THE Montreal Canadians are in the mixture.
These are the last ten games of the season and the Canadians have a good chance in a place in the playoffs. Admittedly, their road trip went wrong, but they recovered Sunday with a 4-2 shock in Florida.
The Canadians won three consecutive victories on the Panthers this season.
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Lane Hutson’s record march continued with another sensational day. Managing three other assists, his game is close to the summit in NHL history for a recruited defender and he now has the most points of the league for a defender.
Hutson’s first assist was a smooth pass for Patrik Laine while the Finn let him fly on the left side as he always does. The angle was horrible, but wool still managed to tear it.
The second assist was secondary while Hutson nourished Nick Suzuki, who found Juraj Slafkovsky, who benefited – on his birthday – a nice rebound on a defender when he was trying to go to Croisé Caufield.
The third assist was the best in the trio – a pass that lacks words to explain. Through a mass of body in the area, Hutson obtained the washer in a large Suzuki open on the other side, where he timed it for his third point of the day.
The three assists for Hutson transferred it to 54 assists over the year. The greatest recruit defender in history for the assists is Larry Murphy with 60. The second is Chris Chelios with 55. No one else is ahead of Hutson with 54 assists. Outstanding.
For the points, Hutson also sets up the charts with 59, putting it among the first ten in history. He will probably finish towards sixth place, currently held by Chelios with 64 points. Chelios retired in 2010.
All the defenders who are in the first 15 points for a recruit played at one time when the total goals scored in an average match 11. Hutson is part of this higher level group when the average of the goals per match is six. It is one of the largest seasons of defender recruited in the history of hockey. He was drafted 62nd.
The other trend deserves to be noted, which could end up being extremely important, is the head coach who chooses to go with Emil Heineman on the second line instead of Joshua Roy. This changed the defensive composition of the line in a huge way. This trio needed a player with a good defensive imprint throughout the season. Heineman is this player. It is a dog around the washer. He fights for each thumb. He throws his body when he fights. For a winger, he has an exceptional sense of hockey.
Martin St. Louis noted that Alex Newhook is among his most improved players this season. He brings a stride of skating which he did not explain before in his career. Not real speed, but the desire to continue using this stride in traffic. The addition of Heineman to the line allows Newhook to explore this speed even more knowing that someone behind him plays a smart brand of hockey in support.
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Brendan Gallagher added the empty network. His line with Christian Dvorak and Josh Anderson was solid all day.
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It was a very effort of the Canadians. Florida plays a superb hockey and Montreal played the champions in title of the Stanley Cup all season. There is practically nothing negative to emphasize, except this: Samuel Montembeault cannot let this second goal in a 35 -foot slap in his legs. The five holes available on a long -term shot is not the way the goalkeepers are made in 2025. The whole of the outfit system is created so as not to let anything go through.
Montembeault must assert and remember the structure of goalkeepers on long shots for a goalkeeper. In 2025, high corners were made available to protect the environment. The whole environment.
It’s a shame for Montembeault because it is stellar on your shots closely. He only has to recover this basic technique on long shots.
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When fatigue strikes, a player begins to lose attention to detail: he does not concentrate as well, he starts to cheat, they cut the corners. This is how Canadians played before the Florida competition. However, they showed on Sunday that they had them in them to come together in the last nine games of the season.
Canadians have played a lot of hockey this week. Having matches Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday in four different cities is trying, but they showed that their best match was close.
Canadians can now rest until Tuesday, then take advantage of the best April program of the teams that are fighting for this last place in qualifying series.
Montreal has six home games and only three on the road. Only one to travel – in Nashville – is all trying; The other two are close destinations – Toronto and Ottawa. It cannot be sufficiently underlined how difficult it is for other clubs which are mainly linked to Montreal at the moment.
Detroit has the most difficult calendar in the whole league with its nine to do with Dallas, Caroline, Florida, Toronto, Tampa Bay and St. Louis on the file. Their easy games are listed like Montreal and New Jersey.
Then, the New York Rangers whose remaining games include Tampa Twice, Carolina, Florida, Minnesota and New Jersey among their hardest, and the Icelanders and Philadelphia were the easiest. Rangers have the fourth calendar most difficult.
And it’s better for Montreal. The Icelanders are listed as the sixth most difficulty calendar with Washington twice, Carolina, Tampa, Minnesota, Columbus, Rangers, Devils and two more easy games against Nashville and Philadelphia.
The Blue Jackets are listed as the eighth calendar most difficult with two against capital, two against senators, Colorado, Toronto and Islanders. On the easier side is Nashville, Buffalo and Philadelphia.
It is four teams with which the Canadians fight for this final place and all have a most difficult calendar. The objective of this final place in the playoffs, in a realistic way, is six victories and three defeats, but five victories and four defeats could simply do it. None of these four teams has a probable route to six victories, or even five victories.
Now to Canadians with the 28th calendar most difficult, or the fifth easier. There are nine games with the hardest opposition being Florida, Caroline, Toronto and Ottawa. The easier matches are against Chicago, Nashville, Philadelphia again, Boston and Detroit.
Canadians are the only club with an excellent balance of houses, with six houses and three outside. Blue Jackets are the only other club to have more houses than outside. All the others are more on the road.
Of the five teams, Montreal has by far the simplest path to five or six victories in the last nine. Columbus has the second simplest path, and it is difficult to imagine a path for the other three to obtain five or six victories.
Although it was a difficult week, the inhabitants will have the chance to recover all their energy at home where they will remain, for the most part. The goal was to be even for this eliminatory spot before this last section of nine games, and they accomplished it.
The hard trip is behind them. The hard opposition is mainly behind them. They have worked a lot while their competitors are not yet completed.
This is their advantage to claim – let’s take advantage of the ride.
Brian Wilde, a sports writer based in Montreal, brings you Call of the Wilde On Globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
