NHL: Montreal Canadiens at Florida Panthers
Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Montreal Canadiens faced the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night, the final game of the calendar year for both organizations.

The Habs were looking to put together a 60-minute effort, something that was missing from their quasi-comeback versus the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday.

It was a hard-fought matchup that saw the Canadiens emerge with an exciting 3-2 overtime win.

Let’s dive into the highlights!

All Is Quiet On The Western Front

It wasn’t a particularly low-event game, but both teams avoided handing high-danger chances to their opponents. They also failed to find the back of the net in the first and second period.

With that in mind, it must be said that Samuel Montembeault looked solid, with a little help from his friends in the form of solid defensive coverage.

PING

Cole Caufield is not scoring as much as he usually does, but it’s not for a lack of trying. He seems to be hitting the post with increased regularity this season, which is a recurring theme for most players in the lineup.

He came very close to giving the Canadiens the lead in the second period.

New Dad Energy

Captain Nick Suzuki was given a questionable penalty in the second period, and though you could argue it was far from an egregious play, there’s no doubt that Suzuki’s reaction was priceless.

He’s a new father, and magically, he already has his ‘not mad, just disappointed‘ look down pat.

Speaking of officiating, we saw a new one on Tuesday, when the referee temporarily lifted his arm to indicate a penalty on the Canadiens, but swiftly changed his mind, leading to Panthers goalie Daniil Tarasov vacating his net for a few seconds.

The Other Shoe Dropped

I’d argue the Canadiens were the better team in the first 50 minutes of the game, but that holds no value when there are no goals to show for the effort.

Brad Marchand, one of the few interesting villains in the league, broke the deadlock at the midway point of the third period, taking advantage of the ample ice available to him on the powerplay.

Juraj Slafkovsky, who had just taken an awfully selfish penalty, was clearly aware of his mistake.

Clawing Back

As we previously discussed, it’s not that Caufield isn’t generating chances, he’s just had awful luck of late.

That wasn’t an issue when he scored his 19th goal of the year, a beautiful dangle that froze most of the Panthers, including Tarasov.

Suzuki then proceeded to tie the game in the dying seconds of the third, yet another big play from the team’s most important player.

As per usual, Suzuki is the motor that drives the Canadiens down Success Avenue.

It remains to be seen if he’ll be named to Team Canada’s Olympic roster, but leaving him off the list would fly in the face of any logical reasoning. Of course, the same can be said about Caufield and Team USA.

Suzuki wasn’t done there.

After Brad Marchand took an idiotic penalty in overtime, Lane Hutson proceeded to feed Suzuki with a perfect pass. The captain made no mistake, securing an impressive come-from-behind win for the Canadiens to close out 2025.

The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Thursday, facing the Hurricanes in Carolina. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 pm ET.

All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.

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By Marc Dumont
Marc has been covering the Habs for over a decade. He previously worked for Journal Metro, The Athletic, The ... More about Marc Dumont

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