He charged into the offensive zone trailing linemates Ivan Demidov and Oliver Kapanen. He got checked in the slot right as a great pass from Kapanen was arriving. But he still wriggled loose to some dead space near the corner of the offensive zone to free himself up for the shot that found the back of the net and resolved a great deal of frustration for both him and his team.<\/p>\n
How the Canadiens dealt with that frustration to beat the New York Islanders 7-3 on Saturday, to close out the week with a 2-1-0 record against teams doggedly pursuing them in the suffocating playoff race that\u2019s gripped the Eastern Conference, taught them a lot about who they are and how they need to play to win at this time of year.<\/p>\n
It took a deep conversation after loose-playing losses to the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks last weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew we needed to change something,\u201d said Kaiden Guhle. \u201cWe were giving up too many goals. Sure, we were scoring, but in this league, it\u2019s tough to win games 5-4, 6-5, especially at this time of year. Had a discussion, the guys knew what we needed to do and how we needed to play, and everyone\u2019s stepping up and doing it. I love the way we\u2019re playing right now, going into the final stretch. It\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the only way, and it\u2019s about time this young team embraced it.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve diverged plenty throughout this season, and they\u2019ve largely gotten away with it. Young, brash, and full of talent, they permitted themselves to play loose and free because they still managed to win when the games seemed less relevant. They could outscore their problems, so they delayed facing them.<\/p>\n
But allowing 32 goals in the first nine games off the Olympic break provided a mirror they couldn\u2019t turn away from.<\/p>\n
Corrections were made in a 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins earlier this week, and they led the Canadiens to an excellent performance in Detroit on Thursday against a Red Wings team that capitalized on a late bounce to beat them 3-1.<\/p>\n
How did the Canadiens respond to that?<\/p>\n
They put the pedal down in the first period of Saturday\u2019s game against New York, spending 9:37 in the offensive zone, notching 17 shots and nine high-danger attempts, holding the Islanders to just six shots and 1:39 of offensive possession time, and they found themselves trailing 2-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only thing I hated about the first period was the score,\u201d said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis, who was just as happy about his team not allowing itself to be deflated by it.<\/p>\n
Newhook, who failed to block a shot on the goal that allowed the Red Wings back into Thursday\u2019s game, lifted himself, his linemates and his team up at a time they needed it most.<\/p>\n
And then Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky connected with Cole Caufield to give him the first of three goals that got him to 43 on his season.<\/p>\n
Before Caufield scored those other two, the Islanders tied the game 3-3 on Matthew Schaefer\u2019s power-play marker 45 seconds into the third period.<\/p>\n
But the Canadiens refused to allow that to take them out of their game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just felt a hungry group that wanted to get what they wanted,\u201d said St. Louis. \u201cThey went after it, and they got it.\u201d<\/p>\n
They got it with good defence leading to a lot of offence, with what Newhook referred to as \u201ca blueprint\u201d the Canadiens must continue to adhere to through the final 13 games of their season.<\/p>\n
Slafkovsky finished the night with two goals and two assists to get to 27 goals and 34 assists and bust him through the 60-point barrier for the first time in his career. Suzuki had four assists to get him to 61, which is two more than he\u2019s notched in any other season over his impressive career. And after becoming the first Canadiens player to get to 40 goals in a season since Vincent Damphousse did it in 1994, Caufield got himself to within seven goals of becoming the first Canadiens player to get at least 50 since Stephane Richer scored 51 in 1990.<\/p>\n
None of them cheated the game to hit these milestones, leading the Canadiens through a performance that exemplified some newfound maturity exhibited throughout the week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis version of ourselves, we\u2019ve seen it throughout the season,\u201d said St. Louis. \u201cWe lose it sometimes, like every team does, and you have to be able to repair and focus on the right things. I think that\u2019s the kind of version we need to go down the stretch. Obviously, again for us, the playoffs have started based on the standings and how everybody else is playing around us, too, and I feel that\u2019s the kind of hockey you need to play at this time of year and if you go into a playoff run. It\u2019s good to see.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur group is finding its best version. But you can\u2019t have a group finding its best version without the individuals finding their best version, and a lot of guys are starting to find their best version.\u201d<\/p>\n
After long-term absences this season that prevented him from building up his game, he played to his identity in the win against the Bruins and played his best against the Islanders after another strong performance in Detroit.<\/p>\n
Guhle started this game with a huge hit on Anthony Duclair, and he finished it with assists on Newhook\u2019s goal and one of Caufield\u2019s goals to bookmark the game-winner he scored.<\/p>\n
Jacob Fowler made only 19 saves behind him, but came up with his best ones shortly after the Canadiens went up 4-3 on Guhle\u2019s one-timer from the point with 16:43 to play.<\/p>\n
Again, things were tight then.<\/p>\n
They were tight at 2-1 when Newhook scored. They were tight again after the 18-year-old Schaefer scored his 22nd\u00a0goal of the season.<\/p>\n
But the Canadiens never loosened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve tried to get away from that plan (this season), and it didn\u2019t work out for us,\u201d said Guhle. \u201cWe\u2019re starting to mature a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the path the Canadiens must stay on to make the playoffs, and they know it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He charged into the offensive zone trailing linemates Ivan Demidov and Oliver Kapanen. He got checked in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-553258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}