CHICAGO — The volume rises several decibel levels as Mitchell Stephens and Jayden Struble receive team-awarded player(s)-of-the-game honours. Laughs and cheers ring loud enough to be heard well beyond closed doors of the visiting locker room at United Center.
Sean Monahan swings one open to head for the showers as Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You fills the air on full blast.
Not your typical win song for the Montreal Canadiens, but ‘tis the season.
They came to Chicago wanting nothing more than to earn a good feeling before parting ways for the NHL’s holiday break, and that’s what they were left with, with two more points banked in the standings to cap a seven-game stint they circled on their calendar as critical to their season.
Brendan Gallagher said nearly two weeks ago that this was a chance for the Canadiens to push their way into the playoff race. They’re still on the bubble of it, three points out after beating the Blackhawks 5-2, and they’ll be idle with games Saturday threatening to push them a bit further away.
But 10 points collected out of the last 14 available rightfully added to the festive atmosphere in the bowels of this great building.
“I think even if you just look at this road trip of three games, we got five out of six points,” said Mike Matheson, who’s headed to Buffalo to be with family for Christmas. “It’s huge carrying that momentum into a break like that. We were talking about it today — those last seven games — and if you look at them, there was a loss against Nashville, and you could say we deserved to win that game, and the other two were overtime and shootout losses (to Pittsburgh and Minnesota). We won four out of seven, but it could’ve been seven out of seven.”
If you’re wondering how it left Matheson feeling, especially after this final win was achieved by erasing a two-goal deficit and scoring five unanswered — and with the third-string goaltender (Cayden Primeau), the sixth defenceman (Struble) and fourth-liner (Stephens) at the centre of the actions that turned it around — he said, “Energizing.”
“I think everyone’s excited,” Matheson added. “We get a little bit of rest, which will be great, but I think everyone is excited to get back because we’ve got a really good feeling around the group right now.”
Sure beats the one the Canadiens had at this time last year, when they lost five of seven games and two of their last three to kick off their annual season-long road trip that’s always partitioned by the holiday break.
Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said he didn’t quite remember how he felt as he left Dallas for Connecticut last winter, but it felt clear to us then he needed a couple of days away from all this.
This time around, the coach can actually enjoy them a lot more as he reunites with his wife and kids, who he’s seen very sparingly over the last four months.
“I don’t think I felt as good as I feel now, based on how we’ve played the last seven games,” St. Louis said. “I’m looking forward to go be with my family for three, four days. I miss them a lot, so it’s going to be nice to be together.”
Juraj Slafkovsky, who had a goal and an assist against Chicago to make it two games in a row in which he recorded multiple points, won’t be with his over the break. But as he stood at his stall, comically donning Jake Evans’ much smaller Canadiens’ athletic wear, you couldn’t wipe the smile off his face.
Where the 19-year-old’s game has come from over the past month — and especially over the last seven games — has him in the best mood he’s been in since he first pulled on a Canadiens jersey as the No. 1 overall pick in 2022.
“I just feel better and better on the ice,” he said. “In the life of a hockey player, it’s just about how you play. And if you play good, then you feel much better, you have a better mood everywhere. It just feels great.”
The six-foot-three, 230-pound winger is now 33 games into his season and a point ahead of where he finished in his 39-game rookie year shortened by a knee injury, but the vibe you get from him right now is based on much more than his good efforts finally being rewarded.
“He’s really coming together,” said Matheson. “He’s a lot more certain of himself on the ice and playing with a lot of confidence and using his body, and it’s great to see. Everyone was saying, ‘Once he realizes how big he is, he’s going to be scary,’ and he’s starting to really realize it.”
St. Louis said the team is feeding off what it’s seeing from its youngest player and getting excited about what it represents to their future.
And it’s clear the Canadiens are also feeding off what this string of games has done to bolster their confidence. They set a goal before it and achieved it. And, in the process, they became further entrenched in the identity they’ve wanted to assume for over a year.
It may not, and probably won’t, carry the Canadiens into the post-season. But it’s keeping them competitive against all odds — with Kirby Dach (since Game 2) and Alex Newhook (since Game 23) both watching from the sidelines — and they’re building belief that’s going to be at the foundation of them becoming more than just competitive down the line.
A year ago, at this time, general manager Kent Hughes was wondering if anything positive was developing for the Canadiens, as injuries and losses piled up at an unreasonable rate.
But if the GM was standing by the room and grinning on this night as Carey’s choral runs climbed octaves while post-win celebrations came to a crescendo, it’s because the vibe around his team is what he’d hope for it to be at this stage of its development.
The Canadiens got to 15-13-5 and boosted their points percentage to 53 on this night, and that’s all they wanted for Christmas.