The Montreal Canadiens are trying to put a season long injury to an important player Kirby Dach behind them with so much of the season still ahead. The Canadiens hosted the Washington Capitals at the Bell Centre earning a 3-2 overtime win.
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It has not been an uplifting start to the season for Montreal thanks to continuing bad voodoo with injuries and poor special teams, but the actual 5-on-5 play has been strong. They entered the contest with an 8-2 goal advantage in equal-man play.
This was always going to be a season focusing on the rebuild. As a result, the improvement of young players is the most important focus, and there is some absolutely outstanding news early: Juraj Slafkovsky looks significantly better than his rookie season.
This is not to say that he is the player you all were dreaming of, but all that is necessary for the pressure to be lessened significantly is for Slafkovsky to show improvement. It’s clear that he is better than last year.
Last season, for a giant of a man, it was sad how bad he was at winning puck battles. His balance was weak and he was pushed off so easily, a good puck battle was one where he did not fall down at the end of it. This season, Slafkovsky is much stronger on his skates and in puck battles. He is keeping offensive zone pressure alive, instead of being the puck carrier when the zone time ends.
He also seems to be processing the game faster leading to smarter passes, and better decision making. The shots are not yet coming, but the touches are there. This is a good path for Slafkovsky early in his sophomore season.
In the third period, Slafkovsky showed his hockey sense on the power play giving the Capitals the puck when a second penalty was called, so the Caps touch-up would give Montreal more time 5-on-3. Heady from the former number one pick. Also late in the third, great hustle on the forecheck forced a Washington penalty when the Canadiens were on the back foot. That two minutes passing was vital for Montreal and Slafkovsky earned it for his mates.
Plenty of other positives as well. Justin Barron got a chance to play his first game of the season and he was strong. Barron is such an interesting case study. He has all of the tools, and often puts a lot of good minutes together, but then has a bad shift, and when Barron has a bad shift, it’s a really bad shift.
If Barron can only be his best and find more consistency, then good Barron is very good.
Sean Monahan is such an intelligent player for the Canadiens. He does so many things right. His game is designed for the playoffs, and you hope that he gets a chance to play in them again. When healthy, Monahan is a top-quality player. He is in no way that player that struggled for Calgary when he was in such pain that he could barely skate.
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Many quietly played well: Brendan Gallagher scored doing what he does charging the net and picking up the trash on the rebound. Cole Caufield was finding a lot of space and seemed to have the puck all night. Nick Suzuki had his best game of the year setting up Monahan with a gorgeous pass for a power play goal.
In overtime, the two hooked up for the winner as Suzuki caught a streaking Caufield down the left side. He used his patented shot to make it a 3-2 final.
Jonathan Kovacevic plays the quietest game defensively, but it’s almost always effective. You have to pay attention to him, or you won’t notice that he made a hundred small smart decisions each night. Finally, Jake Allen was strong, especially before the Canadiens woke up. Montreal had only one shot after 13 minutes, but then found their best selves.
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A solid game for the Canadiens. Not much sticks out negatively. However, there is one statistic that is shockingly bad. It’s only game four of the season, and already Montreal has allowed four goals with the goalie pulled. The positive aspect of that, of course, is it means the club is playing good enough hockey to be leading the game.
They allowed two goals with the goalie pulled in Toronto to turn a 5-3 lead into a 6-5 shootout loss. They were up 3-1 over Chicago and allowed one for a 3-2 final. They allowed one against Washington that meant another overtime when a win should have been in the standings already.
They got their win eventually, so this goes down as a hard lesson that they need to learn someday.
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If the Canadiens are going to eventually work their way up the standings in this rebuild, surprises are also needed. The obvious is that the high draft picks need to land successfully to key the charge, but history also shows that Stanley Cup winners have some shocking picks that land as well.
Tampa Bay is the NHL’s success story in the last ten years with two cups and four finals appearances. They’ve been led by Nikita Kucherov who was chosen 58th overall and Brayden Point who was picked at 79th. It’s not only the top-five picks like Victor Hedman and Steven Stamkos who decide the day.
Stars win cups and stars are generally chosen top ten. That’s statistically proven.
A full 90 per cent of NHL stars are picked in the first round with 50 percent in the top five picks. Only two per cent of NHL stars are chosen in the second round.
It is an absolute bonus when you have a Point and a Kucherov land. In Boston, Patrice Bergeron was passed over as well. Great success stories for a team have draft shockers.
The Canadiens may just have some star sleepers. The clear favourite to star as a late pick is 62nd overall Lane Hutson who broke college records for a defenceman dating back to Brian Leetch in the 1980s. Hutson will arrive next season, and perhaps as early as April of this year when his season is over at Boston University.
Hutson’s offensive skills as a blue liner are absolutely and desperately needed to improve a moribund Montreal power play. Hutson may not be a star 5-on-5 due to his size, but 5-on-4, 4-on-3 and overtime 3-on-3, he will shine.
The Canadiens may have another sleeper star. It’s early but Joshua Roy has never looked out of place. Roy played with Connor Bedard at the World Juniors winning gold. In fact, Roy picked up an assist on the gold medal winning goal.
Roy was chosen in the fifth round 150th overall. If he were to become a Habs top-six forward, it would be one of the great picks of Trevor Timmins career.
So far, so very good.
Roy has played only four games at the AHL level and he is lighting it up. Roy has five goals and four assists for nine points to lead the league. This is a massive total.
The AHL is an extremely difficult league to score points in. It’s a defensive league where coaches are teaching structure. The top ten scorers were not even all a point-per-game last season, while the NHL’s number 10 scorer had 102 points.
Nine points in four games in the AHL for Roy is a stunner so far.
Not to suggest that Roy can maintain over two points-per-game, but to arrive into this defensive league and achieve this…it bodes well.
Roy is an overachiever. If he became a bona fide top-six, it would be massive, and, along with Hutson, it may be the draft surprises that lead to more upside than expected for the Canadiens in the next ten years.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
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