Inside today's Locked on Canadiens

The NHL announced the expected salary cap for next season is going to rise by just over four millions dollars, providing a nice boost in potential cap space for teams around the league. With some new extensions kicking in for the Canadiens next year, and some bigger contracts coming off the books it means the Canadiens might finally be able to move into the next steps of rebuilding. What does the Habs cap situation look like going into next year with the rising cap?

Then it's Three Up, and Three Down!

Despite the big win on Monday over Seattle, Scott has had some concerns about player deployment going into the rest of the season. Even with Slafkovsky moving to the top line, Martin St. Louis has defaulted to veterans in that spot, and both hosts wants to see more of the young blood given those chances as the rebuild progresses. Also, the Laval Rocket have lost seven straight games and despite each game being close, the results aren't going their way. Is the lack of consistent goaltending the problem, or is something else holding the team back?

On the upside of things, Samuel Montembeault has cemented himself as the guy in net for the Montreal Canadiens. With a 4-1-0 record and quietly settling in as one of the most underrated goalies in the league, Montembeault finds himself firmly on the up list this week. Joining him is a pair of Habs forwards who have been under an insane amount of pressure this year to produce in Josh Anderson and Juraj Slafkovsky. The points aren't rolling in quite yet for both, but the process towards improvement is showing plenty in both players, especially Slafkovsky. For Anderson his newfound patience is showing, and has seemingly put him on the right track to getting his season in order.

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