The best game of the series as the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs played a classic in game six. A second straight overtime contest as the Habs gave up a 2-0 lead late to allow Toronto to tie it at 2. In the extra frame, one of the young guns of the future did it again in OT. Jesperi Kotkaniemi with a wrist shot and the Canadiens live to play another day winning 3-2. Game seven on Monday.
Wilde Horses
Fascinating to watch Cole Caufield in his first dozen games in the NHL. First, it is obvious that he is an NHLer and he is going to have a great career. He is not out of his element at all. He can find space. He can get shots away. He is not a liability defensively.
He has also shown that he is not just a shooter. That he can also make the right decision and pass when it is appropriate as well. He will make the best play and his hockey instincts will guide him to that best play. It has been an outstanding start to his career. This is a high octane moment and he is often the best forward on the entire team at age 20.
However, it has also been interesting to watch all of these golden chances go awry. They did not go awry at Wisconsin. He scored at a goal-per-game clip because he scored on his chances. He rarely missed any shots. He simply does not miss. That is what makes his shot so spectacular. He puts it exactly where he wants.
So why are his shots hitting the posts right now and why are they missing the net?
It’s being argued by some that he doesn’t have the time, but if you watch closely, he has the time. He is taking the shot when he wants to take the shot. He is not rushing the shot.
The issue is that Caufield is cutting too fine a line with his attempts. He feels as if he has to be perfect at this level, so instead of just finding the corner like he did at Wisconsin, he thinks he has to find the exact spot. It’s the classic trying too hard.
He just needs to let his muscle memory take over. He simply needs to let the instincts that he has always known simply take over. He needs to tell his brain to do the same things that he has always done, and not try to do more.
While the posts and missed targets pile up, the fact that he is getting all of these chances and seeing the open ice so clearly is an indicator that he will succeed in a big way in this league. If he were not getting chances and the game was passing him by, then you worry.
This is but a hiccup in the first month of NHL hockey. It’s going to go smoothly soon enough. With Nick Suzuki as his centre, it could be a time of great excitement that the fans here have not seen in a long time. The Bell Centre has seen the stars come to town for pretty much this entire century. The next decade could see the stars already in town putting on a show nightly.
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This was an outstanding performance from the Canadiens. This was the first time in the entire series that the Maple Leafs felt vulnerable to the Habs. Even when Montreal was winning, the hockey still favoured Toronto as clearly the better team. But not in game six when the Habs took the game to Toronto. You can point out as superb many members of the Canadiens team.
Jake Evans returning helped. He brought his usual energy, game awareness, and stick-to-it in all facets. Jesperi Kotkaniemi is beginning to win many more puck battles and is engaged physically more than ever as his game continues to evolve.
Tyler Toffoli had a clean look on a 3-on-1 but didn’t convert. He later broke his long scoring drought in the third period. Corey Perry came through with a goal on a goal mouth scramble. Jack Campbell had to be outstanding and he was even in allowing the goals he did.
In OT, Kotkaniemi with his third goal of the series. He’s a playoff performer, so far in his career. 20 years old. He’s just getting started.
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Once again, the goaltending of playoff Price has to be spotlighted. A 907 goalie in the last four seasons in the regular campaign, Carey Price is simply at a higher level in the playoffs. His last two playoffs before this one are 933 and 936 and in this series he is a 920. Price allowed the two goals late, but they were both late deflections off of his own player Jeff Petry. Goalies can do very little about late deflections. A body in motion one direction has a hard time being a body in motion to go back the other direction. Price in overtime was dominant. The Habs were on the ropes the entire time, but Price held them in.
Wilde Goats
There are two long-term contracts left on the Canadiens. This playoffs has shown us one thing: that the Carey Price contract is not yet a problem, but the Shea Weber one is going to be. Weber has five years left, and it’s apparent that time is now a factor.
Weber is struggling to keep up with the tremendous pace of this hockey. He has puck possession so often now but is simply caught for speed before he is able to skate up ice to find a teammate for a pass, or he is caught from behind before he even has a chance to skate at all.
He can’t find the game under him anymore. The natural progression of a player is firstly he can’t get his mind to slow down and the game is too fast. After a while, the mind catches up to the body and the body is able to take care of what the mind wants. The final phase is the mind is still there, but now the body refuses to cooperate.
We are at Weber’s final phase. His mind is still there. He holds on to the puck because this is what he has always done. He expects to make the play. He expects to have the time because his mind has always had that time. The body says no to all of that. The body says I can’t do what you want me to anymore.
The organization is not even close to this thought yet that many in the fan base and media have about Weber. They use him like he is a first team NHL all-star with top minutes and hard match-ups against the other team’s best players.
It’s the cognitive dissonance of love. The statistics say it’s going south, but the organization doesn’t want to believe this. They’ve loved him so much; he’s their man mountain. He can not now suddenly be their man mole hill.
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Wilde Cards
A better world is in front of us. No, it doesn’t mean the Montreal Canadiens are going to win the Stanley Cup soon. It means on Saturday night that for the first time in 444 days, there were fans in a sporting arena in Canada. COVID-19 hopefully is behind us thanks to vaccines, and we can start again to feel like we are not languishing through life.
The emotion was powerful as the 2,500 who were allowed into the Bell Centre to socially distance watching their favourite team sang in full voice to the Canadian national anthem in both languages. It was a beautiful moment. It was a greatly symbolic moment that said we can now start to feel relief, maybe let our guard down again, and celebrate fully together as a society — for we have truly learned in 444 days that only when we are together are we able to walk through this life with real joy.
We have learned much through COVID-19, and surprisingly one of the things that we discovered is that it’s not just the good old hockey game; it’s our social structure. The arena is the place where we go to feel the warmth and camaraderie of each other. The team that we love is one of the ways that we feel alive in that camaraderie.
Hockey is this nation’s heartbeat. It was appropriate that hockey was the first event that gave us hope. It was right that all this happened where it all began — in Montreal.
Where it was born, it is renewed.
Ole! Ole! Ole!
Better days ahead.
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