Achi news desk-
It’s one outstanding team after another that the Montreal Canadiens face as they close out their season. While another missed playoff run was not a prospect, it can be taken comfort that the Canadiens improved as the season progressed.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have given the Canadiens a lot of trouble, and Thursday night was no different. The Lightning took an off night for Cayden Primeau winning 7-4.
Wild Horses
It was a rare night for the Canadiens as they finally got some secondary scoring. Alex Newhook, Brendan Gallagher and Joel Armia took the lead from the front row led by Nick Suzuki.
Newhook has had a strong season with little praise for him. Gallagher continues to work his tail off, even though his best offensive days are behind him. However, the big story on the line is Armia. He has put together a remarkable comeback season.
He started his season in the minors, where it all could have gone horribly wrong for him after a questionable training camp. Armia put his head down and got to work. That work quickly produced a promotion back to the NHL.
Since then, he has had the best season of his career. Armia scored twice in the contest to increase his goal total to 16. That ties his best season registered in 2020. He has seven games to reach a career high in goals.
Armia is also third on the team in goals despite losing 16 games. He follows in the footsteps of only Suzuki and Cole Caufield. Armia is linked with Juraj Slafkovsky, who kept his great run going with a tip on a point shot. Slafkovsky learns that he cannot be wrestled physically. He can go to the front of the net and park, then wait. He learns about an excellent weapon he has.
Slafkovsky used his size again, but in a different way, on the 6-4 goal. He brought two players to him, and he simply had too much strength for the Tampa players to handle. That created space for Suzuki and Caufield. Caufield finished with the shot into the top corner.
Wilde goats
Kaiden Guhle took a hit in the first period that appeared to have left a concussion. He also had a concussion in October. Guhle’s head was swung against the glass by Nikita Kucherov. No penalty was called, although the shot nailed Guhle between the numbers.
The point that defenders of that shot will make is that Guhle had to defend himself, because Kucherov was simply following through on the play. However, the issue taken with that is that there was no way Guhle could defend himself. He was finishing a pass to his defensive partner.
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Guhle has to play the puck and his hands are low to make that pass. Are we suggesting that Guhle has to suffer a concussion to play hockey? If Guhle defends himself by pushing his hands against the glass when hit, he cannot play the puck at the same time.
This is why the rule about “hitting from behind” exists. There are situations where a player cannot defend himself physically during the playing phase. The NFL has recognized this. They have recently instituted a penalty called “hitting a defenseless receiver.”
The penalty exists in hockey as well. Simply call it. Just call it. Guhle was defenseless. He can’t defend himself and make a hockey play. Let him play hockey without getting a concussion too. Let’s protect these players more.
Wilde cards
One of the hardest things to grasp is that drafting is not an exact science. It is so common to suggest that a mistake was made on draft day, but a lot of time must pass before a true evaluation can be made on a pick.
In his first year after the draft, Jesperi Kotkaniemi looked like the right pick. Third overall, he burst onto the scene as a teenager and turned in a strong season. Unfortunately, it never progressed. Indeed, it has regressed. Kotkaniemi was even a healthy scratch for the Hurricanes on Thursday night. Carolina is on the hook for that contract until 2030.
For every perfect Auston Matthews selection, there is a disaster like Nail Yakupov. Even the number one pick, revisiting the draft five years later, can turn out to be the wrong pick.
For this reason, the people who are so sure that a draft mistake was made by the Canadiens need to wait for history to tell its own story.
Early on, when Juraj Slafkovsky struggled to stay on his feet and couldn’t win a puck battle, the knives were out and sharpening. Just a season later, Slafkovsky looks like the right choice at first overall.
With that as a backdrop, it’s pretty strange to see the same scenario play out with the Canadiens’ next early first-round pick. The fear now, and even certainty, for many, is that David Reinbacher was the wrong choice at the age of five.
Matvei Michkov is supposed to be an excellent player, but let’s wait for that. Michkov has not played a single game in the NHL. Maybe that’s not all it really is. He is not a big player. He is a wingman. He doesn’t have a defensive game or desire to have one — at all. He may not be the next Gretzky. Reinbacher might be the best choice, just like Slafkovsky. Give it time.
In the end, Kotkaniemi was not the best choice. In fact, the best went four picks later in Quinn Hughes. Evan Bouchard went seven picks later. Both players weren’t even on the radar in that draft for Montreal. It was a choice of Kotkaniemi or Brady Tkachuk or Filip Zadina.
It’s not science. Every year five can be 10th best and 10th can be fifth best.
This year, there is quite a bit of surprise that the Canadiens had to lose a sufficient number of games to draft fifth. That’s the goal. It would be beneficial to draft higher. This is not the moot point. Of course, higher corresponds to better over the long course of history.
However, should the Canadiens win more and drop to seven, they will still be able to have a leader in the same tier.
Ivan Demidov is expected to be the best of the forwards in his tier. However, Cayden Lindstrom might just be the best. Berkly Catton might be the star on stage, or Cole Eiserman. Tij Iginla could also follow in his father’s footsteps and be a great one who was picked later than he should have been.
Nobody knows. As long as the Canadiens get a forward in the top tier, they will have achieved their goal. Remember that the Vegas Golden Knights would not be part of the game with Cody Glass, taken at age six, but they were fine to part with Nick Suzuki, taken at 13, in the Max Pacioretty trade.
If you still doubt Montreal must finish fifth worst, look at every single draft in history. There is not a single one where a redraft would see the same top 10 in the order taken. Not one.
So try not to lose too much sleep thinking this is the first draft ever where the order taken is the exact order of excellence the pick will mature into. Montreal will get an excellent forward in the draft. That’s enough for the day.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after every Canadiens game.
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