens a team where players with options can reasonably hope to win.

Those extensions were indeed super deserving,