MONTREAL — It happened at 13:21 of the third period; a banal play in the game, but one dripping with symbolism as well.
The Vancouver Canucks entered the Montreal Canadiens’ zone, the puck got to all-world defenceman Quinn Hughes along the left boards, just above the hashmarks, and he let go of a shot that went directly into the shin pads of Montreal defenceman Alexandre Carrier.
It was, more than 53 minutes into the game, the first time the Canucks attempted a shot on the Canadiens goal at five-on-five with Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook on the ice. A few seconds later, the Canucks actually got a shot on goal with both players on the ice. That was it for the entire game.
Other than a five-second span late in the game, the Canucks did not get a sniff of the Canadiens net with Dach and Newhook on at five-on-five the entire night.
And why is that symbolic? Because Dach and Newhook have spent entire games this season defending in their own end, chasing after the puck and giving up shot after shot after shot, breaking any momentum the Canadiens might have built on their previous shifts and handing it back to the opposition.
Both players have been searching for something for much of the season, much like the Canadiens have been searching for something for much of the season. So to have them perform like this on the very night the Canadiens moved into a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference after a 5-4 overtime win makes it difficult not to link the two in some way — especially when it comes to Dach.
So much of what the Canadiens hope to accomplish in the long term is at least somewhat — and at most, inextricably — tied to Dach becoming something resembling what we have seen from him over the last few games. And there has been no game this season in which Dach has come closer to that vitally important version of himself than this one.
His fourth goal in his last six games tied the game on the power play early in the third period, but Dach’s been steadily building his game for weeks after a horrendous start to the season coming off a devastating injury and nearly a calendar year away from NHL competition on the ice.
And throughout that slow build, Dach has been repeating the same thing: that simple, positive actions repeated over and over again will lead to the results he seeks.
The thing is, as true as that has been for Dach, it has been just as true for the Canadiens.
“I think we’ve got a lot of self-belief,” Dach said. “It definitely helps that last road trip we had, I felt we had a chance to win every game and we probably should have closed out that road trip a little bit better. I think we’re playing the right way and we’re doing the right things over and over and over and we’re getting results out of it. As a young group, when you see that product start to work, you kind of stick with it.”
Dach, however, was not the only source of symbolism on this night. It was everywhere.
Kirby Dach celebrates with teammates after scoring against the Canucks in the third period. (Eric Bolte / Imagn Images)
On the opening shift of the game, coming off a gruelling road trip played in four different time zones against a team that is desperate for results, it would have been easy for the Canadiens to succumb to fatigue. Instead, their fourth line dominated the Canucks top line and Kaiden Guhle laid a devastating hit on Vancouver rookie Jonathan Lekkerimäki in open ice in the neutral zone.
It sent a message to his teammates that there would be no typical post-road-trip letdown in this game.
Guhle did not deny that was part of the intent, but again, in a more macro sense, this is innate in him. He spent his entire junior career in the WHL destroying people just like this on the regular, and he has been waiting his whole NHL career to re-incorporate that element of his DNA back into his game.
It took only 24 seconds after that Guhle hit for Cole Caufield to open the scoring for the Canadiens.
“It’s just something that got me here, something I’ve wanted to have in my game … but there were other things I was worried about,” Guhle said of that hit. “The game is fast, there’s good players, it’s tough to catch guys. But it’s something I’ve wanted to have more consistently in my game. Not that I’m going to run around and try to blow guys up every game, but that nastiness is something I want to have more consistently in my game. It’s just that I had opportunities to do that more tonight.”
Guhle is in the final year of his entry-level contract. He has let that desire to bring this nastiness that is inherent in him back to his game for the better part of three years. It is a sign he feels comfortable with the “other things” he was worried about. And this was one of the best games we’ve seen Guhle play in the NHL.
That Caufield goal came off a setup from Juraj Slafkovský, taking a puck off the wall and finding Caufield alone in the slot for him to beat Kevin Lankinen clean with a wrist shot. It was Slafkovský’s first shift since midway through the third period of the Canadiens’ 2-1 shootout win in Denver, a win that allowed them to complete that gruelling road trip with a 4-1-0 record.
Slafkovský, who is desperate to be a difference-maker, was benched during the minutes in which he could have made a difference in that win against the Colorado Avalanche. It took him a matter of seconds to make a difference in this game.
Martin St. Louis had a talk with his young project before the game and explained what happened in Denver.
“He talked to me about it today and it had nothing to do with the game, he just felt it was the good decision and I accepted it because we won the game,” Slafkovský said. “Obviously you’re pissed when you sit on the bench, so next game you’re trying to fly in. I still feel like it wasn’t good today, but it’s getting … somewhere. Honestly, it’s crazy. I don’t even know what to say anymore.”
