A two-game winning streak for a legendary franchise such as the Montreal Canadiens, 24-time winners of the Stanley Cup, might not seem like much.
But the Habs will take it.
The Canadiens, who play host to the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night, snapped a four-game skid over the weekend, defeating visiting St. Louis 5-2 on Saturday before holding on for a 4-3 victory Sunday at Philadelphia.
That gave Montreal back-to-back wins for the first time this season.
“We’re obviously in a much better place than we were on Tuesday against the (New York) Rangers,” said Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson, referring to a 7-2 loss at home. “Just as I think we’re realizing that we shouldn’t get too low after that Ranger game, I don’t think we can look at these two games and say, ‘Oh, we’re all set, let’s just keep going.’ I think we still have areas to work on.”
Nick Suzuki and Brendan Gallagher each had a goal and an assist against the Flyers and goaltender Cayden Primeau made 23 saves.
The points were the first for Gallagher in seven games, since he scored twice at Boston in a 6-4 loss on Oct. 10.
“Take them when you can get them,” Gallagher said. “The league’s hard enough, so when you get breaks like that, you take them.
“You look at the stat sheet, end up with two, probably wasn’t one of my better games. But throughout the year I’ve felt pretty good, so it’s nice to get rewarded. Just kind of move on and, hopefully, continue to roll.”
Matheson said the players were happy to see Gallagher rewarded.
“Sometimes it’s easy to focus in on points, but I’d say, especially a guy like that, he has so much more to bring to the table to help the team win,” Matheson said. “And sometimes a puck goes in off your knee, and you break a stick, and it goes to a guy back door. Sometimes those sorts of things happen, and usually they do when you’ve been doing a lot of other things well.”
The Kraken, who are winless in their past three games (0-2-1), are opening a five-game trip that will also take them to Toronto, Ottawa, Boston and Colorado.
They are coming off a 4-1 loss Saturday against visiting Carolina.
“When you play a team like (the Hurricanes), you have to execute,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “You have to compete under pressure, all over the ice defensively. And when you get a chance, your first execution has to be quick and fast and aggressive. I think too many times (Saturday), we held on to the puck and were careless with our execution when we had the opportunity — especially in the first period — to make those plays.”
The matchup in Montreal will feature two of the top four picks in the 2022 NHL draft. The Canadiens took forward Juraj Slafkovsky with the No. 1 overall pick while bypassing forward Shane Wright, who dropped to the Kraken at No. 4.
Slafkovsky has six points in as many games this season (one goal, five assists) after scoring 20 goals with 50 points last season. Wright has one goal and one assist through nine games. He’s getting his first full-time shot this season after playing just 16 regular-season games over the previous two seasons.
“He’s doing the little details right,” Kraken captain Jordan Eberle said of Wright. “I see him growing as a player every game. He’s got all the tools. The biggest thing is just getting reps and more confidence and more experience.”
