Three games in four nights on the road to start the season for the Montreal Canadiens isn’t exactly the best schedule. Not only that, Montreal is forced to endure the exciting home openers in Toronto, Detroit, and Chicago.
The Red Wings waited to start their season while the Canadiens travelled overnight after their loss in Toronto. Montreal should not have been the fresher of the two clubs, but they were dominant, drubbing the Red Wings 5-1.
Wilde Horses
It’s impossible to say who is the biggest pleasant surprise to start the season. The two obvious choices are goal-scorers. Zach Bolduc seems to be breaking out as a hockey player. The 22-year-old is in only his third NHL season, and it sure looks like he’s found another gear.
In his last 26 games for the St. Louis Blues last season, Bolduc scored 13 goals. He is keeping up his torrid pace this season. Bolduc has two goals in two games for the Canadiens. His tally in Detroit was on a breakaway. He was freed by Brendan Gallagher who one-touched a floating pass to free Bolduc. The early returns in the trading away of Logan Mailloux for Bolduc are certainly looking good.
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The other goal-scorer who is off to a shockingly good start is Oliver Kapanen. The rookie from Finland has the difficult task of playing centre at the NHL level for the first time, yet he is still finding time to score goals. His first-period marker was on a terrific pass on an odd-man rush from Alex Newhook. The two were freed by Ivan Demidov who earned his first point of the year with the nice outlet.
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Another positive surprise is Mike Matheson. Matheson has been a leader in Montreal, and that has meant 30 minutes a night and a lot of fatigue over the years that probably wasn’t addressed enough. Matheson now has a veteran with a lot of talent in Noah Dobson as his partner, and the pair look outstanding.
With only six seconds left in the opening frame, Matheson took the opportunity to pinch. He got a perfect feed from Nick Suzuki, then ripped it into the top corner. Matheson is making nothing but strong decisions to start the year. Expect Matheson’s speed to be more present with less ice time. He will enjoy 23 minutes per game, rather than 30.
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Juraj Slafkovsky got six shots on opening night in Toronto with nothing to show for it. He has been talking a lot about having a much better start to the season, and not being a second-half player only. His marker in the second period will help to that end. Slafkovsky picked up a loose puck on the rebound to make it 5-1 Montreal. Nick Suzuki had a second point on the night.
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The scoreline might suggest that the Canadiens goaltender wasn’t called upon a lot, but Jakub Dobes had a strong game as well. Dobes swims a bit more than most, but he makes the saves. He had a .909 in his 16 games last season, and he’s off to a strong start again this year allowing one goal on 31 shots.
Wilde Goats
When a team routs the opposition on their opening night, it’s not a time to nitpick the odd moment that didn’t work in an ocean full of moments that did work. There are no Wilde Goats for the first time this season.
Wilde Cards
The Montreal Canadiens seem to have a developing Patrik Laine issue. It’s not as if he is worse than he was last season when he was a good goal-scorer, but had difficulty five-on-five. Nothing has changed on that front.
This season, the developing issue is that they don’t seem to know what to do with that profile. Last year, he put in a minus-14 in his 52 games, but the club accepted that because of a power play instinct to score goals that is second to none in hockey.
However, this year, that five-on-five play is not good enough for their aspirations, so Laine has been dropped to the fourth line. Worse than that, late in a tight game Wednesday night, he was dropped to ‘stapled to the bench’.
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This type of ice time would be untenable, if he weren’t a go-to weapon on the power play.
Screech! Laine has also been dropped to the second power play unit.
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This is catastrophic for his overall value to the club. There was a power play against Toronto where the first unit was on the ice for the entire two minutes. Add to that, if the club were to make a change to get that first unit going, Laine would not even been the first choice to promote — that honour would belong to Ivan Demidov.
What are they going to do with Laine? They don’t favour him five-on-five. They don’t favour him on their first power play unit. How does his career advance in Montreal?
The organization is trying to improve Laine’s decision-making, and processing at even strength.
However, Laine is 27 years of age. The likelihood that a forward suddenly learns how to process the game faster at that age is quite low. They have to get something out of this player, and a light bulb going off five-on-five is not likely to be it.
They need to bring Laine on to the first power play unit to get some value out of him. He is spectacular at one-timing shots from his off wing, and he must do that, or he is doing nothing good. The first unit can easily have Laine, Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Ivan Demidov as forwards with Lane Hutson on the point. These are the five best power play players on the team.
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That will make the second unit weak, but the second unit at best gets 50 seconds, and at worst gets no time at all. Spreading out the talent over two units is not feasible. It takes Laine and Demidov right out of the mix when the club needs to seize on the opportunity to put all its best PP players together to score.
Power plays win hockey games. The Edmonton Oilers don’t put Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid on two different units. They are joined by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard. The league’s best power play has all five of their best players on it.
Whatever Head Coach Martin St. Louis decides to do, it has to happen soon for Laine. He won’t settle for second tier status. History tells us that he won’t settle for this. It’s also the only and best way to salvage his season, and the Canadiens power play as well.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
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