Call of the Wilde: The Montreal Canadiens close out the season by beating the Florida Panthers 10-2 – Montreal | The Canadian News

Game 82. It’s finally done.

After the high excitement of a place in the Stanley Cup Final to end last season, this season ended with Montreal as the 32nd team in a 32-team league.

As they say, it’s only up from here.

The final night saw the visit of the Florida Panthers, with the Canadiens giving the crowd plenty of cheers to end the season with a 10-2 victory.

wild horses

The Panthers rested many of their stars for the playoffs after winning the President’s Trophy on Thursday night. The Canadiens had a chance to seize the day against a club that had nothing to play for.

And did they ever take advantage of it? Montreal looked like the first team and Florida 32.

Early on, it was a memorable moment for Jordan Harris when he scored his first career goal from a spot kick. Harris has been strong in his short test this April. He will have to earn his place next season, but it shouldn’t be too difficult. He seems like a safe third pair to start with.

After Mike Hoffman scored, Cole Caufield again scored his 21st goal of the season. That tied him for the team lead with Nick Suzuki. Caufield wasn’t even close to finishing. His best moment of the night was the second, as he split the defense beautifully. He kept his legs moving and the stick busy. He then he shot him high in the back hand.

In the third period, he counted another while skating to hit the net like lightning. Caufield’s first career hat-trick went to 23 for the season. That was just one of the rookie leader.

What an achievement for Caufield, as he only scored one goal in his first 30 games under Dominique Ducharme. In his next 37 games, he managed 22 goals. It would seem that there is a good chance that Caufield could be a 40-goal scorer for Montreal. They’re still looking for one this century.

It was another stellar performance from Jeff Petry, who has rediscovered his skating legs and passion for the game after a harsh winter without his family. Petry has 11 points in his last 11 games. He will be traded in the off-season unless he withdraws his request to move to an American club.

Game improvement is important because if a would-be suitor had doubts that Petry had perhaps lost some of his game, he’s back. It facilitates the exchange when the player is really performing well.

It wasn’t a good year, but on the final night, the Canadians left them wanting more. You can’t do better than that. You can’t do better than the poetry of ending the night with Guy Lafleur’s number 10.

wild goats

On a night like this with the Canadiens playing so well, the only goat is the mystery surrounding Carey Price. Not Price himself, but all the questions that won’t end until Price makes a decision about his future. He hurt his knee against last week. This prompted an emergency call from Cayden Primeau as Price was not available to even back up in case a second keeper was forced into the net.

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After that, it was a visit to the doctor in New York City to see if there was any damage to the knee. That was the lowest point.

The next day, the best scenario came when Price practiced at Brossard while his teammates were still in New York City. On Friday morning, Price jumped into the starting goal, and for now, he put a lot of fear aside.

However, Price was hitting .853 before the Florida game trying to find his game after nearly a full season of inactivity. He is such a classy man that when he contemplated his future last week he said he didn’t want to be a burden. Price is implying that if he doesn’t think he can play at a high level, then he won’t play.

It would be interesting to see the odds from Las Vegas on who will be at the net on opening night of next season for Montreal: Carey Price, Jake Allen, Sam Montembeaut or even Cayden Primeau. It is not money that I would like to leave. Honestly, it’s a complete guess who will be on the network.

wild cards

With this being the final Call Of The Wilde of the season, it’s a good time to look ahead to the NHL draft this July that will be so important to the rebuilding of the club. Montreal will select first, second or third depending on the May 10 lottery. They will get a player of great quality.

Montreal also has the Calgary Flames pick in the first round, so he’ll be around the 26 mark. They’ll also pick first in the second round, so there will also be a pick at 33. That’s a lot of potential talent in the top 33 picks, considering this draft looks solid heading into the second round.

It is extremely difficult to predict who could go to the Canadiens considering that the World Under-18 Championship is not yet concluded in Germany. However, if the Canadiens pick first, the consensus pick is Shane Wright. He has been promoted at number one for approximately 18 months. He didn’t have a breakout season this year in the Ontario Hockey League, but the hope is that he’s more out of boredom than laziness.

If the Canadiens draft second, it gets a little riskier, but the public rosters have Logan Cooley as the option there. Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton have been watching the worlds and Cooley has been strong. However, it can easily be argued that everyone on the American team is strong as they have been crushing their opposition. Cooley scored the lacrosse goal in the quarterfinals as an example of his stick skills.

If the Canadiens lose the draft lottery twice, which they have a 55 percent chance of doing, there are several options out of three.

Juraj Slafkovsky wowed everyone at the Olympics when he was the best player in the entire hockey event. Simon Nemec is a possibility. He has been scoring at a point-per-game rate as a defenseman the last half of the season. Czech defender David Jiricek has returned from injury and has immediately impressed.

Actually, there are many that could be option two or three. This year’s draft is as wide open as it has been in a decade.

Another idea that may be possible is that the Canadians try to change for a selection. The draft starts to thin out a bit around 20-25. If they could trade two or three picks to get a higher first-round pick in this draft it would be a wise move. However, this idea is great in concept, but it’s much harder to find someone who wants to fan out for more picks.

Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sportswriter, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after every Canadiens game.