Taking advantage of opportunity, Matheson emerging as Canadiens' top defenceman

MONTREAL— Mike Matheson played a team-leading 27:03, notched a game-high eight shot attempts, appeared to be at the centre of nearly everything good the Montreal Canadiens did in this 3-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils, and then, in conversation with Sportsnet, rated his performance as follows:

“I think I was just OK.”

It’s what he said right before that really outlined to what extent he’s arrived at the juncture of his career many thought he’d get to sooner when he was drafted 23rd overall by the Florida Panthers.

“It’s not your great games. Everybody has great games,” started Matheson in response to a question about what it takes for a player to find his best self in the world’s greatest hockey league. “It’s what your bad games look like that makes the difference between the good players and the great players. Everybody gets to the NHL because of their great games, but the guys that stick around are because of how good their bad games are, because you play so often and it’s not easy to be good every night.”

His coach, Martin St. Louis, the Hall of Fame player who started his career as an often-discarded fourth-liner and finished it as a perennial all-star, has waxed philosophical about this very thing all season. He has talked at great length about ceilings and floors, always saying he can’t quite project how high a player can reach while also implying that it won’t be quite high enough if he can’t establish a relatively high bar at the lower end of his ability.

What makes Matheson unique—aside from owning a skating stride goaltender Jake Allen referred to after Saturday’s game as “top-five in the league”—is that his floor has risen simultaneous to his ceiling being nearly reached. He has come up to a point where even his bad or “OK” games look good and his great ones can be measured against some of the best ones anyone at his position have played this season.

That it’s all happening at age 29 for Matheson is a caution to all of us who expect, with the NHL a younger man’s league than ever before, that players should achieve their potential almost immediately nowadays.

That the Canadiens have integrated five rookies on their blueline who have seen their development accelerated at an exponential rate can blur the line.

But they also have Kirby Dach, who took three seasons in this league before coming close to looking like the player the Chicago Blackhawks thought they were getting when they drafted him third overall in 2019.

The Florida Panthers gave up on Samuel Montembeault after placing him on waivers last year. He came to Montreal and struggled behind a horrible Canadiens team, and the same people who were giving up on him then lobbied this season to have him anointed the team’s starting goaltender this past January, when he was on an incredible heater.

It took Alex Belzile until age 31 to get a chance in this league, and Saturday’s game was the first one in his last four that he failed to score in.

All to say, it takes time, and that development isn’t linear. Even for first-round guys like Dach, and like Matheson.

When the NHL began really trending younger, in 2017, when Matheson was just 23 years old, then GM of the Panthers Dale Tallon signed him to an eight-year, $39-million contract. The man who had previously built the dynastic Blackhawks of the early-to-mid 2010s saw him as the next Duncan Keith and was angling for a bargain he was certain would pay off in the long run and optimistic would pay off fast.

Matheson, who was a first-rounder in 2012, wanted nothing more than to immediately reward Tallon’s faith but couldn’t narrow the gap between his great games and his bad ones.

“He gave me a lot of opportunity, and it obviously started with drafting me, and it didn’t work out in Florida,” he said about his underwhelming performance through his first two seasons under contract. “I blame myself for that. He put a lot of faith in me, he believed in me, and I don’t feel like I met up to that at the time.”

But Matheson, who was then traded to Pittsburgh in 2020 and given crucial development opportunities with the Penguins before being traded to his hometown Canadiens this past summer, has found it now.

It’s been there for him since he returned from injuries that kept him out most of the first half of this season, and he’s going to end up appearing like a total steal if he maintains it through his final three seasons under contract after this one.

Somewhere out there, Tallon must be smiling, watching Matheson emerge as a no. 1 defenceman, a player who played a career-high 31:57 earlier this week and one who has been averaging the seventh-most ice time in the league since the beginning of February.

He’s posted four goals and 11 points in 15 games since Feb. 1, and he’s been stalwart defensively, boasting a plus-9 rating while matching up against the world’s best forwards night after night.

“I hope this is more of what it looked like in (Tallon’s) eyes,” Matheson said.

What it looks like to anyone watching right now is that the Pointe-Claire, Que., native has finally unlocked his potential.

“Math is an unbelievable player, and every play he makes is very assertive,” said Johnathan Kovacevic, who played several shifts as Matheson’s partner Saturday. “There’s never a doubt in his mind and never a doubt in the other four guys on the ice. He moves his feet very well, too. He can beat you with his passing and his skating. He’s a defenceman that can do it all, so it’s fun to watch.

“I think there’s not too many guys out there who have that much skill and also defend that hard. He’s a fun mix of that, and that’s the kind of player you want to have on our team because he’s not taking one shift off in the dzone.”

“He’s our No. 1 right now, no question,” said Allen. “I’m really impressed with his game.”

St. Louis said Matheson’s been given more opportunity and run with it.

Had we asked him how much further Matheson could push it, we’re certain he’d have said he doesn’t know.

But the coach should be enticed by Matheson saying he feels he can still reach higher.

“I don’t think I’m a finished product,” he said. “It’s motivating and keeps me driven.”