Call of the Wilde: Red-hot Canadiens down Flyers as playoff push continues – Montreal

It’s four straight wins for the Montreal Canadiens as they make an impressive push toward a playoff spot. The Canadiens needed three straight goals in the third period to narrowly defeat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2. Montreal is now four points ahead of the New York Rangers for the final wild card spot.

Wilde Horses 

This was looking like a difficult night. The Flyers were playing well. The Canadiens were stymied. It all changed in just over a minute early in the third period.

Two lines were changed because Josh Anderson’s wife was having a baby. Suddenly, Jake Evans and Brendan Gallagher found themselves together. Gallagher passed it to Evans with a terrific two-on-one pass, but Evans missed.

They persisted. Evans won the puck again. He fed Gallagher in front. Gallagher snapped it high into the far corner. He grabbed the Canadiens crest as the crowd erupted for his 20th of the season. Montreal had finally tied it.

Soon after, Lane Hutson took it over the blue line. Usually he looks for a pass here, and the defender thought it as well. The surprise element was he took it to the corner. Now everyone in the building thought pass. Hutson fired into the top shelf from the corner. It was a horrific angle. Hutson found it.

A shot of the Canadiens players’ bench showed that they were all basically gobsmacked that Hutson had scored from that angle. Even his teammates can’t believe what this kid can achieve. Hutson with point No. 63 of the season on goal number six.

It was still dicey. The Canadiens needed one more late, but it didn’t look good when they had to kill a penalty, until the captain took over. Nick Suzuki was by himself, yet managed to take a fly-by behind the net. He continued, still untouched, fell to a knee, got up, fired and counted his 83rd point of the season.

Suzuki did it. He finally achieved that point-per-game plateau. He has taken the team on his shoulders. Since the Four Nations break, Suzuki has 31 points in 20 games. He told his GM at the break: “Don’t sell anyone at the deadline. Let’s make the playoffs instead”. He may have led them to that promised land.

Another terrific story is that it was the first game back for Oliver Kapanen after an outstanding season in Sweden. Kapanen had 35 points in 36 games for Timra. A point-per-game is an absolute feat in the defensive Swedish Hockey League. Only three players had a point-per-game in the entire league.

Kapanen fell just shy of the mark, but he had a tremendous season. It was the first season where his offence finally broke through. Kapanen had two outstanding chances to keep the offence going in the NHL in his return to the Canadiens roster.

More than the chances, though, was the complete game that he showed against the Flyers. Kapanen brought so much intelligence to his game. He always was on the right side of the puck. He respected the need to make a low-risk play to never put his mates in trouble.

Kapanen also was able to win a lot of puck battles with good balance and good positioning. Everything about his game worked. He also had to play that first game in the middle where he did not look at all out of place taking care of his own zone for positioning.

This season, Owen Beck, Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook and Kapanen have auditioned for that centre position. From a purely 200-foot point-of view, the best is Kapanen. Not likely on offence, but on defence. Keep in mind, though, this is a small sample size of just a dozen games before Sweden and one game here.

Based off of this, he will get more looks. It’s going to be an interesting battle at the centre position next season. If Kapanen is intelligent at centre, he will win that spot with Newhook and Dach heading to the wings. The most important thing at centre is smarts. Kapanen has it.

Wilde Goats 

At the NHL level, it’s the little things that make the difference in success versus failure. One element that the better player possesses is a concept that duplicity is important. That fooling your opponent is absolutely vital to success.

The best example of this is Lane Hutson. All game long, every game, Hutson is tricking his opponent to make the wrong decision against him. His move where he goes sideways as he skates up ice keeps telling his checker that he is going to pass it back, but he doesn’t. He fakes it back, but then he has an entire sheet of ice in front of him as he’s left his opponent behind him.

The no-look pass of Nick Suzuki is another example. Suzuki has learned the art of duplicity that has meant so much to his success. Suzuki will often have the puck in the high-slot on the right side where he looks to shoot, but then passes to the left to a wide open Cole Caufield or Patrik Laine. The goalie is still trying to move laterally, but he is late because of that trickery.

That brings us to Juraj Slafkovsky who is doing so much right, and if he added that element of duplicity to his game, it would mean so much. A perfect example was Slafkovsky in the second period when he had a clear look at the net for a shot.

The shot was there. Some might even criticize him for not shooting from such a good spot. However, there was nothing wrong with the pass to Suzuki on his left. It was a good choice. Suzuki was also open, but 15 feet to the left, so the goalie had a lot of work to do to get there.

That’s where the issue comes in. The entire time Slafkovsky angled his body for a pass, and also looked left for a pass. When the goaltender was already square to Suzuki that was the reason. Slafkovsky telegraphed his actions.

This is what experience brings. Soon he will learn that what he needs to do is put his head down, act as if he is going to shoot, look at the goalie, watch that goalie square up to him, then don’t even look at Suzuki as he passes to him. The goalie won’t have a single chance to make the save.

This is the difference between 1-0 and 1-1. This is the difference between winning and losing. This is the difference between a 50 point season and a 75 point season. He will figure out. His line-mate and head coach are likely already showing him film. It’s only a matter of time. He’s only 21.

Wilde Cards

Though it is not guaranteed, it appears the Canadiens two first-round draft picks this June will be 16th and 17th overall. The Canadiens own pick will perhaps be the lowest seeded team to make the playoffs. The Calgary Flames could be the best record to not make the playoffs.

Assuming those mid-teen numbers, it leaves the Canadiens in an interesting spot. This is not a good draft in the mid-teens. This is not a Cole Eiserman at 20 and Michael Hage at 21 type of draft like last season. A strong drop in talent happens at around the tenth pick.

Usually, at 16, history records that there is a 60 per cent hit rate of NHL player and eight per cent chance of star. This year, that might be only 40 per cent chance of an NHL player.

That means the Canadiens might want to not covet these picks as much as they ordinarily do. This may be the year to use that draft capital to get creative.

There are two options: use the two firsts to acquire a second-line centre via player trade, or package the two firsts for one higher first via a trade of picks.

The first option has been discussed before. It’s a trade enticing a rebuilding team that realizes their roster player will be getting old before their team becomes playoff viable again. That rebuilding team would attempt to turn the two picks into young roster players.

The Canadiens don’t need more roster players. They need top-of-the-roster players. The depth of the Canadiens on their NHL roster and in their prospect pool is the envy of the league.

The second option is a harder sell, but it is possible with perhaps a sweetener like a prospect that Montreal can afford to deal. GM Kent Hughes would be trying to combine the 16 pick, the 17 pick and a prospect to move into the top ten of the draft.

In this scenario, Hughes has a player in mind, so this trade would likely be made on the draft floor during the first round. He would try to interest a team needing to get three assets added to that roster giving up one higher ranked asset in the process.

It’s all about what is the specific need. A rebuild in its nascent stage needs players – lots of them. A rebuild nearing its maturity needs a targeted asset. That target for Montreal is a second-line centre. If one is available of a higher quality at the eight or nine spot, this is a trade that can work for everyone.

The top-five are untouchable. No one is going to make a deal with Hughes giving up Michael Schaefer, Michael Misa, James Hagens, Porter Martone, or Anton Frondell. The second tier has some good talent though. There are exciting targets there but those targets will be gone by the 16 pick.

It’s going to be an interesting summer. Those two firsts are going to be in play. Hughes will try to use his volume of picks and prospects to target that second-line centre that elevates the Canadiens to serious contender.