Call of the Wilde: Maple Leafs take Game 4 from Montreal Canadiens, put stranglehold on series

The Montreal Canadiens needed game four. A win in game four would make the series a best of three. A loss in game four would all but make it a certainty that the Canadiens would lose in the first round of the playoffs again.

Between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Habs, the question of who needed it more was irrelevant. The Leafs were simply too much again, winning 4-0.

For Montreal, that’s four goals in four games this series. In the last 32 playoff games, it was only 63 goals.

Wilde Horses

It’s been difficult to find a lot to be excited about in these four games. With only four goals in the first three games, it hasn’t exactly been a highlight reel. However, one player has impressed enough to proclaim the Canadiens have finally found a first-line centre.

Nick Suzuki is that player. Suzuki finished the last quarter of the season as the top offensive player on the team. In the final 11 games of the regular season, Suzuki had seven goals and seven assists for 14 points. When you have a point-per-game player, you have a first-line centre.

It isn’t just the points that he’s attaining, though. He, at a very young age, is becoming an outstanding two-way player. At 21 years, that usually doesn’t happen yet. The finer things of the game take a little longer to learn. So Suzuki is ahead of the curve on that front. It’s impressive.

A perfect example is late in the first period. The play that Suzuki made was outstanding to save a goal. He had to chase down the Toronto attacker Alex Kerfoot who had two strides on him. He managed to initially stop Kerfoot, but the puck went back to the Leaf where Suzuki remained the only defender on the scene.

Kerfoot had the clean look to Mitch Marner on the other side, and somehow Suzuki broke that pass up, too. It was simply outstanding from a player not supposed to be a defender, but who used his hockey instincts to break up an extremely dangerous Toronto attack two times.

The future, with Suzuki at centre having strong chemistry with Cole Caufield, might actually see the Canadiens having a legitimate first line one day. Not that type of first line that plays good two-way hockey not scoring much but defending well, like Philip Danault, but a true first line that actually gets some offence every night. If Suzuki has 80 points in him per season as is becoming apparent, then Cole Caufield has a partnership with him that will also produce goals and points.

Caufield again showed his stellar offensive skills in this one. He can dance. He can back up defenders. Habs fans are jubilant every time he attacks, because they are just not used to seeing a player have the ability to create as well as he can. On one rush in the first period, Caufield was by himself. This is a dump-in for 75 per cent of the Habs’ roster. Not for Caufield, who, as one player against three, managed to dangle enough to create space to take a dangerous 20-foot shot.

Suzuki and Caufield have chemistry, and that’s exciting. Now to get a left winger. The prototype composition of a good line is a puck retriever, a passer, and a sniper. With sniper and passer taken care of, the left winger would be the puck retriever to compliment the two best. It will be exciting to see next season how it develops for Suzuki and Caufield. It’s nice to be excited for something.

4:23 Call of the Wilde!

Wilde Goats 

The Canadiens allowed far too much in the way of odd-man rushes in this contest to win. Early in the first period, the tone was set when Jason Spezza had a breakaway that Carey Price stoned him on. A short time later, Ben Chiarot was caught out of position allowing for another odd-man rush — this time a 2-on-1. Shea Weber handled that perfectly, making sure that Mitch Marner took a shot and was unable to pass it across. Still in the first period, Nick Suzuki broke up a short-handed two-on-one.

Second period, and the odd man rushes continued. It was a simple 3-on-2 that led to Toronto showing outstanding passing to give William Nylander his fourth goal in four games.

Shortly after that, it was Alex Galchenyuk with his second outstanding pass for an assist, setting up Spezza on another 2-on-1. It was 2-0.

That was five odd-man rushes in the first half of the game. That’s losing hockey every single time.

Wilde Cards 

“We look at the games we’ve played and we’re not perfect but we haven’t given up many goals, so I don’t think guys are doing a bad job; so we’ll see.” – Dominique Ducharme the morning of game four.

Therein lies the organizational issue of the Montreal Canadiens for a long time: the defenders are responsible for defending, and are not responsible for offence. The defenders are responsible for keeping the puck out of the net, but they are not responsible for getting it down the ice, or contributing to the offence. Keep the puck out of the net in Montreal, and you have done your job well.

The first hint of this problem was Douglas Murray. Dedicated at blocking shots, clearing out bodies, and winning puck battles, Murray was a classic stay-at-home defender. However, he couldn’t make an outlet pass. He couldn’t skate up ice with the puck or without it. He would finish a puck battle, but because of his immobility, he was right back in another puck battle one second later.

