The Canadiens’ Christian Dvorak said it’s the first time he ever won an overtime faceoff cleanly and it resulted almost immediately in his team losing the game.
He also hopes it’s the last time it happens.
Wednesday night in Seattle, Dvorak beat the Kraken’s Chandler Stephenson on the faceoff, putting the puck behind him, to start the three-on-three OT period. All three players on both teams were lined up on the red line and the Kraken’s Brandon Montour cheated a bit to get a jump-start on Canadiens defenceman Lane Hutson, who was lined up across from him.
Montour went in alone on a breakaway from the blue line and beat goalie Jakub Dobes for a 5-4 victory. It was the fastest OT goal in NHL history, coming only four seconds after the puck dropped.
As the Canadiens’ Brendan Gallagher put it after practice Friday at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard: “Everyone cheats on faceoffs. If you’re not cheating on faceoffs, you’re not playing the game right.”
Hutson made a rookie mistake not blocking Montour from getting the jump.
When I asked Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis after Friday’s practice if he will now change the way his players line up for a faceoff to start OT — making sure someone is behind the centreman — he had a one-word answer: “No.”
St. Louis then added after a pause: “To me if they line up three up (on the red line) and we line up one back and the puck goes right there (to where Montour was), who gets the possession? They do. To me it’s not necessarily the way we lined up. It’s we didn’t respect the way they were lining up. Montour just took a back step and Lane, as a young defenceman, I don’t think he’s ever lined up like that. Lane’s mostly lined up at the blue line. But he’s going to learn from that. If (Montour) cheats, you got to cheat. You got to honour his cheating because if it goes there he wins the race.
“You got to be alert and that would have been our puck,” St. Louis added. “But it’s a lesson and I know that won’t happen again.”
The Canadiens lost a very valuable point with the OT loss to the Kraken, which left them one point out of a wild-card playoff spot.
Doing his job
St. Louis usually sends Dvorak out to take the faceoff to start overtime, after which he goes almost immediately to the bench and is replaced by another forward.
Dvorak did his job against Seattle.
While Dvorak is winning 56.4 per cent of his faceoffs this season, he has only six goals in the final season of his six-year, US$26.7-million contract that has a US$4.45 million salary-cap hit.
“I like doing that,” Dvorak said about taking faceoffs to start OT. “I take pride in faceoffs. It’s something I’ve always worked on a lot and always want to be good on them. I take pride in winning draws and (St. Louis) puts me out there a lot for those three-on-three ones and, obviously, you want to start with possession, so that’s the main goal.
“I knew we had two guys lined up there (on the red line) to help with the draw,” Dvorak added about the OT loss to the Kraken. “They kind of ran a smart play, I guess, and Montour was going before the puck even dropped. So it was a smart play by them, I guess. Obviously, we’ll learn from it and probably have a guy stand back a little bit from now on. Unfortunate how it worked out, and we’ll learn from it.”
Dvorak was very happy to still be with the Canadiens after last Friday’s NHL trade deadline, but he’s not expected to be back in Montreal next season. The 29-year-old can become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
“I was definitely excited to stay here and have a chance to make the playoffs,” Dvorak said.
As for his future beyond this season?
“I’m not really thinking about it too much,” Dvorak said. “Just taking it day-by-day. No need to look far ahead in the future. Just enjoy what I have right now.”
An improved team
The Canadiens have a 31-27-7 record heading into Saturday’s game against the Florida Panthers at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., SNE, City, TVA Sports). With 17 games remaining on the schedule, the Canadiens have already won one more game than they did all of last season when they finished with a 30-36-16 record.
After Friday’s practice I asked St. Louis where the team has improved the most so far this season and where they need to improve the most over the last 17 games.
“I think where we improved most as a team, I feel it’s our consistency in all departments,” the coach said. “I think what we have to keep improving until the end of the season is our consistency in all the departments. I don’t know which one it’s going to be. Every game speaks to you and you got to listen, you got to to fix it now. You got to address it now. To me you’re just trying to tighten things up in every department. I don’t think you’re really working on one specific thing at this time. I think it’s been all worked on and now you got to touch this and that, depending on what the game says to you.
