Montreal hosted the Calgary Flames at Bell Centre on Monday night, winning 2-1 after a shootout thanks to goaltender Josh Allen. The Canadiens have spent much of the season over .500, but the challenge gets much more difficult in the next month. Montreal, with only three of their next 11 at home, need to make the most of their rare Bell Centre games.
Wilde Horses
Top draft pick Juraj Slafkovsky shone on Monday night. He was stationed at the right side point. He slid up the half-wall when he saw the play open up in his favour, just as he should. There he sent gorgeous passes through to the bumper position. He also fired two shots when his stick was actually cocked and ready to go.
This is a big improvement from earlier in the year when he was not ready to fire it like Cole Caufield. You have to make sure the goalie is not set in the NHL, or you have already failed most of the time.
In the third period, Slafkovsky won space in the corner and realized that he had plenty of time to maneuver. He changed angles against the two defenders in front of him, then threaded a laser beam to Josh Anderson. All he had to do was tap it home. It was a gorgeous play by Slafkovsly, the play of a veteran.
These are outstanding developments. It’s still only mid-December, and the excitement needs to be tempered until this sample size gets bigger, but Slafkovsky is definitely going in the right direction.
Slafkovsky isn’t tiring as the season goes on. He isn’t grinding down due to the fatigue of puck battles. He isn’t watching his game drop off. He’s gaining in strength.
This high draft pick is improving quickly. His skating stride is looking better. His ability to make a play faster is improving. It’s coming together rapidly in the last two weeks.
There will be hiccups along the way, but this is beginning to look like the player that management hoped for. He’s beginning to look like a first-pick overall.
All this at 18. No one succeeds at 18. Even the New Jersey Devils’ Jack Hughes, who looks like one of the best players in the league, struggled at 18.
The following month will be fascinating for fans as Shane Wright is about to be the number one centre for Canada playing with powerhouse players like Connor Bedard. Wright is going to get a lot of points because he’s good and Canada is going to score in bunches.
When that happens, keep in mind that Slafkovsky is in the NHL and he looks like his learning curve is accelerating. The NHL is the toughest league in the world and a Slovakian kid born in 2004 looks just fine.
Instead of already seeing the best, the best is yet to come.
READ MORE: Edmonton shades Montreal (Dec. 3, 2022)
There were a number of strong performances by the Canadiens and again they were led by the young guns. Jordan Harris had an outstanding game. It was his play in the neutral zone to break up a head-man pass that led to the first goal on a rush led by Harris.
Kirby Dach continues to exhibit all of the skills of a centre as he has the ability to win the offensive zone, and take the puck to the net even with a defender draped all over him. Dach finds solutions to complex problems. He’s a smart hockey player. The complaint that he was a perimeter player in Chicago seems completely false. It’s not been evident for even a single shift in Montreal.
In the shootout, Dach ripped a rocket into the top corner that made everyone who saw it ask, Why doesn’t he shoot more?
Josh Anderson played with more creativity and managed to be all alone on the tying marker for a respectable eighth goal on the season. On pace or an also respectable 24-goal campaign. Nothing wrong with that, and certainly worthy of a first-round draft choice for a power forward on the trade market should management decide that is the path they would like to take.
Back on defence, Jonathan Kovacevic as a waiver wire pick-up doesn’t seem possible. He is not spectacular in style, but he is steady. The Flames had a 2-on-0 late in the third with the game on the line, but Kovacevic raced back to break it up.
Chris Wideman had his best game of the season. He also steps up to protect his mates every time he must.
One team on Monday night has playoff aspirations. The other team is in a rebuilding year. You couldn’t tell which one was which.
Wilde Goats
Despite his size, Cole Caufield does an outstanding job of avoiding checks. He rarely gets hit hard which is a testament to his on ice awareness, and mobility. However, in this one, midway through the second period, he was rocked by Trevor Lewis.
Caufield fell back hard and hit his head on the ice. Thankfully, his helmet was still on and offering protection. Still, he could suffer the rotational effects of whiplash and the contact on the ice as possible concussion reasons.
Usually, it is in the first fifteen seconds that one sees the effects of a concussion. However, they don’t have to always be found in the opening seconds. Just like any injury, the worst effects of a brain injury can arrive in a delayed fashion.
Initially, it looked like Caufield was winded by the hit. He did not show any of the telltale signs of a concussion such as dizziness, loss of balance, or even a fencing position. He got up, looked bothered he was hit so hard, and winded from the lack of oxygen.
However, 20 minutes after going to the dressing room, the Canadiens announced that Caufield had an upper-body injury and would not return for the night.
An upper-body injury can be anything in NHL parlance. It could be a shoulder. It could be a concussion. He took most of the blow in the shoulder. It was only on the fall that his head hit.
We will wait for more from the Canadiens medical staff. Hopefully, we will not have to wait too long.
Wilde Cards
Disappointing but not surprising that Canadiens second round prospect Owen Beck did not make the Team Canada roster for the World Junior Championships.
There are two vital reasons that Beck was cut on Monday afternoon. It was looking good for his selection until vital players were released at the last moment by their NHL teams. When centreman Shane Wright was released by the Seattle Kraken to occupy one of the spots up the middle that Beck was hoping to win, that sealed his fate.
Another factor is age. This is a tournament where players who are draft plus two years have a lot better chance to win a spot over players who were just drafted. Many players have already had NHL minutes on their resume. Beck was taken last summer, and he has another chance next year to make the Canada squad, and likely will.
READ MORE: Montreal takes down Seattle (Dec. 6, 2022)
Another Canadiens hopeful was also cut. Riley Kidney simply ran into bad luck. He was already on the squad in the summer for Canada, but he suffered an injury, and there is no easy solution to that issue. When there are so many players of the same quality, the coaching staff won’t take a player that has injury issues.
The only Canadiens hopeful of the three to make the squad for Canada in Halifax is Joshua Roy. He continues to pile up the points in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League after winning the scoring title last year. Roy also played extremely well at the last championship in the summer, so he is a proven commodity at that level.
It does hurt for Canadiens fans that there is only one on the roster for Canada, but that does not suggest in any way that the other two disappointed the coaching staff. They were just a victim of a very complicated numbers game. It happens.
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