Stop three of the Montreal Canadiens’ road trip in Anaheim did not turn out well. The Ducks are one of the worst teams in the league, if not the worst, but Montreal allowed two goals in the third to fall 3-2.
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Jonathan Drouin scored his first goal of the season, and his first since January of 2022. It was a 15-month wait for Drouin.
A Mike Matheson shot leaked through John Gibson and hung out in the crease behind him for Drouin simply to tap it home. After 18 assists, Drouin had a goal. A massive smile spread across his face and he shook his arms with delight.
His teammates were also elated for him. Smiles on the ice and all down the bench. It’s a close knit group which you don’t often see in a losing team, but Head Coach Martin St. Louis has them caring about each other. He also has veterans on the last year of their contracts caring as well, and that too is a challenge.
Nick Suzuki added a late tally with the goalie pulled to make it 3-2. Suzuki with a career high of 61 points is now on pace for 65 points with his 21st goal of the season.
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It’s the year of shoulder injuries for the Canadiens. Cole Caufield, Arber Xhekaj, and Justin Barron have all injured their shoulders this season. Caufield and Xhekaj needed surgery and are out for the season.
Barron, with a recent shoulder injury, could also be gone for a while. Add to the list Kaiden Guhle who suffered a first-period shoulder injury on a hit from Maxime Comtois. Guhle immediately grabbed his shoulder and looked in considerable pain.
Guhle did continue in the second period, but his shifts were limited because of the injury. In the third period, it seemed Guhle was alright, but let’s see what Saturday brings when the adrenaline stops. He might be the fourth shoulder problem in less than two months. It’s unusual, but this season, it feels like everyone gets injured, so maybe it is not unusual at all.
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It was a disappointing deadline day for the Montreal Canadiens. Certainly there were many mitigating factors and no attempt to lay out any blame is being made here, but it can not be denied that it was a disappointing day.
Many teams improved their chances of success in the future, but the Canadiens were unable to do that. This is the cold hard truth of the matter. The goal is to become a stronger roster by managing older assets to get better, younger assets, when the Canadiens are ready to compete for a playoff spot.
It simply did not happen.
Sean Monahan got off to an excellent start for the Canadiens. It was hoped that he could fetch a high draft pick, perhaps even a first, but he injured his foot, and then suffered a different injury while rehabbing his foot. The word now is that Monahan is not likely to play this season.
Joel Edmundson was also on the trading block for Montreal. It was hoped that he could also fetch a high draft pick, but he was injured day-to-day for 35 days missing 11 games. He finally made it back into the line-up on Thursday night, but suitors were not confident enough that he could compete effectively in a long playoff run. Edmundson also stayed with the team.
Josh Anderson was also on the block, but he too did not fetch a return that was suitable to the General Manager Kent Hughes. It is said that Hughes turned down a first round draft pick believing that Anderson was worth more than that.
The Anderson story remains well intact with his contract having many years left. Anderson will be 29 next season, and Hughes is banking that Anderson will continue to serve the team well. The goal is always to trade an aging veteran in a rebuild at the best run the player can be on.
Anderson has 18 goals this season. That’s a strong first 60 games for him. He really can not perform much better than this, so it’s difficult to imagine that Anderson will be worth more than he was worth this March 3rd. We shall see.
While the Monahan trade story is over, considering his contract is up, the Edmundson trade story has one more year of contract left in it, so perhaps the GM can still recover some value eventually.
Overall, Hughes indicated he was eager to acquire a third first-round draft choice for this summer’s draft. At this point, that goal has not been achieved. However, the clock is still ticking, and hope remains on Anderson at least.
The goal is to draft top players because they are the ones who win Stanley Cups. Top players are found at the top of the draft. The statistics are clear and clean on this. 50 per cent of the league’s stars are picked in the top-five, then 20 per cent from picks six to ten.
Having stars doesn’t necessarily mean that a team will win the cup, but not having stars means you won’t win the cup. In the last 30 years, only the St. Louis Blues won the cup without a bevy of stars. Get stars or hope your team can be the one in 30 exception. Those are the choices.
The goal in sports must be to acquire the best players. Without a Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Hedman, Kucherov, Stamkos, Kane, Toews, Seabrook, or Keith, it is back to the middle of the standings when this rebuild is done.
Life in the middle is the movie that Canadiens hockey fans have been watching since 1993. This is the hard truth.
Hughes speaks of building sustainable success when this rebuild is over. There are a lot of strong pieces in place and many more good prospects to come for many good nights at the Bell Centre However, the Canadiens are going to need an Ovechkin and a Backstrom for a parade.
This is the simple math of the matter. Greatness wins championships. That’s the way it should be. What kind of sport would it be if the fair-to-middling won the titles while the most talented players watched it all from the couch?
There is work to be done. Montreal must still find its Makar and its MacKinnon before millions can celebrate on Sainte Catherine street.
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