ANAHEIM, Calif. — It was, in some ways, a microcosm of the Montreal Canadiens season to date. A strong start with a disciplined adherence to the concepts that make up the heart of their game, a mushy middle where a lot of those concepts were forgotten and they leaked odd-man rushes and prime scoring chances, and a tense finish where the Canadiens found a way to overcome an imperfect process to get a result.
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The only part that doesn’t fit is that tense finish, because the Canadiens are still in the midst of that. This 4-3 win against the Anaheim Ducks does not signal any emergence from the woods of what had been a bad stretch of hockey, because it could easily be argued that bad stretch is still with them. Sam Montembeault’s brilliance is a big reason why the Canadiens got a result they badly needed — it was just their third win in regulation time of the season and their first since Oct. 23 in Buffalo. But they got the result, and sometimes, all a team needs is something, anything, to build on.
The Canadiens got that something Wednesday night, a result, and now it will be up to them to show they can use that result to grow and fix the process.
No hockey team should ever focus on a single part of a hockey game while ignoring the rest, because a game, as we are reminded constantly, is 60 minutes long. But under the circumstances, the Canadiens could be forgiven if they chose to focus on the first 20 minutes as that something they can build on.
“I think (the first period) was huge to show that, OK, we’ve got our game, we can play,” defenceman Mike Matheson said. “It’s a block to step up on to and then build another one, so that’s what we need to do in our next game.”
Under a different set of circumstances, it would be fine to focus on just how leaky the Canadiens were in the second period as a sign that not much has changed. At first, however, it seemed as though things had indeed changed. The Ducks cut the Canadiens’ 2-0 lead in half five seconds after a Juraj Slafkovský holding penalty in the first minute of the period. But instead of crumbling, the following shift was a sign of resiliency, with the line of Nick Suzuki, Alex Newhook and especially Brendan Gallagher showing some fight and battling down below the goal line in the Ducks zone to maintain possession and create the circumstances for Matheson to score less than a minute after that Ducks goal, re-establishing that two-goal cushion.
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Except it was not a case of the Canadiens reclaiming momentum in the game, because they gave it right back. The Ducks, in a span of a few shifts, got three consecutive odd-man rushes, and finally cashed in on the third one with Frank Vatrano beating Johnathan Kovacevic along the wall and feeding a wide-open Mason McTavish in front for his second of the period. This happened time after time in the second, and only Montembeault allowed the Canadiens to hang on to that 3-2 lead heading into the third.
But the circumstances for the Canadiens, how fragile they were as a result of their previous two games and four consecutive losses and two consecutive days of intense practice seeking to correct one central aspect of their game — the forecheck — made getting a result here more important than the litany of process-based issues that remained in this game.
Before the game, Martin St. Louis said the Canadiens were singularly focused on themselves, on how they respond to all those circumstances.
“It’s more so on us,” he said Wednesday morning. “We have to show we can correct things quickly. So the focus is much more on our team tonight than it is on the Ducks. I know we’ll be ready, we know how they want to play, but we have to initiate. We have to bring our game, our best. It’s an opportunity to respond to the last two games and get back on the right track, and that starts with us.”
Mission accomplished? No, not exactly. The Canadiens did not show they can correct things quickly, at least not past the first period. They did not initiate, at least not past the first period. And they did not bring their best, at least not past the first period.
But all you needed to do was see how Newhook celebrated his second goal of the game, the game winner late in the third at four-on-four off Jake Evans’ second assist of the game, to understand how important the result was for this group.
Newhook joue les trouble-fête
Newhook coming in clutch#GoHabsGo
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) November 23, 2023
“We needed a win tonight,” St. Louis said after the game. “I thought we fought within our imperfection tonight.”
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Speaking of analogies …
The Canadiens are an imperfect team, no doubt. They will probably have more downs this season than ups, and they seem far from the ultimate goal GM Kent Hughes has repeatedly stated of becoming a sustainably competitive team. The path to that end goal still seems murky. But along the way, while the big-picture goals are still far off on the horizon, it is OK to focus on small-picture achievements. And the first period of this game was one of those achievements, specifically the Canadiens’ second goal of the game.
duck, duck, 𝘎𝘶𝘩𝘭𝘦𝘴#GoHabsGo
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) November 23, 2023
The play by Evans along the boards near the offensive blue line encapsulated so much of what the Canadiens have been emphasizing over the past two days. Forechecking, board play, battling, balance. Evans manufactured that two-on-one break almost singlehandedly, and full marks to Jesse Ylönen for executing the odd-man break perfectly to give the Canadiens a much-needed two-goal lead while Newhook’s opening goal was still being announced in the building.
“It’s definitely about being hard on the forecheck and even the backcheck,” Evans said of that play. “You don’t have to lay a guy out, but making sure you get some contact and try to separate the puck. Our whole line, our D-men were all on the same page, and that’s why it worked.”
Listen to Pierre Houde call that goal. Translated, he says, as Evans wins his battle, Guhle comes along, and he scores!
Forechecking in the neutral zone, winning a battle, a defenceman making a read and jumping up into the rush — all things St. Louis is trying to implement with this team, all on one play.
“It was a result of some of the stuff we’ve been talking about,” St. Louis said.
The problems in the Canadiens’ game remain; they were not erased by this result. But getting this result can help erase those problems. The way the Canadiens played in the second and, particularly, the third was a result of them wanting this result, of them needing this result.
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“I think in the third we were kind of gripping our sticks and worried about losing it,” Evans admitted. “It’s great to pull it out in the end, but a lot more to clean up still.”
Before you think the result has overtaken the process in the Canadiens’ priorities, understand this. After two straight days of difficult practices straddling a cross-continent flight, the Canadiens players — not St. Louis — decided to hold a full morning skate Wednesday. Despite being in the midst of playing three games in four days with travel, the Canadiens are holding a full practice Thursday in San Jose. There are still corrections to be made, and they know it.
But when people talk about the benefits of developing in a winning environment, or at least one that is not constantly clouded by the darkness of losing, this is what they mean. The Canadiens can go about making those corrections with a bit of a clearer head as a result of a win they might not have entirely deserved, but one they got regardless.
“I think in the third, we really wanted the game and there were a few moments where I think the nature of being on a losing streak and wanting the game so bad kind of crept in,” Matheson said. “So I think the more success you get, the more that will kind of go away.”
As the Canadiens continue on this season, one that will probably include more losses than wins, more setbacks than progress, this is a crucial point that is worth remembering while thinking about how another good spot in the draft lottery would be best for this franchise long-term. Getting results is how these players are wired, it is something they need, and real growth sometimes can’t come without it.
(Photo of Canadiens bench celebrating the win: Debora Robinson / NHLI via Getty Images)
