Canadiens continue to compete hard while facing challenging road ahead

A 3-2 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday sent the Montreal Canadiens into their bye-week with no illusions about where their season goes from here. Through 49 games, they’re 20-21-8, down nine points in the wild-card race having played three more games than the team sitting in the second position, and they know they’re likely to only slip further down the standings as the sprint to the end of the schedule picks up again in the second week of February.

Where the Canadiens can’t slip is in their process, which has been relatively healthy for all but a handful of games so far this season. No matter how many key players get moved out between now and the March 8 trade deadline, no matter how many more fall to injury between now and the final game on April 16, they must continue to compete the way did in Steel City this weekend. 

The Canadiens played hard against a desperate Penguins team that’s doing everything it can to avoid facing a similar reality — that this season isn’t likely to end with them in a playoff spot. They engaged in every battle, they won more than their fair share of them, and they blocked 26 shots to Pittsburgh’s four. 

The only thing the Canadiens didn’t do was finish off the game when they had the chance, with Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky missing great opportunities in overtime before Marcus Pettersson ripped a shot over Jake Allen’s shoulder to keep the Penguins from losing even more ground in a race they appear to be limping through.

It took a miraculous play by Sidney Crosby before that to even get Pittsburgh there, and he’ll have to make so many more for his team to have any hope of going where it wants to.

The win got the Penguins to 4-4-3 in January and, without doing far better in February, they’ll be facing franchise-altering decisions in early March.

Had the Canadiens held on in the third period, the Penguins might have been staring those down much sooner than they’d have hoped to. But they have nothing to hang their heads about after the way they played in Pittsburgh. 

The challenge for the Canadiens will be keeping their heads high through their remaining 33 games.

Power play has finally found it

This game would’ve ended in regulation had Slafkovsky not scored on the power play in the second period.

His goal, which Sean Monahan notched an assist on for his 35^th point of the season, was Montreal’s 10^th in the month of January. They’ve been operating at 25.7 per cent in the new year, which is 10^th best in the NHL.

If you go back five weeks, the Canadiens were really struggling with the man-advantage. 

But the guy who quarterbacks it felt there was ample justification for that back then.

“It takes time,” Mike Matheson said to us when we were in Minnesota. “If you look at our unit, we had Kirby (Dach) at the beginning of the year. That’s what we were thinking we’d have for the year and then he goes down. Then somebody else comes in. (Alex Newhook) was then in there, and he went down. There’s been a lot of turnover. And then you compare that to Tampa? It’s been almost the same five guys for eight, nine, 10 years.”

Matheson wasn’t expecting Canadiens fans to wait that long for his unit with Slafkovsky, Monahan, Caufield and Nick Suzuki to start delivering better results. He was just hoping for a bit of patience because he knew it was just a matter of time before things started clicking.

“I think what we’re constantly looking at and trying to get better at is knowing that if teams are going to take our A-option away, this is our B-option and C-option,” he said. “And the more reps we get together, the more naturally that comes.”

Naturally, it’s there now, with Matheson’s unit accounting for every power-play goal the Canadiens have scored this month.

He and Slafkovsky have four points on it this month. Caufield has five, and Suzuki has seven. 

The man in the middle — Monahan — has six. And he’s gotten six because Option B and C for the Canadiens has either been him or flowed through his position, which is the bumper.

Going back to that day in Minnesota, on Dec. 20, Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis outlined how crucial that role is to success, and how his team could start opening up options everywhere.

“Honestly, can we generate more shots? Do we need to pass? Do we need pretty plays? Can we simplify a little bit?” he asked. “I think you’re able to generate more shots when everybody, the five guys are in between coverage. You have to play in between coverage on the power play. If the guy is eying you, you can’t stay there. You have to move a little to the left, you have to move a little to the right. And the guy who’s in the hole — the bumper they call it, whatever — he’s got to find a way to be in between the four. Because I feel like when everybody’s in between, there’s holes. And now, can we take advantage of that?”

If you watched the Canadiens power play operate in Pittsburgh, you saw them executing exactly what their coach was talking about. They took advantage through coverage, just as they have over the last month.

QUICK HITS

+ Caufield’s secondary assist on Kaiden Guhle’s game-opening goal extended his point streak to nine games. He’s got six goals and six assists over that time and he’s now up to 17 goals and 39 points.

Quietly, Caufield’s 22 assists are two more than he’s recorded in any other season, with his previous high of 20 recorded in 67 games during the 2021-22 season. He had just 10 assists in 46 games last season.

So, all that talk about Caufield rounding out his game also applies to his offensive game. He’s becoming more complete all over the ice, but certainly in varying his offence.

+ Matheson hit a career high against his former team, notching his 27^th assist of the season. His pass to Guhle was his 34^th point, which matches his career-best total from last season, over which he played 48 games. This was his 49^th game this season and he’s on pace for 57 points over 82.

+ Slafkovsky is now up to seven goals and 20 points in 49 games. He had four goals and 10 points in 39 last season.

The points are one thing, but the 19-year-old’s play in general shows to what extent he’s maturing at exponential speed. 

That too must continue from here to the end of the season, even if the pucks don’t continue to go in at the same rate. Just like the team, Slafkovsky will face challenges beyond his control — good players moving before the deadline, others getting injured, bumps and bruises as the games taken on greater magnitude — and it will do him well to carry the momentum we’ve seen, and perhaps even build on it, as we move along.