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The Montreal Canadiens, without a game since Wednesday, yet they didn’t lose a single point to the competition in their playoff fight. That’s as good as it gets. They headed into Saturday night’s contest trailing a post-season berth by only one point.
Their play against the Florida Panthers will go a long way in deciding whether they make the playoffs as Montreal has three games against the defending Stanley Cup champions. They have to find a way to compete against a powerful team.
The first went well with Montreal winning 3-1. They leapfrog over the Blue Jackets in the standings. They remain one point out of the playoffs behind the New York Rangers, but have one game in hand. It’s going to be an exciting finish.
Wilde Horses
The Canadiens first line continues to be the NHL’s best since the Four Nations break. The line now has 18 goals in the 10 games since the tournament ended. Nick Suzuki is also the league’s highest scorer since the Four Nations break.
A line that fantastic is how you win hockey games, and eventually make the playoffs. The reason that the line has suddenly taken off has only a little to do with Suzuki or Cole Caufield. Certainly, they are playing fantastic, but they were always playing fantastic.
The change is Juraj Slafkovsky. In three weeks, Slafkovsky has turned into a real hockey player, and is ready for a full breakout season in his fourth NHL campaign. Slafkovsky has gone from not knowing what he was going to do when he got the puck, to perfectly planning his action before he even gets the puck.
The first thing seen as the puck potentially has a chance to go to Slafkovsky is his head go on a swivel assessing his options. The pass by Slafkovsky to Caufield for his goal is the perfect example of the Slovak’s improved play. He assessed, then waited for Caufield to move into open position, then he laid it softly to Caufield for the finishing touch.
Caufield also counted on the first goal for the Canadiens as he passed it to Lane Hutson for him to lay his usual soft feed to Patrik Laine. He ripped his 16th goal of the season. Every single one of Laine’s goals looks exactly the same. He sets-up left side, waits for the perfect pass, and rips it top corner.
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Every goalie in the league, every defender in the league, every person in the stands, every person on television watching knows what is coming and everyone knows it’s going in the net. The man has an unstoppable shot. It’s going to take two goalies, and a nerf puck to stop that shot.
Christian Dvorak scored in the third period for the insurance marker, then Samuel Montembeault took over late with some spectacular saves.
Wilde Goats
Both teams were not interested in risk. It’s already playoff hockey. Midway through the third period, each team had only 14 shots. It was a defensive game with not one odd-man rush the entire contest for either team.
Not the most thrilling game in terms of flow, but it was exciting because of its importance. No goats as the Canadiens competed well against the defending champions.
Wilde Cards
The winds of change for the Calder Trophy seem to finally be moving in the direction of Hutson. For the first time this season, Hutson has been favoured by an important group.
The NHL took a poll of 16 of its hockey writers and Hutson won by a slight margin over Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini. Many of the same hockey writers will vote for the award at the end of the season, so this is an excellent marker of the final result.
The vote was extremely close. Hutson won with 69 points, while Celebrini had 66 points. Flames goalie Dustin Wolf was third in voting. Oddsmakers in Vegas have not moved their line despite the hockey writers voting results. Inexplicably, Celebrini is a massive favourite at -280 while Hutson is a long shot at +400.
It’s difficult to understand why Celebrini is leading by such a large gap. He’s a strong player, and he will be a great pro, but his statistics are decidedly mid-tier in the historical record. Celebrini has 49 points. It’s a good number. Connor Bedard won with 61 last season.
However, as a forward, Artemi Panarin had 77 points, Patrick Kane had 72 points, Auston Matthews had 40 goals. If we go back to another era, Teemu Selanne had 76 goals and 132 points to win the Calder.
The reason that the high scoring 1980s are mentioned is because, as a defenceman, Hutson’s season is in that realm, while Celebrini, as a forward, is decidedly lower.
The greatest rookie campaign for a defender was Larry Murphy with 76 points. Brian Leetch had 71 points. Third was Gary Suter with 68 points. Hutson is on pace for 64 points. As a rear guard, his season is among the greatest in league history, and that includes the high flying 1980s.
In the present-day era, when the games aren’t more than likely to end 7-5, Hutson is on his way to the greatest season this century for a defender. Only Quinn Hughes is in front of Hutson with 53 points. Hutson has 52.
Hutson will be, far and away, the highest scoring rookie defender this century. However at present pace, Celebrini would be, only, the 12th ranked forward this century out of 25 recipients.
How any of these numbers lead to Celebrini taking the rookie over Hutson is beyond logic. The Calder isn’t awarded to the player on the worst team. The Calder isn’t awarded to an 18 year old because the other player is 20. The Calder isn’t awarded to the higher draft pick with better pedigree. The Calder is awarded to the best rookie.
Hutson isn’t just the best rookie this year. He’s one of the best rookies of all time. If he ups his current pace by the slightest of margins, he will have the third highest scoring rookie season among defenders in NHL history. If that person finishes second in Calder voting, it will be a travesty.
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