Mike Matheson is an interesting player. He’s talented and the Canadiens’ did so much with him last season. Until last season, the Canadian defenseman was good for 30-35 points a year. Not bad and the fact that his salary is under 5 million dollars a season is a bargain.

Defensemen are supposed to defend their zone and their goalie. But sometimes, it seems, they need some defending as well. That was the case today when Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St.

Mike Matheson’s teammates and coach have come to his defence after the Montreal Canadiens blueliner had a tough outing on Saturday night.

The Montreal Canadiens hosted the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night, hoping to return to the win column and continue their steady climb up the NHL standings.

The Athletic's Scott Wheeler and Flo Hockey's Chris Peters debate Corey Pronman on his recent under-23 player ranking.

Samuel Montembeault may be the only Montreal Canadiens who's officially part of Team Canada for the 4 Nations Face-Off, but two more players are on the Canadian reserve list in case of injury.

He was burned on two occasions while manning the penalty kill. First, Matheson was burned by Alex DeBrincat. DeBrincat scored just as a Red Wings’ power play expired. Matheson looked tired and ...

Dan Rosen of NHL.com: (mailbag) Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen has two years left on his contract at a $5.1 million cap hit, and he wouldn’t come cheap. If the Flyers were to move him, they could be looking for a young, NHL player or an intriguing prospect.

Jack Hughes scored on a breakaway at 4:06 of overtime to fuel the visiting New Jersey Devils to a 4-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.

PM EST / 4:00 PM PST In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French) In the Jets region: TSN3 Streaming: ESPN

You know things have changed in Montreal when they finish a week of play with 5 points out of 8 and you hear sounds of disappointment from some fans and the media. Or perhaps the disappointment isn’t so much about the actual results of games but knowing the team’s overall level of play seems to have dipped in their last three showing. Personally, I see it as a team going from being absolutely on fire to one snapping back to reality as their flaws somewhat come back to the surface. In the past month, the Habs have regularly had to claw back into games after allowing one or more goals to the other teams as they did against the New-Jersey Devils last Saturday. They’ve managed to get more wins than losses while doing so but came up short, losing in overtime to the Devils or simply running out of time (and energy?) against Detroit. There are two main things I believe the Canadiens need to do to get back on the winning side of things and stop digging a hole to climb out of. First, and we’ve talked about this before on this blog, they really need to find a way to take less penalties, especially early in the game. It always seems to completely crush their momentum and, as good as their penalty kill can be, you cannot hope to come out with a lead if you spend a significant portion of the game in the box. Secondly, the defense has had a very uneven week. The Matheson-Hutson pairing especially seemed to go from great plays and puck possession domination to major blunders in their own zone. Even the ever so reliable Guhle-Carrier pairings had his moments of confusion defensively. If Montreal wants to give themselves a chance to win every night, they cannot expect their goaltenders to bail them out after allowing 35 or more shots on goal like they did in the first three games. The good news is, despite these problems resurfacing, Montreal managed to find ways to accumulate points and remain firmly in the race for the playoffs. It was good to see David Reinbacher back on the ice in a no contact jersey early on this week. The 2023 5th overall pick has stayed around the team all season and you could feel genuine love for the young man as his teammates gathered around him after he scored a goal in practice. With the Laval Rocket bound for the playoffs in the AHL, Reinbacher will likely play big minutes and accumulate valuable experience at a high level which, let’s hope, can somehow compensate for the lost time in his development when he comes back around early March. Montreal needs him to solidify their right side with the decision over Mike Matheson’s contract looming over next season. Speaking of practice (queue the Allen Iverson meme), Montreal’s crazy schedule over the past few weeks, has left very little time for the coaching staff to actually have practice sessions as they ended up favoring rest over the risk of overworking the players. It’ll be interesting to see the impact of having a few days to make adjustments. With the four nations tournament in about a month, it feels like the Canadiens will need to make the most of their opportunity to improve and accumulate points until then before taking a well deserved break. Habs are back to work tonight, facing the Jets and the most likely Vezina winner Connor Hellebuyck. After suffering consecutive losses for the first time since mid-December, let’s hope the losing streak ends right away as the other teams competing for these few playoff spots don’t seem like they’re about to slow down either.

For a few weeks now, it’s been less easy for Mike Matheson. The Quebecer is not placed in an easy situation (he lost his role on the club’s first power play and regularly plays on the penalty kill) in special