Achi news desk-
It had been a tough five-game road trip for the Montreal Canadiens with three losses in their first three games.
However, that all changed on Sunday in game four of the road trip as the Canadiens rolled over the Kraken in Seattle 5-1.
The Montreal Canadiens have been playing hockey for 115 years. The best season ever for a teenager was Henri Richard in 1955-56 when he scored 40 points. Juraj Slafkovsky is about to break that record.
In the first period, the Canadiens jumped out to a four-goal lead. Slafkovsky had an assist for his 39th point of the season. He needs just one more point to tie Richard. He has three games to achieve the feat.
It’s only three games because Slafkovsky will leave his teenage years behind on March 30. If Slafkovsky maintains his current pace, he should have no trouble reaching the total. He has eight points in his last seven games.
It has been amazing to see Slafkovsky’s progress. He realizes now that he can stand in front of the net for deflections and rebounds as much as he wants, because no one can move him. A once controversial draft pick is no longer controversial.
In a poll on X, when asked if the Canadiens made the right decision in selecting Slafkovsky, the response was 94 percent in favor of the pick. Contrast this with a poll done on X the day before the draft, when 85 percent wanted the Canadiens to select Shane Wright.
Credit to the Canadiens management and scouting staff. They went with a player who was never a consensus number one pick heading into the draft, but it appears to have been the right choice.
There are so many great moves being made by the organization under Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes. Kirby Dach is a tremendous asset as his ceiling is high. Dach just needs to stay healthy to show it.
They also got Alex Newhook, who scored his 11th goal of the year on another Guhle deflection. He added another late in the first period on a 15-foot snap shot. If Newhook stays healthy this season, he would be on pace for 24 goals for the year. That’s a strong total.
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Nick Suzuki holds the team lead in goals with 28. He scored an absolute beauty by putting in a shot on a two-on-one with Cole Caufield. The Canadiens completely dominated as they led by four after 20 minutes.
The best goal of the night was a short-handed tally by Mike Matheson. He showed all the skills he has to score when breaking away. It didn’t start as a breakaway, but he defeated Tomas Tatar so severely that he turned him into one. He then beat goalkeeper Joey Daccord with a wonderful deke. Matheson had more than five on the night.
It wasn’t a perfect night for Montreal as they were dominated in the second and third periods, but Cayden Primeau was strong again. He faced 18 shots in the second period stopping all but one. He stopped 36 of 37 overall. Don’t give up on a goalkeeper at the age of 23. They take time to mature.
Primeau arrives right now as part of a strong tandem with Samuel Montembeault who was an outcast until he was 25. Surprisingly, Primeau has the higher numbers this year, with a 0.907 save percentage compared to Montembeault in 0.903.
The Laval Rocket are in a tremendous battle for a playoff spot in the North Division of the American Hockey League. The Rocket had a strong weekend on the road in Belleville and Toronto, taking six out of a possible six points. Belleville had even better news, Laval is fighting for that last spot, but one point out of a possible six.
The weekend also saw the start of the North American career of last year’s first round pick, David Reinbacher. He was asked to fly from Switzerland after his season ended there, and play three games in three days. There was no time for jet lag for Reinbacher. In fact, there was no time to acclimate at all.
It was amazing to see all weekend the likely future of the Canadiens blue line on the right side for years to come. Justin Barron and Logan Mailloux also patrolled the right defensive end position in a first-round draft pick display.
Reinbacher played extremely well. On Friday, he scored an absolute beauty in his first game. He picked up the puck at center ice. He then made a special wind to beat the first man, then took the defender and shot just as he was about to close. His shot was perfect as it went long into that magic spot over the goalkeeper’s head and out of reach of his hand.
However, Reinbacher won’t be known for his offensive prowess when he becomes a staple on the Canadiens blue line. The search was for stability and smarts, and it was easy to find. The Austrian national knows exactly what to do when he’s on the ice.
Defensively, he boxes in front of the net, tying up the attacker, leaving no options for the forwards if a rebound comes back out. When retrieving the puck, he is already assessing his options before it arrives, and makes his play immediately. He always plans ahead. He makes the right decisions. Physically, it’s not a killer out there, but it’s impressive enough.
The only minor complaint would be that it would be advantageous, from time to time, to hold on to it a little longer to assess if there might be an outlet pass that could unleash some attack. This could also be a decision to play it a little safe on the opening weekend to play a clean game. Reinbacher is certainly low risk.
That would be the term to describe his game: low risk. Clean, consistent and smart will also often be used to describe Reinbacher.
A successful blue line does not include the prolific offense of Lane Hutson, a shot-breaker possessed only by Logan Mailloux. A strong blue line features smart defenders who can shut down attackers as well. Sometimes a team needs a goal down 3-2, and sometimes a team needs to hold on for the win up 3-2.
The Canadiens blue line of the future will have strong balance. It’s impossible to know the exact composition of the Canadiens’ defensive core in the end, but on the right, Mailloux, Barron and Reinbacher will be tremendous, if they grow their games at their current rate.
On the left side, after some of the regulars age in the coming years, Kaiden Guhle, Lane Hutson, and Arber Xhekaj will also provide excellent balance. There will be some growing pains, of course, but that’s a blue line with a tremendous amount of promise.
If one of those players does not develop as expected, the club also has Jayden Struble, Jordan Harris, and Jonathan Kovacevic, who are also young enough to earn a place on the blue line of the future. That’s after two of the best, Mike Matheson and David Savard, have moved on.
The number of possibilities on the blue line is almost a lottery ticket. General manager Kent Hughes has a lot of dealings to do when he decides it’s time.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after every Canadiens game.
