The Montreal Canadiens players are making life very difficult for Montreal Canadiens management. Suddenly, the idea that there will be a selling of assets is off the table.
Montreal completed a sweep of the Buffalo Sabres at the Bell Centre on Monday night for their fifth straight win. The Canadiens won 4-3 in overtime with a Mike Matheson tally to move only a single point back of a playoff spot.
Wilde Horses
The Nick Suzuki train keeps on rolling down the track. Suzuki was exhausted before the break with only one point in his last six games. However, after a two-week rest because he was not chosen to represent Canada at the Four Nations, Suzuki is playing the best hockey of his career.
It might not only be about the rest, but also the desire to prove that he should have been chosen for Canada. Suzuki is the most underrated centre in the entire National Hockey League. He gets no respect for his 200-foot game.
He also doesn’t get any respect as a points machine, but after this one, that may change. It was a four-point night for Suzuki. He has 13 points in the five games after the Four Nations event.
In the first period, Cole Caufield scored a power play goal standing open at the side of the net for an easy one. Suzuki assisted. Less than two minutes later, it was Mike Matheson with the pass on a two-on-one to Suzuki. The captain calmly let a wrist-shot go far side for his 19th goal of the year.
Two minutes after that, it was the Canadiens on the power play again. Juraj Slafkovsky was at the side of the net trying for a cross-crease pass that hit a Sabres defender and banked in past James Reimer. It was Suzuki with another helper.
Suzuki has wanted to be a points-per-game player for the last three years, but he hasn’t been able to bring it home in the last third of the season. — until this year. Suzuki now has 65 points in 61 games. It is looking like he will finally become the first point-per-game Canadiens player since Alex Kovalev in 2008.
Lane Hutson also continued his assault on the Canadiens record book. He trails only Chris Chelios for the most points by a Canadiens rookie defenceman. Chelios had 64 points in 1985. The record is in reach. With his two points Monday, Hutson has 48 on the season. He is pro-rated for 64 points.
Remarkably, Hutson is fourth in the league among defenders in NHL scoring. Only Cale Makar, Zach Werenski, and Quinn Hughes are ahead of Hutson. That’s some heady company for a rookie — a rookie not favoured to win the Calder Trophy.
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Oddly, the Hutson partnership with Jayden Struble has been a solidifying factor for the rookie, even though he is playing on his off-side. It’s a lot to ask of a rookie to not only figure out the NHL game, but to do it on the wrong side.
Hutson faces every challenge with ease.
Wilde Goats
With five straight wins after the break, the Canadiens players are telling the Canadiens management that they better not trade away free agents before this Friday at 3 p.m. GM Kent Hughes simply cannot send a message to his players that what they accomplished here wasn’t good enough.
The Canadiens are only one point out of a playoff spot behind the Detroit Red Wings. The message is sent. If they are going to make a trade, it has to be a true hockey trade with players coming back to Montreal. Hughes has had his decision made for him by a hockey team that wanted to prove that the run they were on, when they were the best team in the NHL for a month, was real.
Even if the Canadiens lose their final game before the trading deadline in Edmonton on Thursday, they have proven they deserve a chance to play the final 21 games with a full roster. If Hughes gets the right deal, perhaps he even strengthens the lineup for the final quarter of the year.
This remarkable run means no goats on this club right now.
Wilde Cards
It’s become quite apparent that the Canadiens have not solved their second line centre issue. However, help is on the horizon as Michael Hage has put together a phenomenal freshman college season at Michigan University.
The Canadiens specifically moved up in the draft with the purpose and hope that Hage would still be around at the 21st pick. It was not a gamble that was a lock by any means. Hage was picked to go higher by a lot of scouts. However, their gamble paid off.
Hage is making their optimism in him look well-founded. He has been the best under-19 forward and perhaps the best under-19 player overall this season. Statistically, Hage is the top player. Like Lane Hutson, he has been disrespected overall.
Hage was not even given an invite to the World Juniors for Canada, yet the only other U-19 forward that has as many points this season in college, James Hagens, played for the United States as their first line centre and is expected to go top-three in this year’s draft.
Hage has 33 points in 31 games this season. Hagens has 33 points in 33 games. The only other player at a point-per-game as an under-19 is Cole Hutson with 33 points in 31 games.
Interestingly, Cole Eiserman who was ranked quite a lot higher than Hage, and went one pick before Hage to the New York Islanders, has seen his production drop off significantly with 24 points in 31 games.
Sacha Boisvert has also recently struggled to 25 points in 32 games, as has Teddy Stiga with 27 points in 32 games. Over the years, a point-per-game pace in a freshman college NCAA season is practically a guarantee of a strong NHL career.
Hage is starting to stretch it out statistically as a cut above the rest of the forwards in U.S. college, except Hagens who is expected to be a superstar.
If Hagens is a future superstar, what is Hage supposed to be? Certainly, much more than the hockey world expects so far. It’s a long way still before we see Hage in a Canadiens uniform. He likely will play one more season at Michigan and then another at Laval.
However, after his tutelage, the Canadiens’ best chance for their second-line centre at this moment is the arrival of Hage in September 2027.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
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