The Montreal Canadiens faced another difficult test for their player profile Thursday night at the Bell Centre. The Canadiens are a speed club, and prefer to face those teams who try to match them in that area. The Dallas Stars are a heavy team who try to slow speed with physicality.
Both the Los Angeles Kings, who handled the Canadiens Tuesday, and the Stars are top-five in heavy, physical hockey. Montreal tried to prove that the formula the Washington Captitals used last playoffs wasn’t going to work again.
Truth is, though, it did. A physical team handled the Canadiens easily 7-0.
Wilde Horses
Montreal had a strong first period outshooting Dallas 14-5, but they fell apart in the second. There is nothing to like about the Canadiens this week. They allowed a massive amount of odd-man situations in the second period, and deserved fully to allow four goals.
Story continues below advertisement
The attention will be focused on Jakub Dobes for allowing five goals on 13 shots, but the quality of these shots was dangerous each time. The first two goals against Dobes were from the slot on one-timers. The third goal was a breakaway. The fourth goal was a backhand from five feet to the roof. The save percentage is brutal, but the defence was brutal, too.
The club will have to tighten up their defensive game with the concentration on finding a man and checking him, and ensuring there are enough bodies back, so there are no odd-man rushes against. No one wins in today’s NHL allowing breakaways and two-on-ones.
More on Sports
More videos
Wilde Goats
The second consecutive rout against the Canadiens this week was just the start of the horrible events. Bad losses happen in a long season, and every team suffers at some point. Therefore, the injury to Alex Newhook is the worst news of the night by a long margin.
Newhook crashed into the boards midway through the second period. His ankle turned and his knee turned, too. It could be either spot that he suffered an injury, but more likely the ankle due to him putting his knee against the ice when he tried to get up.
He would not choose that contact of the ice with his right knee if it were the pain centre. It is more likely that Newhook has suffered an ankle injury. He put no weight on his right leg as he made his way to the dressing room. The recovery timeline on any ankle injury is significant.
Story continues below advertisement
From injury to the moment Newhook left down the tunnel, he gave no indication at all where the pain centre of his injury was. The Canadiens will likely give an update on Friday. The longer that it takes to get a timeline from the Canadiens on the injury, the worse it is.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
Let’s hope for Newhook. He was playing the best hockey of his career.
5:11
Call of the Wilde: The Canadiens on the road
Wilde Cards
Head Coach Martin St. Louis sat Juraj Slafkovsky for some shifts against the Los Angeles Kings Tuesday night. St. Louis chose to see if he could get a spark with Ivan Demidov joining Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield on the top line.
It was a particularly difficult night for Slafkovsky. He actually found the puck on his stick more than usual as the Kings forced the action on the centres, taking away their ability to transition up ice.
Story continues below advertisement
The result was extremely successful for the Kings. Suzuki was neutralized, and Slafkovsky could not pick up that slack. He carried the puck through the neutral zone often, but found he could not make a strong play as he approached the blue line.
It’s still early moments in the career of Slafkovsky. It seems as if he has ben here a long time, but he is only 21 years of age. He has about 10 years left in his career. He has played only a small percentage of it.
However, the organization wants to see improvements. They have it in some areas. Slafkovsky is stronger on the puck-winning battles more than he used to. He understands that he has to go to the front of the net to try to be immovable. He is doing that.
In some areas, though, there is a lack of development. In open ice, he struggles sometimes to make the right play. He is not yet processing the moment quickly enough.
Great players make the game slow down. The brain feels ready for the moment. Thinking the game means you’re one step ahead of the moment, not waiting for the moment to come and then assessing.
Visually, this is evidenced easily. Look for a player to do one of two things that tell you how he processes: He either gets the puck and then begins to look around for options, or he is looking around for options before he gets the puck, then moves the puck effectively as soon as it arrives. When a player is processing well, the plan is already in place.
Trending Now
IN PHOTOS: Northern Lights shine in Canadian skies with more to come
Man plummets to his death after slipping off edge of the Grand Canyon
Story continues below advertisement
In the NHL, a player doesn’t get two extra seconds to think about things. The opposition arrives far too quickly for that.
Where, then, does Canadiens management go from here? They will concentrate on three things.
The first is that Slafkovsky is succeeding well overall in that he is on one of the best lines in the league. With Suzuki and Caufield, that line is plus-eight in goal differential which is second best in the NHL. Slafkovsky is a part of that success. His personal analytic metrics are strong.
The second is that he is still a young man in hockey terms. Development for a forward generally can continue until the age of 25. Suzuki still developing at 26 is a bit of an anomaly. Slafkovsky has many seasons still to develop a faster processor.
The third is they will continue to convince Slafkovsky to throw his weight around more than he does. He should be a power forward, but he simply does not take to hitting well. He wants to use his hands, not his hips. His game will improve more when he puts more fear into defencemen.
All in all, Slafkovsky is doing fine, but some nights, it’s clear how much better he could still be doing. He’s on a terrific line, but it’s difficult to ignore that that line could be even better with more contribution from the former first overall pick. That Suzuki has 20 points, Caufield 18 and Slafkovsky nine is truth in numbers.
Story continues below advertisement
Slafkovsky has been given all the opportunity, but there may come a day that St. Louis’ line juggling on Tuesday night becomes permanent. When Demidov gets comfortable, he could become the first line winger.
Slafkovsky has to solidify his moment as a first line winger soon, or the hierarchy could change with Slafkovsky becoming a second line player. That’s a momentum train he does not want to board.
The positive for the Canadiens is that the line rotation would happen from a position of strength where someone even better keeps coming along in the rebuild. If not Demidov to supplant Slafkovsky, then maybe eventually Alexander Zharovsky, who is putting in a stunning season in the KHL.
If the great players keep arriving, what it means is Montreal could have one of the best top-six in the league. That’s the goal wherever Slafovsky lands in the end.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
Story continues below advertisement
5:00
Call of the Wilde: Habs off to thrilling start
Previous Video
Next Video