‘Here I am now’: Canadiens’ Pezzetta beats odds, looks good in NHL debut

Montreal Canadiens forward Michael Pezzetta (55) is pushed into Detroit Red Wings goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic (39) by Red Wings defenseman Danny DeKeyser (65) during third period NHL hockey action Tuesday, November 2, 2021 in Montreal. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)

MONTREAL — Michael Pezzetta, NHL player.

Those aren’t words I ever thought I’d put together in a sentence, but the possibility first became realistic to me in training camp when Pezzetta appeared to be among the only players with the Montreal Canadiens playing like this opportunity was life and death to him.

The notion of him graduating was easy to dismiss when Canadiens coach Dominique Ducharme assessed Pezzetta’s game by saying that for a guy who wasn’t really an option for a roster spot, he was still impressing. But it was harder to ignore the notion of Pezzetta getting a look when the Canadiens shot out to a 2-8 start while he was turned the confidence he showed at camp into an excellent start with the AHL’s Laval Rocket.

Here’s a player who understands exactly what he is and stays true to himself — a six-foot-one, 216-pound crasher; an energy guy who took the long road to arrive at his desired destination.

Pezzetta was drafted by the Canadiens 160th overall in 2016. He racked up more than twice as many penalty minutes as he did points over his OHL career with Sudbury and Sarnia, toiled in the AHL for three full seasons, even did a small stint in the ECHL with Maine and never gave up on the idea he might one day lace ’em up in the best league in the world and in its most notorious arena.

On Tuesday, in a 3-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings, that dream came true. Pezzetta made a tangible impact on the game over just 8:31 of ice-time in his NHL debut. He registered a couple of shots on net and a team-leading five hits, he forechecked and backchecked with authority, he would’ve have finished with a point or two had Jake Evans or Alex Belzile finished excellent chances he set for them, and he did it all in front of his parents, his girlfriend, 27 other family members and friends and a rink full of Canadiens supporters at the Bell Centre.

Pezzetta brought a few others to the game, too: his doubters, who he kept in mind prior to jumping onto the ice for his solo rookie lap.

The mullet- and mustache-wearing 23-year-old had a word for them after the game.

“There was a lot of times when people would sit there and tell me I wasn’t good enough and tell me that, ‘you’re never going to make it,’” said Pezzetta. “Teammates, coaches, you can hear them talking about your game in practice or this or that, and that pushed me every single day to be better and make sure that skills that I had that weren’t where they needed to be — I made them be good enough to make the jump to this level. So, for all those people that didn’t believe in me and thought I couldn’t do it: well, here I am now.”

So long as the Toronto native keeps doing what brought him here, it’ll be hard to bet against him.

Romanov taking a step back to move forward isn’t a bad thing

Alex Romanov has boundless energy, and it has served him very well up until this point in his career.

But, as is often the case, his greatest strength can also be his biggest weakness.

Is it so hard for some people to grasp that it’ll take Romanov time to find the proper balance that enables him to turn his energy into more of a strength than a weakness?

Sure, Romanov is in his fourth year as a professional hockey player. He’s a former second-round pick who played two full seasons in the KHL before accumulating 68 games (regular season and playoffs combined) of NHL experience over a shortened 2021 campaign and the early part of this current one.

But he’s only 21 years old. Going through what he did on Tuesday — being scratched from Montreal’s win over Detroit — is part of his development.

I know that, with the Canadiens starting off the season so miserably, people want the keys handed over to the youngsters. They want to see kids like Romanov be given the freedom to make mistakes and keep jumping over the boards.

But scratching him for a game doesn’t mean the Canadiens aren’t allowing him to do that. He’s averaged 18:18 through the first 10 games, and he played over 20 minutes in two of the last three games before he was finally pulled from the lineup.

But there’s a fine line between giving Romanov — or any other young player — the leash to make mistakes and knowing when to enforce discipline, and Ducharme has walked it properly.

Romanov’s energy led him to play what might be considered the best game of his young career in a 4-0 win over the San Jose Sharks last Thursday.

But his overexcitement went against him in a 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday and it bled into a 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks Sunday and really bit him.

Sometimes taking a step back is necessary, and it was clearly necessary for Romanov after he made a glaring mistake on Troy Terry’s game-winning goal.

Ducharme may not have made the decision to scratch Romanov solely to ensure his confidence doesn’t slip too much — the coach said he needed a bit more predictability on his blue line — but that was at least part of the reason the young Russian was watching Tuesday’s game instead of playing in it.

“What we wanted tonight was for him to watch the game from up top,” said Ducharme. “We did some video with him, we showed him some things. (The idea was) just to take a step back, watch and see those situations.”

Romanov had to submit to that process much more than he’d hoped during last year’s playoffs, but he’ll be back in with the Canadiens soon enough to rebound this time around.

Sami Niku and Chris Wideman each played less than 12 minutes against the Red Wings and neither has been particularly consistent since the season started. The door for Romanov’s re-entry to the lineup is open, and perhaps he’ll be more equipped to step through it after this process.

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Expect Caufield back sooner than later

I was obviously wrong when I suggested that, coming off his best game of the season, Cole Caufield appeared poised for a breakout with the Canadiens.

Four games later, after having not seen his efforts produce goals, Caufield was sent to Laval . And this move, just like the one made with Romanov, was to preserve his confidence.

Watching the 20-year-old’s last two games, it appeared to be a necessary one.

You have to ask yourself: How many times has Caufield gone 10 games at any level of hockey without seeing the puck hit the back of the net off his stick?

The answer is probably never.

Going through it for the first time — in the NHL, and as the prohibitive favourite for the Calder Trophy — can be suffocating. It can’t feel good.

But the good feelings can come back to Caufield quickly in the AHL, with a good Rocket team. He’s there to recapture them, and it should help that he had almost a full week to get acclimated and build up his confidence in practice before appearing in a game on Saturday.

Caufield will play big minutes in Laval, he’ll have the puck on his stick more often and, if he gets back to doing what he’s always done, he’ll be back in Montreal soon enough.

I was wrong about Caufield busting out last week, but I’m confident he’ll do exactly what’s expected of him in Laval and find his way back to the Canadiens in short order.

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Poehling in the right place for now

With Mathieu Perreault down for up to three weeks following a procedure to fix a detached retina — and with Cedric Paquette serving a two-game suspension for an ugly hit on Anaheim’s Trevor Zegras — the Canadiens opted to recall Pezzetta and Belzile over Ryan Poehling.

It was the right move, with Poehling finding the mojo in Laval that was missing from his game at Canadiens training camp. Sources with the team said it was explained to him so he wouldn’t feel slighted, and Ducharme said on Tuesday morning that it was best to keep him in his current rhythm coming off an early-season injury and finally feeling his game.

We’re not sure if that’ll change if Jonathan Drouin can’t play against the New York Islanders on Thursday — Drouin was struck in the face with a puck on Tuesday and has since submitted to tests and been deemed clear of concussion symptoms — but the Canadiens are intent on giving Poehling an opportunity to really build his game and his confidence before testing him out in the NHL again.

Plus, they have Adam Brooks available to them if Drouin can’t go.

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