“But I feel like we’ve been a very consistent team this year in our play,” St. Louis added. “We’ve had runs going this way (up), runs going that way (down). But even when our runs were going that way (down) we weren’t consistently bad. We just were consistently lacking the result that we wanted. But, overall, it’s been a more consistent season in terms of our play.”
If the Canadiens miss the playoffs this season it will mark the first time in franchise history that has happened in four consecutive seasons.
Tough test against Panthers
The Panthers are in first place in the Atlantic Division with a 41-22-3 record after winning the Stanley Cup last season. They are coming off a 3-2 win over the Maple Leafs Thursday night in Toronto.
The Canadiens beat the Panthers 4-0 in their first meeting this season on Dec. 28 in Florida with Dobes making 34 saves in his NHL debut for the shutout.Samuel Monembeault will be in goal for the Canadiens Saturday night against the Panthers.
The Panthers acquired Brad Marchand from Boston at last Friday’s NHL trade deadline, but the former Bruins captain remains sidelined with an upper-body injury. The Panthers are hopeful Marchand will be ready to play before the end of the regular season.
It will definitely be strange seeing Marchand in a Panthers uniform the next time he does play at the Bell Centre.
“I’m sure he’ll still be getting booed (at the Bell Centre), so same thing,” the Canadiens’ Jake Evans said with a grin.
When asked what makes Marchand tough to play against, Evans said: “He’s just competitive, I guess. It’s kind of like Gally (Gallagher) is, too. He’s in your face, he’s always battling. You may not like it — most people don’t — and that gives him an edge on a lot of people.”
The Panthers are also missing Matthew Tkachuk, who is sidelined with a lower-body injury suffered while playing for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. Tkachuk is likely to be out of action until the playoffs.
A turning point
A turning point in the Canadiens season came on Dec. 18 when GM Kent Hughes acquired defenceman Alexandre Carrier from the Nashville Predators in exchange for Justin Barron.
The Canadiens had a 12-16-3 record at the time. Since acquiring Carrier, the Canadiens have a 19-11-4 record and he has 2-11-13 totals to go along with a plus-6.
“He’s just so steady,” teammate and fellow defenceman Jayden Struble said about Carrier. “I think as soon as he got here he added a calming presence to the blue line. Just a steady, mature defenceman. I think he’s really good defensively, but he also has those flashes of offence. Great skater, good shot. He was a really good pickup for us. Great dude, too, so it’s good to have him in the locker room. He’s just be super reliable for us.”
Barron has 3-5-8 totals in 27 games with the Predators and is minus-8.
Carrier is only 5-foot-11 and 174 pounds, but the seven-year NHL veteran plays a very physical game. The 28-year-old who grew up in Varennes on Montreal’s South Shore is in the first season of a three-year, US$11.25-million contract with an annual salary-cap hit of US$3.75 million.
“There’s a reason he’s been in the NHL for however long and he’s got a nice contract going for him,” Struble said. “He’s just a tough guy. He’s a little on the smaller end, but in the corners and stuff he’s working and cross-checking. It’s fun to watch. We’re lucky to have him.”
Evans has been impressed by Carrier’s competitiveness.
“He takes a lot of big hits and he plays a lot of tough minutes,” Evans said. “He’s not the biggest guy, either, and he goes into the corner against the heaviest guys and comes out with the puck a lot. He has a willingness to get pucks and go to the dirty areas.”
Playing with Lane
In the nine games since the Canadiens returned from the 4 Nations Face-Off break in the schedule, Struble has had Hutson as his defence partner.
The Canadiens have a 6-1-2 record in those nine games. Struble has four assists and is plus-6 during that span, while Hutson has 1-9-10 totals and is also plus-6. Hutson leads all NHL rookies in scoring this season with 4-47-51 totals.
What has it been like for Struble playing with Hutson?
“It’s nice,” Struble said with a smile. “Everyone asks what you’re trying to do out there and it’s really just get him the puck as quick as possible. Get out of the D-zone and let him do whatever he wants in the O-zone. It’s been nice.”
