Even though their team is doing better than expected this season, some Montreal Canadiens players are eager to throw their 2023 calendar in the trash to focus on a new calendar year that they hope will be better.

Before head coach Martin St-Louis' men continued their streak of seven games abroad with a visit to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, they were able to celebrate with their respective families while taking stock of their journey so far in 2023-2024. Some will want to do better and help the club stay in the playoff race in the Eastern Association of the National Hockey League (NHL) for as long as possible.

Here are a few:

–Cole Caufield

If he keeps up the current pace, the striker will finish just above the 20-goal mark. However, the number 22 had scored 26 goals in 46 games last season before dropping out and undergoing surgery on his right shoulder. However, the return was rather difficult for Cole Caufield, who scored 8 goals in 33 games since the start of the regular calendar. He has scored at least a point in each of his last four games, but has found the target once in his last 11 games.

Similar to his training, the American struggled on the power play and was only able to capitalize twice in such circumstances. It's also not surprising to see the Habs at 24^e Circuit rank for power play performance.

–Brendan Gallagher

For all his relentlessness and combativeness near the opposition's cage, nothing is obvious for the 31-year-old veteran as, barring any surprise, he will never again reach the 30-goal mark in a season that he achieved this season achieved twice in his career. So far, Brendan Gallagher has settled for 5 goals and 12 points in 33 games. His performance is stable compared to that of 2022-2023, when he scored a total of 8 goals and 14 points in 37 duels. However, he hopes to reach the 10-goal mark for the first time since 2020/2021.

The more visible blemish on his record is his -14 differential, the worst among Canadians. It's also the 17th^e lowest in the entire NHL, tied with Jonathan Huberdeau of the Calgary Flames. We have to go back to 2017-2018 to find a similar record in Gallagher's record, which ended at -13 at the time.

Photo credit: Getty Images via AFP

–Jake Allen

Whether in Montreal or elsewhere, the veteran goaltender frankly wants things to be better in 2024. In the ménage à trois of St-Louis, he is the one who has experienced the most pitfalls: before defeating the Jets of Winnipeg in his last game on December 18, he had suffered seven consecutive defeats and had not been able to win for almost two months . If general manager Kent Hughes doesn't find a buyer for his services by the trade deadline, Jake Allen risks finding himself on the bench a lot. He has played a dozen games this season, three fewer than Samuel Montembeault. Then there's Cayden Primeau, who received the call from his principal seven times. The number 34 therefore has an interest in refining his game and improving his performances if he wants to increase his value in the eyes of other organizations in the league. He has the 65th best goals against average (3.43) in the NHL in 2023-2024. Nevertheless, Allen managed to get the efficiency rate back above the 900 mark.