The rest of the league had given up on Doug Murray, but not the Canadiens. They brought him in and praised him up and down, and used him as if he were a key cog to success. We should have known as early as l’affaire Murray that there was a big problem and it started at the top.

The organization does not like puck-moving defencemen. The organization does not think of a defender as someone who should have the ability to take the puck up ice, pass it quickly in transition, lead a rush, or quarterback a power play with vision.

What are the key signings of GM Marc Bergevin to reveal over the years what he favours in a defender?

Karl Alzner was a big signing. He failed as soon as the first five games of a multi-year contract. Ben Chiarot is very good at clearing the man, and winning puck battles, but his best work stops at his own blue line as well. Joel Edmundson has the same profile as Chiarot right down to the skate laces. Edmundson takes care of his own end, and that’s where the effectiveness stops.

Shea Weber, who Bergevin calls his best trade, was one of the best in hockey at taking care of his own end. With that big shot, there was a feeling that he contributed offensively too, but not in the classic puck-moving sense. More in the stand Weber 50 feet out and let them rip to see if the goalie can handle 100 MPH. That’s not a puck-moving defenceman. That’s a defenceman with a big shot.

Bergevin has also shown how he favours stuck-at-home defencemen not only in who he acquired, but also who he wasn’t interested in. Granted, none of these players are Bobby Orr, and they do have their drawbacks on the defensive side of the puck, but they add on the offence. The argument here isn’t that these defenders are world-beaters, but that they have a different profile, and in the battle of strengths versus weaknesses, their strength is not appreciated in Montreal under this regime and their weakness is not tolerated.

Victor Mete is a puck-moving machine as he uses his terrific speed to take the puck up ice and get it out of the zone. He doesn’t win a lot of puck battles, but the ones he wins lead to a rush up ice either with his own feet or a pass to a streaking forward. Mete was lost to Ottawa for nothing. He was not liked at all. They look from above and they can’t stand the weakness at pushing out bodies, and they’re not particularly impressed with the skating the puck down the ice part.

PK Subban led the playoffs twice in the 2010s in scoring for the entire team. He was not appreciated. In fact, if we could have a long memory for just a second, Michel Therrien would rip Subban for every error — even errors that were other players’ fault.

One famous instance against Colorado, Subban turned the puck over at the Avs blue line. It turned into a three-on-three rush where the Canadiens were perfectly set up to defend until Max Pacioretty left his man unguarded, and it was an easy goal. Therrien ripped Subban for the turnover. No mention at all that it was actually a 3-on-3 and should have amounted to nothing, if the three Habs back didn’t fail.

For the organization, the biggest problem that night was an attack-minded defenceman kept trying to make plays. Therrien repeatedly ripped Subban’s mistakes and spoke begrudgingly about his offensive greatness.  One of the best offensive defenceman of his day, a Norris Trophy winner, was eventually traded.

Andrei Markov was on his last legs as one of the great defenders this century for the Canadiens. His passes up-ice were those of a quintessential puck-moving defender. He could spot a forward and hit him with gorgeous passes on the fly. When a team wants to be fast in transition to take advantage of speedy forwards, Markov was your guy to find them. When he was at the end of his career, he was told to put up or shut up with the offer he received. He chose put up and he never returned, and they never replaced his skill set.

Trevor Timmins is trying to do his part, but again, the organization so under-appreciates this offensive skill-set from a defender that they trade away Timmins’ attempts to acquire offensive defenders. Mikhael Sergachev was traded away quickly to bring in Jonathan Drouin. Sergachev was a steal in a draft that was heavy in talented defenders. He was the youngest winner of the OHL’s best defenseman award in that league’s history. He has a Stanley Cup now. His skill set also was never replaced.

The future looks extremely bright with many terrific defenders who have much more offensive skill than most of the defenders on the team now. Kaiden Guhle, Mattias Norlinder, Jordan Harris, and Jayden Struble all have the potential to fill that gigantic organizational hole.

However, will they be given a chance here in Montreal, or will they be ‘Sergacheved’ out of town? It’s means nothing if Timmins drafts them for Bergevin to undervalue them, underutilize them.

Marc Bergevin had a long playing career. He was a classic stay-at-home defender. He offered nothing on the offensive side of the puck as a defenceman for almost two decades. Now, Bergevin is attempting the same feat as a GM.

Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.