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The Montreal Canadiens are in the mix.
It’s the final ten games of the season and the Canadiens have a good chance at a playoff spot. Granted, their road trip has gone poorly, but they recovered Sunday with a 4-2 shocker in Florida.
The Canadiens have managed three straight wins over the Panthers this season.
Wilde Horses
Lane Hutson’s record March continued with another sensational day. Earning another three assists, his play is near the top in NHL history for a rookie defenceman and he now has the most power-play points in the league for a defender.
Hutson’s first assist was a smooth pass to Patrik Laine as the Finn let it fly on the left side like he always does. The angle was horrific, but Laine still managed to rip it short-side high.
The second assist was secondary as Hutson fed Nick Suzuki, who found Juraj Slafkovsky, who benefitted – on his birthday– from a nice bounce off a defender when he was trying to go cross-crease to Cole Caufield.
The third assist was the best of the trio – a pass that one lacks words to explain. Through a mass of bodies in the corner, Hutson got the puck to a wide-open Suzuki on the other side, where he one-timed it for his third point of the day.
The three assists for Hutson moved him to 54 assists on the year. The greatest rookie defender in history for assists is Larry Murphy with 60. Second is Chris Chelios with 55. No one else is ahead of Hutson with 54 assists. Remarkable.
For points, Hutson is also moving up the charts with 59, putting him among the top ten in history. He’ll likely finish around sixth spot, currently held by Chelios with 64 points. Chelios retired in 2010.
All of the defenders who are top-15 in points for a rookie played in an era when the total goals scored in a game averaged 11. Hutson is among this upper-echelon group when the goals-per-game average is six. This is one of the greatest rookie defenceman seasons in the history of hockey. He was drafted 62nd.
The other trend worth noting, which could end up being extremely important, is the head coach choosing to go with Emil Heineman on the second line instead of Joshua Roy. It changed the defensive makeup of the line in a huge way. That threesome has needed a player with a good defensive footprint all season long. Heineman is that player. He is a dog around the puck. He fights for every inch. He throws his body around when he battles. For a winger, he has outstanding hockey sense.
Martin St. Louis noted that Alex Newhook is among his most improved players this season. He is bringing a skating stride that he has not exhibited before in his career. Not the actual speed, but the desire to keep using that stride in traffic. Adding Heineman to the line allows Newhook to explore that speed even more knowing someone behind him is playing an intelligent brand of hockey in support.
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Brendan Gallagher added the empty-netter. His line with Christian Dvorak and Josh Anderson was solid all day.
Wilde Goats
This was a strong effort from the Canadiens. Florida is playing superb hockey and Montreal has been playing the defending Stanley Cup champions well all season. There’s hardly anything negative to point out, except this: Samuel Montembeault cannot let in that second goal on a 35-foot slap shot through his legs. The five-hole available on a long shot is not how goaltending is done in 2025. The entire system of tending is created to not let anything through you.
Montembeault has to bear down and remember the goaltending structure on long shots for a goalie. In 2025, high corners are made available to protect the middle. All of the middle.
It’s a shame for Montembeault because he is stellar on shots from in close. He just has to get that basic technique back on the long shots.
Wilde Cards
When fatigue hits, a player starts to lose attention to detail: they don’t concentrate as well, they begin to cheat, they cut corners. That’s how the Canadiens were playing leading up to the Florida contest. However, they showed Sunday that they have it in them to regroup in the final nine games of the season.
The Canadiens played a lot of hockey this week. Having games Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday in four different cities is taxing, but they showed their better game is close.
The Canadiens can now rest until Tuesday, then take advantage of the best April schedule of the teams fighting for that final playoff spot.
Montreal has six home games and only three on the road. Only one the trips – to Nashville – is at all taxing; the other two are close destinations – Toronto and Ottawa. It cannot be stressed enough how difficult it is for the other clubs who are essentially tied with Montreal right now.
Detroit has the hardest schedule in the entire league with their nine left with Dallas, Carolina, Florida, Toronto, Tampa Bay and St. Louis on the docket. Their easy games are listed as Montreal and New Jersey.
Next up are the New York Rangers whose remaining games include Tampa twice, Carolina, Florida, Minnesota and New Jersey among their hardest, and the Islanders and Philadelphia listed as their easiest. The Rangers have the fourth-most-difficult schedule.
And it gets better for Montreal. The Islanders are listed as the sixth-most-difficult schedule with Washington twice, Carolina, Tampa, Minnesota, Columbus, the Rangers, the Devils and only two expected easier match-ups against Nashville and Philadelphia.
The Blue Jackets are listed as the eighth-most-difficult schedule with two against the Capitals, two against the Senators, Colorado, Toronto and the Islanders. On the easier side is Nashville, Buffalo and Philadelphia.
That’s four teams the Canadiens are fighting with for that final spot and all have a top-ten most difficult schedule. The target for that final playoff spot, realistically, is six wins and three losses, but five wins and four losses might just do it. None of those four teams have a likely path to six wins, or even five wins.
Now to the Canadiens with the 28th-most-difficult schedule, or fifth-easiest. They have nine games left with the hardest opposition being Florida, Carolina, Toronto and Ottawa. The easier games are against Chicago, Nashville, Philadelphia again, Boston and Detroit.
The Canadiens are the only club with an excellent home-away balance, with six home and three away. The Blue Jackets are the only other club with more home than away. All others are on the road more.
Out of the five teams, Montreal has by far the easiest path to five or six wins in the final nine. Columbus has the second easiest path, and it is difficult to imagine a path for the other three to get five or six wins.
While it has been a difficult week, the Habs will get a chance to get all their energy back at home where they will stay, for the most part. The goal was to be even for that playoff spot heading into this final nine game stretch, and they have accomplished it.
The hard travel is behind them. The hard opposition is mostly behind them. They’ve toiled a lot while their competition is not yet done toiling.
It’s their advantage to be claimed – let’s enjoy the ride.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