What has impressed Struble most about Hutson?
“The way he doesn’t get tired,” Struble said. “I take really quick shifts and he’ll just follow me (to the bench) I think just out of respect. He’ll get off the ice, but he could stay on the whole time. He’s just so shifty and creative. It’s kind of like (the Edmonton Oilers’ Connor) McDavid … late in the shift he looks exactly like he does just getting on the ice. It’s really impressive to watch.”
Struble didn’t know Hutson well before the rookie joined the Canadiens. They did play against each other when Struble was a senior at Northeastern University and Hutson was a freshman at Boston University.
“I hated him when we played against him because he was just so good,” Struble said. “But I didn’t know him personally. I knew Jack Hughes (son of the Canadiens’ GM who was Struble’s teammate for two seasons at Northeastern) and he’s buddies with him and he was letting me know he’s a good kid and stuff before.
“I met him for the first time this summer and it took a while for him to kind of get loose a little bit, I think,” Struble added about Hutson. “He’s a little shy and quiet, but now he’s a really funny kid. Pretty open and comfortable with the guys, so it’s good to see.”
Impressing the coach
St. Louis has been impressed with the way Struble has been playing with Hutson as his partner.
“I think he’s found some consistency,” St. Louis said. “He’s had a runway to kind of find it. I think he’s very efficient on the ice right now. I think he’s defending well, I think he’s got great confidence. Because of that his touches are better. But with any young player you just got to do it over again every game.
“Sometimes I feel confidence is like easy come, easy go,” St. Louis added. “You really have to work on it and you have to be hungry and you have to assess every game.”
St. Louis noted that no player ever plays a perfect game and the key is to learn from mistakes and not just be happy because overall you had a good game.
“If I were to challenge Strubs, to me it’s just stay hungry because he’s playing really good hockey for us right now and don’t get complacent,” St. Louis said. “I think for young players sometimes it’s easy to get complacent and we can’t have that.”
Not as impressed
St. Louis said the third defence pairing of David Savard with Arber Xhekaj can play better than they have recently.
“Listen, we know what Jocko brings,” St. Louis said about Xhekaj. “There’s more to his game than just his physicality and fighting when he has to. Savvy, you know what he brings. That veteran presence and stuff. Blocks a lot of shots. Very poised in space, he makes a lot of right decisions. Have they played well as a pair of late? I think they can play better.
“For me with Jocko it’s not necessarily being physical,” St. Louis added. “It’s part of it, but it’s killing more plays and using his stick better. To me, the main principle of defending is you got to kill the puck. So being physical is a part of it, but you can’t just be physical and leaving pucks available to be killed. It’s got to be together. I think he’s learning that and I think when he’s at his best that’s what he does. And I feel when he feels like he’s got to do more I think he tends to be overly physical and missing the principle of defending. You got to kill the puck.”
Happy to still be a Hab
Evans signed a four-year, US$11.4-million contract extension shortly before getting on the Canadiens’ charter flight to Edmonton on March 4 to start a four-game, nine-day road trip.
Evans, who could have become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, was so sure he was going to get moved before the NHL trade deadline that he and his wife had packed up their apartment ahead of the road trip and she went back to their off-season home in Toronto, waiting to see where they would be moving next.
Evans signed his new contract in Hughes’s office at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard after practising with his teammates on March 4 and before heading to the airport.
“It was weird,” Evans said after practice Friday. “(Hughes) has been great and was chatting with me about all the possible options. I think we both just came to a realization that it would probably be better if I stayed here and I’d like to think they wanted me to stay here.”
It was also weird when Evans returned to his apartment on Thursday at the end of the road trip.
“Last night when I got home I showed up to a place filled with boxes,” Evans said. “I called my wife because she’s in Toronto and I said: ‘This is just weird.’ It felt like we left in a rush. I’m just happy it’s done with.”
Evans’s wife was returning to Montreal later on Friday and they’re going to start looking for a house in Montreal.