The Montreal Canadiens hosted the Seattle Kraken Tuesday night in the first meeting ever between Juraj Slafkovsky and Shane Wright on Montreal ice.
The head-to-head matchup, though, had no chance to boil because the Canadiens forfeited the contest only 10 minutes in, allowing four unanswered goals.
Seattle rolled to a 8-2 win.
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Obviously, there’s little to like here on an embarrassing night, but there were a couple of positives. Cole Caufield scored again for his ninth goal of the season in 10 games. Caufield has moved into a tie for the league lead in goals. The target is 40 goals. Vincent Damphousse is the last Canadiens player to hit that mark in 1994.
The biggest positive, though, is that the head coach didn’t just spend the night pouting that his players failed to meet their objectives. It would have been easy to just stand there in disgust. We have all seen head coaches stew or disengage.
Martin St. Louis, instead, actually went up and down the bench even more than usual. Every time that he saw a mistake, or a pattern that he did not like, he moved to that player and told him how to do it better.
An educator knows that the best way to gain knowledge is cite a real example that can be referenced quickly. It is a powerful reinforcement when it is fresh in the mind. Video adds another layer of reinforcement to learning.
This is what has to be done with such a young team. This rebuild is at a stage where the mix is probably too skewed to the young versus the old. Older players know how to massage a game, and earn a win. Young players don’t have a sense of the moment.
However, this is the present construction. These players are all gifted. Most of the youth are first- or second-round draft picks. They have always figured it out at lower levels. They will figure it out here.
They have the right coach teaching the long road of more difficult schemes to learn. It will pay dividends. Martin St. Louis isn’t coaching for mediocrity in 2024-25 cutting corners along the way. He’s teaching so the ceiling is higher eventually, having learned the harder concepts that win titles.
All over the league, there is a high level of respect for Monteal’s head coach. Have patience as he works with young players.
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All that can be said about a night like this are the themes that no one really wants to hear. It’s going to be a long time before the youngest team in the NHL knows how to take care of the details that will make them a winner.
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On defence, the Norris Trophy winner for best defender averages 28.3 years of age. The blue line of Montreal had four players 23 and under against the Kraken. They, in some instances, have eight more seasons before they hit their peak.
Some nights are going to seem like they are not learning. Guaranteed that they are learning, because when you have played only 15 NHL games, you are definitely still learning.
Right now, learning starts with a lot less puck-watching in their own zone. All five Canadiens on the ice have a terrible habit of staring at the puck carrier, not the player he is looking to pass to who is wide open time and time again.
Perhaps it seems appropriate to get down on, or give up on Arber Xhekaj when he gives the puck away on the fourth goal with a soft pass. Perhaps it seems appropriate to be upset with Jayden Struble for not boxing out on a goal.
It’s not appropriate because the expectations have to change, and they have to change a lot. Impatience with a 21-year-old is not going to help his career. Giving up on a player who doesn’t have 100 NHL games yet is a surefire formula to be angry that he figured it out somewhere else in his second 100.
This is going to take time. There are going to be nights like this. Get used to it. The rebuild is still in its infancy.
One other troubling trend that does need to be addressed is the goaltending of Sam Montembeault. After two outstanding starts, he, frankly, has been bad. His save percentage is just over .800. He is getting pulled from games. The goals he allowed in this one were abysmal. There were three goals from the point — two 55 -footers that were lost by him somehow.
Montembeault is all they have. There is no short-term solution here. Cayden Primeau also doesn’t look particularly strong. In the long term, the good news is Jacob Folwer has a .937 in four games at Boston College. Insiders say that Fowler will be a first string NHL goalie.
One should not give up on Montembeault, though, but he sure is struggling right now. He’s struggling so bad that if you were told that the Canadiens actually had an advantage in Expected Goals, you wouldn’t believe it, because this game felt so bad.
That’s how much goaltending decided this one. The Kraken scored eight on 21 shots. The Canadiens goalies gave them three freebies. The Canadiens shooters were robbed of three sure ones. Another reason to not have too much ScoreVision. It can be deceiving. At least, somewhat deceiving.
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One of Montreal’s keys to success this season is a second line that can improve significantly. After finishing 31st, ahead of only San Jose, in second line goals last season, it was hoped the return of Kirby Dach and arrival of Patrik Laine would ignite the second line.
While it isn’t written in stone yet, it is starting to be long odds that this will happen. Laine is out until mid-December with a knee injury, and Dach has needed time to recover from knee surgery. Dach is getting caved in analytically with only a 30 share Expected Goals.
Perhaps when he feels better about the recovery of his knee, he can find better numbers. However, it is also possible that this team is still in the hunt for another top-flight centre.
It might just be that Montreal’s future top-six right now is heavy on wingers and light on centres. Count the top-six as Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Kirby Dach, Patrik Laine and Ivan Demidov.
There is only one guaranteed centre in that mix. There’s no shortage of talent overall, but centre is far more challenging for all its defensive responsibilities and transitional work needed. Only Suzuki has been able to fill the role consistently.
An eye could be focused on Michael Hage for the future. He is off to an excellent start in Michigan, but hoping all your answers are found in the 21st pick overall is statistically unlikely. At 21st pick, a special player can beat the odds, but they are odds for a reason.
One name excluded is Alex Newhook. Expectations were very high here for Newhook. However, he is not implicated enough in his minutes to have expectations that he can rise to that level. Top-six players are around the puck. They hunt it and find it, then own it.
Bottom line: the hunt for a second top centre continues. There’s really no such thing as a cup-contending hockey team without two highly functioning lines scoring in the ball park of 90-100 for line one and 60-70 goals for line two.
Thankfully, there are options available for management to solve the issue. The club can dip into the free agent market. There is also next year’s draft where the Canadiens might have two top-15 picks.
The Canadiens almost have a roster that can win at the forward position in time, but more likely GM Kent Hughes has one more target to hit.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
