There were two big lineup changes for the Montreal Canadiens for their date in Ottawa Wednesday night. Cole Caufield was out with a virus, bringing in Alexandre Texier, and Jacob Fowler was called up from Laval as the organization doesn’t trust Samuel Montembeault at the moment.
Head coach Martin St. Louis made the right calls. Both players shone in a 3-2 win over the Senators for the Canadiens.
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Hierarchy is a concept that holds a lot of power in the locker room but falls apart on the ice. Texier simply cannot be in the press box watching inferior players try to hold on to the remaining hours of their career.
The only mistake that Texier made to be relegated to the sidelines was not breaking the legs of the players who got healthy. When Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook returned, decisions had to be made. They weren’t made on the fourth line, and that’s a shame.
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Texier got back onto the top line due to a virus suffered by Caufield. He looked right at home again, playing with the best players on the team and belonging. Desperate for a goal to tie the game, Texier worked his tail off to get it. Texier fought off his check, then spun around the back of the net to push it home on the wraparound.
Another new addition was goaltender Jacob Fowler, who was strong in a contest that swung heavily in Ottawa’s favour for large portions of the night. Fowler stopped a breakaway by Mike Amadio just before the tying goal. He was set in position and square for the rebound to Shane Pinto as well, which was even more impressive.
In the last two minutes with the goalie pulled, Fowler was magnificent. He stopped the last 23 shots that he faced to win the contest. One chance that the Senators had was a stunner of a save. Claude Giroux got the cross-ice pass and wired it. Fowler shot out the leg.
As the play frantically moved all over the ice in the last two minutes in front of him, Fowler was square and prepared the entire time. He never overreacted when that would have been expected. It was a tremendous performance. He stopped 32 of 34 for a .941 save percentage.
Defensively, it was a second straight strong game for Lane Hutson and Kaiden Guhle together. That’s absolutely vital for the fortunes of the back line. Hutson is the only one who can play on his wrong side and find success. Guhle has only had strong numbers with Hutson this season. They had a 77 per cent expected goals share in Ottawa.
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It was the only good number of the night for the blue liners. If Hutson and Guhle can partner well, it allows Noah Dobson and Mike Matheson to play together. Having two reliable and strong pairs is absolutely vital for a playoff team. One pair only makes for an impossible task in the post-season, when games are tougher and longer.
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The Canadiens did a good job of sticking around on a night they were second-best for the first 30 minutes. By midway through the third period, they were levelling the ice quite well, and they were rewarded.
The second line came through the neutral zone with huge speed with just over seven minutes remaining. Ivan Demidov made a great lateral move at his own blue line, then fed Alex Newhook, who won the zone with his tremendous speed. Newhook fired, then Demidov scored his 14th of the season on the rebound.
Some are disappointed with Demidov’s season, but the bigger truth is that he is the leading scorer in the NHL among rookies. Demidov is on pace for a 65-point season. Connor Bedard won the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie with 61 points. Macklin Celebrini finished second in the voting a year later with 63 points.
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The right-side defence woes came to the fore in this one. Some nights, Alexandre Carrier handles the assignment with a lot of minutes and also facing talented players. Some nights, Carrier needs to be in his proper seat with easier assignments and fewer minutes.
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On the first Ottawa goal, Carrier wasn’t able to handle the physicality on the back post, leaving his man open. On the second Ottawa goal, he had the puck on his stick and simply gave it away on a clearing attempt, then wasn’t able to handle the physicality again in front of the net.
Carrier is a serviceable and fairly reliable defender, but the caveat is that he has to be on the third pairing. When he faces the league’s best, they get the better of him. When he faces the league’s average, he fares quite well. The club is short a right-side defender, so Carrier gets the assignment that doesn’t work for him.
The Canadiens’ fourth line also faces the best players, only to get caved in regularly. On the road trip out west, the fourth line had an expected goals barely in the double digits.
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The Canadiens were leading 1-0 when Josh Anderson lost his stick. That’s a moment when the referees are looking especially hard at a player to see how he handles the difficulty. Anderson did by following up his check once and then twice when the puck was long gone.
It’s a penalty all day long, and the Senators scored on the power play.
The only game in the last two weeks in which the fourth line fared well was against Toronto. They had a good result because the Maple Leafs’ roster is basically four good forwards and the Toronto Marlies.
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United States college hockey is set to pick its final 16 survivors this Sunday. That leads to the Frozen Four starting on April 11 in Las Vegas.
Tracking the college hockey season is important to the Canadiens because they’re interested in the success of the Michigan Wolverines. Michigan is the number one team in the country, led by Canadiens first-rounder Michael Hage.
Hage is third in college hockey in scoring with 49 points in 35 games. It’s expected that Hage will get a look in Montreal this season, but only if he’s finished his year at Ann Arbor.
Being the one seed in the entire country is all but a guarantee in college basketball of a deep run, but in hockey, upsets are common. If Hage doesn’t make it to Vegas, his season will be done on March 29.
The likelihood that Hage gets a look is strong if he concludes his college career in late March, as the Canadiens will still have nine games left in their regular season. However, the likelihood that Hage laces them up for the Canadiens if Michigan goes to the Frozen Four is low.
For Hage to have his first game ever in the NHL as a playoff game is a difficult scenario to imagine. Ivan Demidov had two games for the Canadiens before the playoffs last season.
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The Wolverines are in the Big Ten playoffs right now. The quarter-finals started Wednesday with a 6-1 win over Notre Dame. Hage had four assists. Michigan will face the Penn State Nittany Lions in the next round. Gavin McKenna has turned into a force at State College. McKenna had two assists in Penn State’s 6-2 win over Minnesota.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
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