Slafkovský, like Dach, is trying to find that version of himself that was a difference-maker in the past. He’s not there yet. He knows it.
There was a moment in this game when St. Louis could have dropped the hammer. Caufield had just been roughed up by Tyler Myers — one foot taller and more than 50 pounds heavier — along the end boards deep in the Vancouver zone. As Caufield made his way out of the Canucks zone behind the play with the Canadiens holding a 4-3 lead in the third period, he slashed Myers’ stick out of his hands and was rightly called for slashing.
The Canucks tied the game 12 seconds later.
“That’s a pretty bad penalty to take at that time of the game,” Caufield said.
St. Louis would have been justified in benching Caufield in that situation, but he didn’t. For one, his team needed a goal, and none of his players are better at scoring goals than Caufield. But more significantly, the frustration that led to that penalty came out of something St. Louis has been wanting out of Caufield, so to punish him for providing what his coach wants from him would have been counter to that message.
“Cole’s not a guy that takes a lot of penalties,” St. Louis said. “I’m asking Cole a lot to get more involved physically, and he’s doing that. That was a hit against a big man that was pretty high, so I can understand his frustration. If Cole had the opportunity to go back in time, he wouldn’t do that again. But we were in a place in the game where it was tough to make him pay the price, because it would be easy for Cole to just score goals and stay to the outside and not get involved physically, and the way we’re asking him to play is a lot harder. So he had an action that he would like to have back, but I didn’t think it was the right time to teach him a lesson.”
Teaching Caufield a lesson in this situation would be counter to what the Canadiens are building, the buy-in St. Louis is cultivating.
What gave the Canadiens a 4-3 lead to begin with was a goal by Lane Hutson. A pass destined for Christian Dvorak in the goal mouth banked off Hughes’ skate and entered the net. Hughes is a player Hutson adores watching; he is a role model as an undersized defenceman, and this was the first time Hutson had ever faced him.
“Just even playing against him, he’s such a talented player, such a gifted skater and someone I have a lot of respect for as a player,” Hutson said. “To see him and see what he can do was pretty cool. But yeah, pretty unfortunate bounce for him, but good for us, I guess.”
Hutson finished the game with a goal and two assists to run his season total to 30 points in 40 games. He finished the game as the top rookie scorer in the NHL and tied for sixth in the NHL in scoring among defencemen. Hughes is a player Hutson aspires to be like. There was symbolism in that goal as well.
Lane Hutson is a defenseman… pic.twitter.com/VUvJLaQtDG
— NHL (@NHL) January 7, 2025
Going back to Dach and his insistence on focusing on the process amid incredibly discouraging results, going back to how his road to prominence mirrors the Canadiens’ road back to relevance, St. Louis was given an opportunity to deny that symbolism.
And he didn’t.
“You know, for me, I talk to the individual the way I probably talk to the team as well, and it’s, you’ve got to stay in the present,” St. Louis said. “There’s nothing you can do about the past, and the future is not there yet. So, focus on the present. And I think when you do that, if you’re capable of doing that, you stay in a better place mentally. And I think he’s doing that.
“And obviously the present right now is really good for him, so don’t worry about what happened at the beginning of the season, don’t stress about what’s coming. Just stay the course, and I think, like I say to the team, you do ordinary things over and over, you respect the rules of the game, there’s usually some good stuff on the other side of that.”
The present is really good. Don’t worry about what happened at the beginning of the season. Just stay the course. You do ordinary things over and over, you respect the rules of the game, there’s usually some good stuff on the other side of that.
Is there anything more apt to describe what is happening to the Canadiens right now than that?
Yes, the development of Dach is incredibly important to the Canadiens’ rebuild, and right now, they seem to be going hand in hand in so many ways.
Perhaps the most significant way is how little satisfaction the Canadiens’ young core took in in their spot in the standings, to be able to wake up on the morning of Jan. 7 sitting in a playoff spot.
“Still got 40 more to go,” Caufield said, missing the mark by two games.
“I don’t know where we’re at right now,” Guhle said.
When told the Canadiens were in a playoff spot, Guhle didn’t flinch.
“Perfect. Great. But nothing changes for us,” he said. “We’re not satisfied with that. There’s a lot of games left.”
There is a business-like nature to what the Canadiens are doing here. A matter-of-factness that suggests what we are seeing is not a mirage.
The burden of proof for that remains on the Canadiens, but they are building a convincing case.
(Top photo: Eric Bolte / Imagn Images)
