LAS VEGAS — This was a trip out of the gorilla’s cage and into the lion’s den, and the Montreal Canadiens didn’t just escape unscathed, they marched out triumphant.
“It wasn’t magic,” said coach Martin St. Louis, “but there was magic in it.”
Yeah, in the building surrounded by ones where David Copperfield, Criss Angel and David Blaine take up residence, you could say the Canadiens came up with a little hocus pocus.
After all, their 3-2 win at T-Mobile Arena Tuesday was their first of the season when trailing after two periods, and it was earned against a Vegas Golden Knights team that had dropped just one of 15 under those circumstances and outscored its opponents 55-25 in the third period.
But there wasn’t anything lucky about the Canadiens turning a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 win, with their final two goals coming over the final 20 minutes of play to hand the Golden Knights their first loss in seven games.
The result was merely that of a galvanized team tapping into its internal belief, which was bolstered significantly in domineering back-to-back wins against the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning before arriving in Sin City.
We can’t say whether the 4-0 win against the reigning Stanley Cup champions was the best of the year for the Canadiens, or if it was the 5-2 win over the Lightning, or this one against Vegas.
You decide.
What we will say is we can say with certainty these three wins have left the guys in bleu, blanc et rouge feeling better about themselves than they have at any other point over the last 12 months.
“Winning is way better than losing,” said Juraj Slafkovsky, who helped set up Montreal’s first goal in Vegas. “It’s a great feeling. You sleep way better, you’re happier, everyone’s smiling, the atmosphere is so good.
"I always say this: Sometimes you have to lose to get more wins. I think that’s what’s happened, and we’re finally starting to turn it.”
It’s not a coincidence.
These results — the three consecutive wins to make it six wins in their last seven games and nine wins in their last 13 — didn’t just appear out of a hat. They’ve been generated on full-team efforts.
And because they have been, development for the Canadiens has been accelerated much more so than it was over long stretches of losing.
“I think they're learning what they're capable of,” said St. Louis of his players. “And it's not (just) what you're capable of; it's what you're willing to do, right? They're willing to sacrifice some of their individual stuff for the bigger cause, and you see it. The bench is so dialled in. Being behind the players on the bench, you can hear the guys, what they say; they're so dialled in. They're all in it.
“It’s fun.”
For Cole Caufield, this is what it’s all about.
He’s heard some of the scuttlebutt on talk radio — and its echoes throughout the fanbase — about how Patrik Laine’s move to the flank he was occupying on the power play could potentially frustrate him, about how he might not be pleased about giving some of the shots that were regularly designated for his stick to the one being held by the big Finn, and he has laughed it off.
“I don’t really care how we get it done,” Caufield said. “It’s way more fun going home with two points rather than going home with just a goal and losing.”
On this day, Caufield is all smiles, because he’s headed out to the Strip with his 19th goal of the campaign and a big win pocketed.
It pulls the Canadiens to .500 on their season, and to within three points of the second wild-card position in the Eastern Conference.
You think of how they climbed up to here at the end of December (from all the way down at the bottom halfway through November) and note how steady the progression has been.
On the precipice of it, St. Louis termed the Canadiens a team going through its most painful growing pains, naturally experienced through the most arduous phase of the rebuilding journey — the learning-how-to-win phase.
And now, at the close of 2024?
Well, the Canadiens aren’t necessarily out of that phase, but what they’ve done of late proves the lessons are sinking in.
That’s what Bruce Cassidy saw from the Golden Knights’ bench.
“There wasn’t a lot of odd-man rushes (given up by the Canadiens), and that’s a good formula on the road,” the Vegas coach said. “They gave up none in Florida, two in Tampa, two here, so that tells me they’re kind of buying into, well, this is what it takes to win against good teams in the league. You can’t just be out there trading chances, you’ve gotta pick your spots. Good discipline, they stayed out of the box, so good for them.”
The Canadiens, who led the league in minor penalties coming into the Florida game, took only one against the Panthers, three against the Lightning, and one against Vegas.
The Canadiens, who managed the puck so carelessly through the first quarter of the season, have played more patiently and maturely with the puck with each passing game over the last month.
Have they gotten a bounce here or there? Sure.
Kirby Dach got one on the game-winning goal Tuesday, just like he got one to start the scoring in Florida.
But Dach didn’t get any prior to those two games, and those two were a function of putting himself in the right spots to receive them.
Dach had a brutal start to the season, but suddenly he’s going. The Canadiens had a brutal start to the season, but suddenly they’re going.
It’s not magic, but there’s magic in it.
Enough to make you believe the Canadiens are heading in the right direction going into 2025.
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