It took the Montréal Canadiens 50 games to post their first extremely modest two-game winning streak. The Toronto Maple Leafs in town with the Canadiens looking to make it three straight, and Montreal did just that with ease 5-2.
Wilde Horses
It continues for Cole Caufield. This young man was wasting away under Dominique Ducharme. Suddenly, he is reborn. The story is phenomenal under Martin St. Louis.
He was on the fourth line getting limited ice time and hardly any power play time. Many were starting to feel that perhaps he was too small for the league and that he wouldn’t be able to figure it out at the NHL level. Cries were loud that he should be in Laval, if he wasn’t going to get ice time in Montreal. It was looking very grim for Caufield and actually everyone on the team. It didn’t look like there was any talent on this club at all.
Under St. Louis, Caufield is on the club’s number one line with Josh Anderson and Nick Suzuki. The three struck for the game’s first goal under three minutes into the contest. Caufield with an assist. He and Suzuki have the highest ice time among forwards. Anderson with the repeated attempt from the door step, before he broke through for the tally.
Same first period, but it’s the final minute. It’s a 2-on-1 and Anderson makes a perfect pass to Caufield who fires the one timer for the tally. Note again, how St. Louis has Caufield on the left side, instead of where he had always played on the right. Caufield is on the left where he can one time the shot easily from there. He sees more of the net. He doesn’t have to take the shot across his body. It’s now five goals and three assists in six games under the new head coach.
Caufield had one goal all season!
One!
Under Ducharme, it felt like the organization thought Caufield was a liability. That he was not producing offensively while struggling to take care of his defensive duties. St. Louis isn’t bothered even in the slightest about any supposed defensive shortcomings; instead, make sure he gets to play offence.
Josh Anderson is fitting in perfectly on the line as the smaller players can use a little muscle. As St. Louis says, the east-west players can use a little north-south on the line to balance it all out.
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Many have argued that Anderson should be among those traded, but at 27 years of age, and with the rare player profile he has as a power forward, he should stay. Especially now with the chemistry that he has with the two kids who are the future of the team. If you find a line with this level of chemistry, give it a try for the long term.
Also, Anderson has five seasons left, and you know what you are getting with him. If you try a prospect for him, the prospect must develop and turn into an actual good player and the maximum under the CBA you have for the prospect is seven years. All in all, the positives of keeping Anderson seem to outweigh the negatives.
However, if you’re inclined to believe that the Canadiens won’t be competitive until 2028, then Anderson will be 33, and it doesn’t make sense to keep him. Quite certain that the present management doesn’t think it’s 2028 before Montreal is competitive again.
Let’s be honest about this: Most of the time when a team changes its coach there is very little impact anymore. The new coach brings in nothing new, and the players don’t respond much. The players at the NHL level have heard it all before. However, in this reincarnation, it truly feels like they have not actually heard before what St. Louis is preaching. They are loving the message that he is sending.
It’s fun to watch a Canadiens game again. The Maple Leafs are the fifth best team in the entire league, and they had nothing on Montreal in this one.
As the strong Canadiens efforts continue under St. Louis, it has to be admitted that this is looking very bad for Ducharme. Under him, the Habs were terrible. Everyone looked terrible. No one played as if they had any talent at all. They were lost in systems. They were lost on the ice. Their coverage was sickening. Their offence was anemic. Their goalies were exhausted. It was the worst Habs hockey ever seen. That’s not hyperbole. Their record was actually the worst in the more than 110 year history of the club.
There is no spin here to make Ducharme look like he wasn’t the problem, and St. Louis is the solution.
The Canadiens have beaten two top ten teams in their last three games. After St. Louis got a chance to do full practices, they have not lost, beating the Blues, Islanders and Leafs. And there is nothing lucky about this. They’re the better team.
They’re carrying the play. They’re the faster skaters. They’re the smarter thinkers. St. Louis has already earned the removal of an interim tag. The Canadiens didn’t seem to fall back either when they took the lead. They didn’t get defensive, or lose faith. They still wanted to bring the game forward into Toronto’s zone to make some magic.
That’s right — the 32nd ranked team in the NHL was playing with confidence.
Wilde Goats
It’s another night of finding nothing to be negative about. The club looks transformed. Toronto is an extremely good team. They were the rested club while Montreal played the day before. It didn’t matter. The Canadiens carried it, and even after Toronto scored two goals in less than a minute, Montreal still didn’t get on the back foot.
Goat-free Call Of The Wilde.
Wilde Cards
Wonderful to see fans in the stands at the Bell Centre for the Monday night affair. It was the first time that fans were allowed in the seats since December 16th. The COVID-10 case count in Quebec is quite low, and there has been an abundance of caution.
For now, it is still only 50 per cent capacity allowed, but it is certainly better than the 500 before it. Those seats were sold just for the people in the loges.
It’s not as if the Canadiens are a hot ticket in this difficult season, but for owner Geoff Molson this is an opportunity to salvage some of what must be monstrous operational losses in the last two COVID-19 riddled seasons.
Full capacity as it stands is set for March 14th, but if the case counts continue to be so low perhaps there will be a reevaluation of that cautious approach.
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