With just two wins in their first seven games, the Montreal Canadiens were approaching Saturday night as crunch time. It wasn't supposed to be this way, but inexperience and injuries were the highlight of the season.
At the Bell Centre, the Canadiens needed a victory over the St. Louis Blues and played with superiority to achieve it with a score of 5-2.
wild horses
This will bring a sigh of relief among top management and owners. They need Kirby Dutch to find his toy. There is no immediate lineup solution if Dutch can't recover from major knee surgery.
If Dach is unable to hold on to either of the top two lines, the rebuilding process will take a big step backwards. No one knows how quickly a player will recover from ACL and ACL surgery. In fact, no one even knows if a player will ever be able to recover to 100%.
There are no guarantees that your knee will feel the same. That the player will also be able to skate. That power will be fully restored. Modern medicine is now more on the player's side, but there are no guarantees.
When the Dutch began the season unable to break free, unable to transport the ice, anxiety must have been high on the seventh floor. That's why this person felt relieved all the way to Jeff Molson's office.
Duck seemed to be his old self for the first time. He scored his first goal in 583 days by shooting a rebound in front of the net. His second point was better. On the power play, he took a tough pass from Mike Matheson and gave it to Alex Newhook, who counted.
Duck sat on the edge of his seat with a satisfied look after his second point. Martin St. Louis walked next to the bench and patted him hard on the back. This gesture amplified the importance of this moment.
This was a great game. Duck took his first steps to return to his old self. sigh.
One of the other big positives is that the goals keep coming for Cole Caufield. He hit the ball in the third period to score his seventh goal in eight games. The Canadiens' last 40-goal scorer was Vincent Damphousse in 1994. You have to like Caufield's pace to break this 30-year drought.
wild goat
The Canadiens' defensive coverage is, at times, abysmal. There are many times when there is no man.
On the Blues' second goal, after Logan Mylox failed to put the puck in and Matheson went down, the Canadiens did not allow a goal. But the play continued in the Montreal area and the errors worsened. There were four players in front of the net, but no one was attacking anyone when the Blues finally scored.
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It seems that the Canadians in defense do not know their tasks or cannot complete them.
The only thing that is certain is that the Blues player cannot be left alone in front of the net with Caufield, Nick Suzuki, Matheson and Mylox watching him drill the ball for an easy goal. Defenders should not track the puck. They have to consult with someone.
When the Canadiens made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, you could count on one hand the odd rush the guys gave up for an entire series. With this set, you will be left without fingers on all your limbs by the second break.
They want to create offense, but that can't be done at the expense of base defense. When a Montreal defender goes deep, the attacker must take over the defensive space, if there is a bad result. This simple mistake is made over and over again.
They worked very hard on this. They had a lot of advantage. They were hungry. However, it is not always consistent. Let's chalk it up to experience. This is not a criticism of the head coach when he struggles to defend well.
This is the youngest hockey team in the NHL. Blue lines peak at age 29. These children have a lot to learn. Even attackers who lost their assignments have the same problems. It's the “I don't know” part and the “I forgot” part. He arrives with experience and at the right time.
They will get it. They have pedigree. They all excelled in college or high school. Most of them are first or second round picks. You will improve. It will take some time. These guys have the goods. They have always had the products.
Wild cards
It has become clear that reports of rapid reconstruction were greatly exaggerated. When defensemen peak at age 29 and most of Montreal's blue line players don't even have 100 games of experience, there's still a long way to go.
The Canadiens will likely have more time for the forwards to join the mix as the impressive young talent on defense learns his trade. There could be one or even two top-15 picks this June, and Montreal owns Calgary's first-round pick.
Additionally, last summer's first-round picks appear safe early in the 2024-25 campaign. Ivan Demidov was just named by ESPN as the best player outside of the NHL. This year he has already destroyed it in the Russian KHL.
Demidov leads the KHL in points per 60 minutes with 4.61. This is almost double the next best. That doesn't mean he leads the league in scoring – far from it – it means he barely gets a change and when he does, he scores a point.
Demidov sometimes receives only five minutes of ice per game from his head coach, who seems to have an alternative agenda besides winning. Despite only having five minutes, Demidov has 16 points in 20 games. That is, four points from the top of the league.
His head coach indicated he would get more ice time if he was better defensively. Demidov has more than 16. He is the first among the forwards in the league. I'm not sure how much better Roman Rotenberg needs to be defensively. Rotenberg is actually one of the first Russian oligarchs. Maybe I should get back to that and leave hockey coaching to the hockey people.
The best points per game total in KHL history in the season after being selected is held by Matvei Myshkov with 41 points in 49 games. Demidov questions this figure. If his coach finds his balls, Demidov could become the first player to score a point per game in league history this season after being drafted.
Montreal's other number one player, Michael Hajj, is also excelling. Hage plays at the University of Michigan for the Wolverines. It is a club that does not have much talent this year. Hage is the leading point guard, which is a huge accomplishment for a player in his draft plus one season.
Al-Hajj has seven points from six games. All of his goals are so beautiful because he has the ability to weave through traffic to create glorious moments. In fact, the two Canadiens selected in June have superior puck skills than anyone on the roster currently, if they continue to develop at this rate.
Demidov is the first Canadian prospect who looks like he will have points per game stats and reach the hundred mark in a good season. Hage looks much better than the 21st overall pick and is a 50-50 draft proposition for the player to make it to the league; It doesn't matter if you excel at it.
So while the start of the season has been frustrating to watch for Canadiens fans, the front office continues to stockpile top talent.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports journalist, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after every Canadiens game.
