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After a poor effort which still provided a win against the Coyotes, nobody thought the Canadiens would pose much of a problem for the Panthers who are fighting for the top of the standings, and yet, the Cats needed the shootout to finally catch their prey. The Habs who had looked quite flat for some time now, seemed to be energized by their win against the Coyotes on Tuesday night. Twice the Panthers took the lead and twice the Canadiens fought back to level the score before taking the lead for the first time in the final frame. Sure enough, Florida tied things up to force overtime and then the shootout, but still, Montreal showed character.
The Habs left the Panthers’ building with a point in the standings mainly thanks to Samuel Montembeault and Nick Suzuki. Whenever Montembeault is in the net, the Canadiens appear to be playing with more confidence and poise. They know they’ve got their best goalie backing them up and it shows. The fact he had the net in the last two games is just further evidence. After trading Sean Monahan, the organization is showing the players they are not tanking, and they still want to win games. An important message after trading a player who made the team immensely better.
As for the captain, even though he had a rough night in the faceoff department, he was of every battle and had a role in each of the Canadiens’ three goals. Right now, Suzuki has 59 points in 60 games, nearly producing at a point-per-game pace. While some were quick to say last year that Dach would be the better of the two, Suzuki is still there working away tirelessly, and he keeps on improving. The 24-year-old center does it all, he plays on the first line, the power play, the penalty kill, and he does it all year long, managing to avoid the injury bug that has plagued the Habs for the last few years.
The power play also looked great last night; it doesn’t appear to have lost a step after the Montembeault trade it’s just as efficient with Newhook in the bumper spot which bodes well for the future. The man-advantage unit only scored once through Alex Newhook, but whenever it was on the ice, it was threatening.
Two young guns also had a say in the game. After being kept off the scoresheet for a few games, Juraj Slafkovsky found the back of the net with 0.7 seconds left in the second frame with a perfectly executed set play. Suzuki decisively won the draw sending the back to the young Slovak who shot right away to beat Stolarz. Even more impressive is the fact that when the puck dropped for the faceoff, there were only 3.1 seconds left on the clock, but the former first-overall pick kept his cool and delivered.
Meanwhile, Arber Xhekaj showed just how useful he can be for this team. It was thanks to his offensive awareness that the Canadiens scored in the first period. Deep in his zone, Xhekaj spotted Suzuki who had eluded the Panthers’ coverage, and fired a picture-perfect pass to the captain who went on to beat the goaltender. In 19 minutes and three seconds of ice-time, Xhekaj also blocked four shots, landed a hit, and forced a turnover. Furthermore, when Niko Mikkola ran into Samuel Montembeault who went flying on the play, the Panthers forward cowered behind two referees to escape Xhekaj’s wrath. A far cry away from Jeff Petry just skating by when the same Montembeault was hit a couple of seasons ago.
Granted, the Canadiens didn’t win, but they didn’t really lose either. The organization’s young players showed that they can compete with elite competition when they are dialed in, sure they don’t have the consistency to do it every night and they still need to add more talent to the cast of characters, but at least a few main characters have already been cast.
I have to mention one of the Panthers' players here, Sam Reinhart was just everywhere was light and is an absolute beast on special team units. He scored his 40th goal of the season, which was his 23rd on the power play and then he scored a shorthanded, his fifth in such circumstances. If you play fantasy hockey, he's definitely worth adding to your keepers list.
The Habs will be back in action on Saturday night when they take on the Lightning at Amalie Arena. The Canadiens only have three games left before the trade deadline and while it’s possible Kent Hughes could move some veterans; he won’t move if he’s not getting his asking price. Judging by what the Flames got back for Tanev, I don’t see Montreal moving Savard this year, unless of course someone gets in panic mode at the last minute and decides to pay a king’s ransom aka a first-round pick. If Savard is still there on March 9 though, it won’t be detrimental to the Canadiens. You can’t do a rebuild using young players exclusively and Savard has already shown he can be quite the mentor for the Canadiens’ blueliners.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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