With two impressive wins after the Four Nations break in two starts for the Montreal Canadiens, they could not afford to let up against the weak San Jose Sharks. The Sharks had lost 15 of their last 17 heading in to the Bell Centre on Thursday night.
Montreal absolutely had to have a win for their playoff hopes. They struggled, but they did come through with an overtime victory 4-3 on an absolute stunner of a goal from Cole Caufield.
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When the Canadiens struggled before the break, it was the first line that completely ran out of energy. They put numbers together for the last 10 games that were half of what they had averaged before the slump.
Head Coach Martin St. Louis needed that line to get back to their best selves, and they certainly have for three straight games. Juraj Slafkovsky has seen the biggest improvement with three games that looked unlike any before them this season.
Slafkovsky was the catalyst on the first goal as he stole the puck to force a two-on-one break. It was the sniper Cole Caufield who handled the odd-man rush perfectly passing at the right time for maximum lateral movement for Nick Suzuki to count.
Last minute of the first period, and it’s Suzuki with his second goal of the contest. Slafkovsky was doing good work creating traffic in front. That allowed Suzuki to take a pass from Lane Hutson to pop in his 18th goal of the season.
Suzuki is back to a point-per-game pace with 60 points in 59 games. Suzuki has been this close before, but faltered in the last 20 games. This time, with the schedule break, it feels like he has the energy to finally reach that milestone in a season.
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With the assist on the tally, Hutson becomes the first rookie defender to collect 40 assists in under 60 games since Nick Lidstrom accomplished the feat in 1991-92. That’s how special this season is for Hutson, yet he continues to get no respect.
He is not the favourite to win the Calder Trophy for top rookie. That honour is Macklin Celebrini’s, even though Hutson has more points as a defender than the Sharks forward.
The Canadiens were losing 3-2 to start the third period in a game they absolutely had to have. Montreal tied it on the first NHL point for Owen Beck. Beck took a big hit in the corner, but stayed on his feet, then eventually won the puck in the corner. It led to Alex Newhook with a tip-in tally.
In overtime, an absolutely magic moment for Caufield. He broke Macklin Celebrini’s ankles with an inside-out move, then one-on-one against the goaltender, he roofed it from three feet in tight. It was the goal of the year for the winner.
The win wasn’t pretty, but it does not have to be. It doesn’t matter one bit if it is pretty. It only matters that it was done. The Canadiens take six points out of six points after the break. They are in the playoff mix.
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They found a way to win. They are still in the hunt for a playoff spot. They still have not sent GM Kent Hughes the message that it is time to sell. March 7th is the trading deadline, and what Hughes does is still a mystery. His group of players has told him that they want to keep fighting. It is Hughes’ job to respect his players’ effort.
No goats. The Canadiens got the job done.
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Developments in Laval have taken an unexpected turn. The Rocket are still winning as they make a charge to win the North Division in the American Hockey League, but who is shining is surprising.
It would have been easy to write off Sean Farrell considering he didn’t score his first goal of the season until his 23rd game. That would have been unwise, because now the Hobey Baker finalist seems to be figuring out the pro game.
Farrell has 15 points in his last 10 games. He’s gone from an after thought to the first thought when Pascal Vincent needs a goal. Farrell has moved from last among the forwards in scoring to sixth on the season.
While Farrell’s offensive outburst is a surprise, Florian Xhekaj’s season is an absolute shock. Xhekaj was drafted by Montreal hoping he could be the unicorn at forward that Arber has been on defence. He might just develop late like his brother.
Florian is fourth on the club in goals this season with a stunning 15. Very few think that Xhekaj can make the NHL, but they’ll have to rethink that negative scouting report. With his size, and suddenly some good hands, the book remains wide open for Florian to keep shocking.
While Farrell and Xhekaj’s excellence still leaves them as long shots to be NHL regulars, on defence, the best story is one that the organization absolutely needs to have a happy ending.
David Reinbacher is playing outstanding, so far, after recovering from knee surgery. His first two games were strong according to his head coach, but they were nothing compared to his third game in Toronto.
Reinbacher was plus two in a 5-4 win. He looked in control making nothing but superb decisions. Again, not a ton of offence from the back end from Reinbacher, but the intelligent defence will make up for it easily at this rate.
Reinbacher will get 25 regular season games in Laval. If the Rocket have a long playoff run, and Reinbacher does gets45 games in this season, he may get a long look to start in Montreal next October.