It was the last home game for the Montreal Canadiens before a four-game road trip, and the San Jose Sharks were at the Bell Center as Montreal looked for their third straight win.
The Sharks had the better finish in this one, however, with a 4–0 final.
wild horses
Many Canadians did great things. However, putting the puck into the net was not among them.
The top line had plenty of chances. Nick Suzuki’s eyes seem to be on his dice in the back of his head. Cole Coffield looked good but missed the net. Kirby Dack, night after night, wins offensive zone over Carey Well, and cleans the defensive zone with a pancake.
Dutch is a center. He is finally in the middle of the snow. He should enjoy his time as a winger on his line with two of the team’s most talented players, but ultimately finding more wingers with higher skills to play alongside Dack will give the Canadiens two scoring lines instead of one. This is much more optimal.
Josh Anderson had a great look at the crowd but missed it point blank. Juraj Slafkowski missed about five shots and needs to stop doing that, but at least it’s encouraging that he got the look. Christian Dvorak and Brendan Gallagher combined for a superb goal which was disallowed for a phantom penalty just before.
Sean Monahan continues to do a thousand intelligent things every game. Jake Evans has become a strong penalty killer. Jonathan Kovacevic made some gorgeous long outlet passes to start the rush and offensive zone pressure.
There were a lot of great plays and great players, and it all amounted to nothing. This is sports. Sometimes too many players do great things and on the scoreboard it looks like the team was sloppy.
Call of the Wild: Montreal Canadiens beat Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 in shootout
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wild goats
Juraj Slafkowski is having a good rookie campaign. He is improving and learning at the NHL level, and if he keeps doing that, he can continue to play in the best league in the world. However, there are clearly elements of learning.
Slafkowski was gifted some power play time in the first period. He was placed at right point to exploit his left-handed shots. The only issue was that every time he got a chance to shoot, he was not up and ready for it.
Twice on the same power play, he converted a 45-footer into a 30-footer off the half wall. Both times there was an opportunity due to traffic in front of the net and both times he was not ready to fire once.
He doesn’t have the acumen to get through bodies to the other half wall. He is there for the shoot. He has to be ready to rip on arrival.
Another problem with his game appeared in that power play. One of the worst aspects of his game has to be one of his best. He’s a giant on skates, with a very powerful frame, but can’t fight at all.
There are many shortcomings in his catch-fight. One of them is his overall balance on his skates and he has to improve overall, or his improvement will be limited for a long time. Another thing is that he fights with a long stick and alienates himself with his own strength.
He has the physical strength to guard the puck and the body position to fight with his entire frame, but inevitably ends up choosing to fight with only his forearms and wrists. With the long isolations he picks the core — his torso — he doesn’t engage his shoulders well either; Never mind her hips and thighs.
Slafkowski is like Lars Eller in his early years with Montreal. Eller lost a high percentage of his board battles. They didn’t create good positions, nor did they play defense. Over the years, he figured it out. He became a much better player. He didn’t really get as strong as he was before, which was strong enough, but he learned how to use that large frame for positioning and protection.
Another example is Eric Lindros who was the biggest of all as a junior; Physically there was no one in his class in the Ontario Hockey League. He made the juniors go away like flies. When he went to the NHL there was a huge hole in his game because he never really had to keep his head up. He shook again and again when everyone was older.
Same goes for Slafkowski with puck battles. He never had to be good enough in the lower leagues, because he naturally won them because he was so big. He drove them away like flies. It doesn’t cut it in the NHL, so he has to learn what he hasn’t had to do before.
Everyone can put up a fight in the NHL. Actually, almost everyone. The Canadiens have another player who absolutely can’t put up a fight, and he might not get another NHL contract because of it.
There’s a lot to learn. Slafkowski would learn it. It just takes some time.
wild cards
General Manager Kent Hughes had an impressive interview with TVA’s Anthony Martineau over the weekend. It was an important piece of journalism.
The Canadiens went into full rebuild mode after finishing dead last in the season. After securing its 10th win, three months faster than the previous year, speculation was rife that management might have changed course.
Victory is intoxicating and it is easy to change plans when they already seem to be working.
The Martineau interview gave clarity that it is business as it was before the season started.
“All the clubs are starting to call to inform us of the availability of some of our players,” Hughes said.
Teams certainly aren’t making inquiries about untouchable Cole Coffield. They are inquiring about veterans who could help their cup aspirations this spring: players like Sean Monahan, Joel Edmondson, David Savard and Josh Anderson.
Hughes says he remains a seller trying to get a second-round draft choice: “Ideally, yes. We have some good young guys within the organization and it will be important that we get some quality assets.” Who should be able to stay with them in future.
The words “keep up” are key. Hughes isn’t saying he needs Connor Beddard or Adam Fantilie. He’s saying that he needs good players like his top young players — that he doesn’t need to draft top five, but ideally he’d like to draft at the top level.
The theme remains the same as it did the first time Hughes spoke as Canadiens GM. He wants the rebuild to be sustainable: “We’re going to do it as quickly as possible, but we want to be patient and make smart decisions. We do not want to take such a decision which will spoil the future of the team.
It’s not what fans want to win right now and think the winning pieces already want to hear. This blueprint supports those who have long seen the norm that stars win Cups and yet there are not enough stars in the Canadian stable.
In Call of the Wild, a belief espoused by the great Scotty Bowman. The formula for success is six fundamental pieces that must be in place. Once this is achieved, the team can compete for the Stanley Cup.
There are six basic pieces: two top-pair defenders; two top-six centres; a high-scoring winger; A top goalkeeper.
If you believe that Canadians already have these pieces, GM disagrees with you.
He simply states that he needs more high quality pieces. His words: Get more quality properties to live in with your top youngsters.
He’s essentially saying that he needs more Suzukis, Cafields and Guhles.
There are 10 to 15 of those high quality players in this upcoming NHL Entry Draft. Hughes bluntly declared that he wanted one, maybe even two, of the best he had.
Brought to you by Montreal-based sports writer Brian Wilde call of the wild Feather globalnews.ca, after each Canadian game