Less than 24 hours after finishing a very disappointing effort against the Ottawa Senators on home ice, the Montreal Canadiens were right back in action at the Bell Centre. With the Winnipeg Jets in town, they needed to find a way to bounce back from their poor showing quickly. The Atlantic division is extremely tight in the early goings of this season, and they would want to avoid starting another long losing streak in order to keep pace with the teams around them.
Martin St-Louis elected to shake up his lineup a bit to try and spark a better performance, and they responded with a much improved effort from the one they gave the night prior.
Ivan Demidov wins a battle against Morrissey, spins and finds Oliver Kapanen in the slot to tie the game again for the #Habs pic.twitter.com/NQSFpUoJFi
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) December 4, 2025
A few eyebrows were raised at the placement of Alexandre Texier on the second line with Oliver Kapanen and Ivan Demidov, but that line looked increasingly dangerous as the game went on, and ended up scoring the second equalizer of the night. A lot of that was due to Ivan Demidov cranking the intensity dial well past 100 percent, but there was no denying that Texier looked a lot more like a fit for that line than most would have expected.
Reuniting Juraj Slafkovksy with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield on the top line wasn’t a surprise. In fact, St-Louis has been going back to that line occasionally when in dire need of a goal, or when defending a lead. Still, they too looked dangerous, and ate a lot of tough minutes against the notoriously strong top line of the Jets. They scored their goal on the power play, but we know that line can and will eventually chip in at five-on-five as well.
Zachary Bolduc took a demotion to the fourth line in stride, and that trio spent a healthy amount of their minutes working in the offensive zone. Though it is doubtful that they acquired Bolduc to play him with Joe Veleno and Jared Davidson, they worked well together, and Bolduc may have to prove himself for a few games with those linemates before he would be considered for a chance to move back up the lineup.
Individually, each line gave something to like in that game, but more important was the bigger picture. They were run over at even strength by the Senators on Wednesday, and came back less than 24 hours later to turn in a performance that frankly would have deserved a regulation win if not for the brilliance of Eric Comrie in net for the Jets. If the lineup changes had anything to do with that resurgence, there is a very easy argument to keep the lines as they are when the team heads to Toronto on Saturday night.
Consistency in play has been difficult to come by for this team of late. If this lineup can give it to them, they should stick with it as long as it can.
Click the play button below to listen to your full Bottom Six Minutes, also available wherever you get your podcasts. We’re off now until Saturday night, when the Habs will visit the Toronto Maple Leafs.