Call of the Wilde: Montreal Canadiens complete a perfect four-for-four road trip in Dallas
The Montreal Canadiens are rising to the occasion without Nick Suzuki. The Canadiens posted a 5-2 win in Dallas to win a fourth straight game without their captain.
Wilde Horses
After the injury to Suzuki, Head Coach Martin St. Louis tried Oliver Kapanen in the middle on the top line. They managed a respectable shot share in their three games, but the goals weren’t coming. The head coach decided to make a change. The change worked.
Alex Newhook was slotted in the middle between Juraj Slafkovsky and Cole Caufield. One period in, and the line was in on all three goals. Caufield picked up a loose puck for the first to give the Canadiens the lead.
The Canadiens then counted twice in 27 seconds. Alex Newhook made a gorgeous move against Thomas Harley protecting the puck on an aggressive move to the net, then he skated deftly beyond Jake Oettinger for a beautiful goal. Newhook made one of the best goalies in the league look average.
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Right after, it was Caufield again batting a puck out of the air from one foot to make it 3-1 after 20 minutes. While all the discussion about Caufield’s goal-scoring skills appropriately revolves around his shot, take note that his two goals in the first were because he was in the low-slot.
Caufield is small, but he doesn’t play small. He’s in the dirty areas where goals are scored. He pays the price. He has the ability to somehow lose his checker. With 51 goals last season, one would think that he would have a checker on him at all times. Caufield has eight goals in 13 games this season.
Second period, and the rejuvenated Newhook kept going. He found a loose puck at the side of the net after a power play had just expired, and he deftly batted it out of the air for his second of the game.
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From there, the defence took over. Noah Dobson had a strong game which was particularly important considering Mike Matheson was out of the lineup with a lower-body injury.
However, the big win was the play of Adam Engstrom. After a rocky start to his NHL season watching the puck bounce off him regularly into the net, Engstrom looks like a completely different player now. Engstrom looks composed and sure of himself.
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Engstrom is a strong, fluid skater, so he looks outstanding going back to retrieve pucks. The bigger issue for him would be what is his decision after he has retrieved that puck. That is improving by tremendous amounts from game to game. Engstrom looks like an NHLer.
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He and Arber Xhekaj were the best pairing on the night for the Canadiens. That’s a big boost to have an injury, but have your third pair still be your best pair.
The Canadiens allowed 24 shots in the third period with a two-goal lead in St. Louis on Tuesday night. They were happy to win, but they weren’t happy with how much pressure they had to absorb. They turned it around in Dallas.
The Canadiens had the same two-goal lead, but in Texas, they allowed only five third period shots as they shut the game down completely. Montreal has held a lot of two-goal third-period leads this season, and they’re figuring out how to win.
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Who had the Canadiens winning four of four during a road trip that started with learning that the captain of the team would be gone for two to four weeks? Everyone was hoping that they wouldn’t crumble without Suzuki. They’ve put eight points on the board out of eight.
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They relied on some spectacular goaltending from Jacob Fowler during that span, but in this one they turned to Jakub Dobes. Dobes just wanted to stabilize his game after a rocky start to the season. He did just that. Not a spectacular night, but a steady night. That’s all that was required, and he achieved his goal. Dobes stopped 19 of 21 shots.
No goats for these overachieving Canadiens the last seven nights with four straight wins.
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Director of Amateur Scouting for the Detroit Red Wings Kris Draper has watched the last three games of the Canadiens. It’s not an accident. These are road games, so he’s basically travelling with the team. The scuttlebutt, of course, is that he is looking at trade material when he deals away disgruntled centre Dylan Larkin.
The sordid tale added another chapter Thursday evening as Larkin told the Wings that he would not be playing anymore, and they promptly suspended him. That pushes the trade timeline from comfortable to desperate as the Red Wings have already missed the playoffs ten straight seasons. Detroit can’t sit on being stunningly weak at centre, or it’s another missed playoffs.
General Manager Kent Hughes would love to pounce on this desperation, but Larkin doesn’t have the Canadiens on his ten-team trade list. The Wings must feel like they can change Larkin’s mind or they wouldn’t be watching the Canadiens so intently.
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When the Red Wings visited the Bell Centre recently, fans chanted “We want Larkin!” He was flattered, but not enough to put Montreal on his trade list.
Fans are split on whether they want Larkin. They’d love to fill that roster hole of a second line centre, but they’re worried that if Larkin is disgruntled and troubled once, then he will be disgruntled again backing Montreal into a corner eventually.
The other side of that coin, though, is that the situation is brutal in Detroit. Fans on opening night were chanting to owner Chris Ilitch to sell the team. Ilitch hasn’t even bothered to replace his General Manager yet. It is embarrassing in Detroit right now, and perhaps Larkin could be excused for expressing the frustration that everyone is feeling.
More importantly, Michael Hage is tearing up the NCAA this season as a centre for number one Michigan. He will finish his college career this April, and that’s a talented solution that doesn’t cost a tremendous amount of assets to bring into the fold.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sportswriter, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
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