Free washer | Five essential points for the future of the Canadian

Not knowing the context of the Canadian’s reconstruction, a person might have been surprised by the relaxed and cheerful nature of the management’s post-mortem on Wednesday morning.

The CH, after all, misses the playoffs for a third consecutive season. It also finished among the five worst clubs in the NHL for a third year in a row.

Montreal finishes at 26^e rank for goals scored per match, at 27^e rank for goals allowed, at 27^e rank in numerical superiority and at 24^e inferior rank.

So the bold question from colleague Simon-Olivier Lorange to this effect to DG Kent Hughes during the press briefing was important. She reminded the organization that there were more critical voices in a context where hope takes up almost all the space. It also allowed Hughes to tell us more about the team’s internal indicators, including how to react collectively to opposing counter-attacks.

And despite the unfavorable position in the rankings, there has been improvement statistically collectively. The Canadian obtained eight more points than the previous season. He won one fewer time in the regular game, but took the game to three-on-three overtime or a shootout ten more times.

Montreal scored five more goals and above all allowed 24 fewer. Special teams have improved slightly. The success rate on the power play increased from 16.1% to 17.5% and the penalty kill rate increased from 72.7% to 76.5%.

Above all, we have seen great talents blossom. Captain and first center Nick Suzuki reached personal highs with 77 points, including 33 goals. His line partners, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky, reached 65 and 50 points respectively after a lackluster first half of the season. For the team’s supporters, accustomed to clubs with a soporific attack led by an exceptional goalkeeper, this is no small thing.

Our columnist Alexandre Pratt nevertheless does well to curb the enthusiasm too. Red Wings fans have been excited in 2021-2022 by the emergence of two rookies chosen early in the draft, Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond.

Detroit came close this year, not without hiring a host of veterans, but they will miss the playoffs for an eighth year in a row. They have drafted in the top ten every spring since 2017.

Ottawa also got excited the previous season after a 90-point season from Tim Stützle, the 83 points, including 35 goals, from its winger Brady Tkachuk, the convincing entry on the scene of defenseman Jake Sanderson and the acquisitions of Jakob Chychrun and from goalkeeper Joonas Korpisalo. The Senators obtained two measly points more than the CH this winter and will miss the detail for a seventh year in a row.

What about the Buffalo Sabres? 42-33-7 record. A 94-point season from their center Tage Thompson, four scorers of 30 goals or more, Thompson, Alex Tuch, Jeff Skinner and Dylan Cozens. The great emergence of defender Rasmus Dahlin with 73 points. Buffalo fell seven points in the standings and is closing its locker room before the start of the playoffs for a thirteenth straight spring.

Not everyone misses their reconstruction. The Rangers, built by the Canadiens’ VP of hockey operations, Jeff Gorton, and often cited by him, are proof of this, although Panarin and Fox fell from the sky. Vancouver is having an amazing season. It’s been a long journey in Edmonton, but we finally seem to be seeing lasting success. Same for Toronto.

In short, the CH is on the right track, but there are never guarantees despite good progress. Here are five essential elements for lasting success.

Kirby Dach’s health

Montreal needs a second center to support Nick Suzuki. Dach, a 6-foot-4, 217-pound right-hander, impressed in his first season in Montreal, in 2022-23, with 38 points in 58 games, an average playing time of 22 minutes at the end of the season and a strong training camp in September, but he has played only 60 games in two years, and only 18 in his second professional year, in 2020-2021. A second high-level center has been sorely missed by the Senators and Red Wings in recent years. Dach, the third overall pick in 2019, is only 23 years old, let’s not forget. But he needs to be on the ice, not in the clinic.

The emergence of a leading young defender

The leading teams all have dominant defenders: Hedman in Tampa, Makar in Colorado, Fox in New York, Hughes in Vancouver, Heiskanen in Dallas, McAvoy in Boston. Mike Matheson has just had his best career season at age 30 with 62 points. But also a record of -24, the worst on the team tied with Brendan Gallagher. It is true that we ask a lot of him, match after match, against the best opposing elements, without him entering the category of Hedman and company.

Lane Hutson left a favorable impression after his two matches. And, if his offensive talent is not to be established, he was reliable defensively despite his small size. David Reinbacher, fifth overall pick in 2023, has a profile that could be similar to that of Moritz Seider. He quickly became a pillar in Laval despite being 19 years old.

Kaiden Guhle has shown he can be effective against opposing top lines, at just 21, 22 years old, but he just suffered another concussion. It is permissible to keep it in mind, without making it sleepless nights. The CH coaches liked Logan Mailloux’s match, his imposing size, his robustness, his first passes, the improvement in his defensive game. There is a lot of talent to develop, but still uncertainty. The defense is still under construction.

The arrival of another dominant striker

Kent Hughes reiterated on Wednesday the importance of improving the attack, ideally with another winger with an imposing size. Montreal seems tempted to draft a forward in June. The question will not arise if he wins the lottery (his chances are 8.5%). The arrival of a gifted person like Macklin Celebrini would obviously speed up the process. But in fifth place (24.5%) or sixth (44%), the CH could afford a Cayden Lindstrom or Tij Iginla, or even the no less gifted Ivan Demidov or Berkly Catton, but in smaller formats. But these 18-year-olds won’t mature for three or four years, if not more, and Hughes will likely be on the lookout for a winger in his early 20s to become available somewhere else in a deal similar to that of Dach or Alex Newhook.

Improving man-to-man defense

Defense coach Stéphane Robidas cited the Carolina Hurricanes as an example on BPM sports late Wednesday afternoon. CH’s man-to-man defense, although hybrid in certain contexts, is not unanimous, but it is in its infancy, recalls Robidas, and the Hurricanes themselves have not mastered it by shouting scissors. There has been a lot of personnel movement in defense over the past two years and mastering this system of play, which requires mobile and intelligent defenders, will not happen before obtaining a little stability.

A solid goalkeeper

Samuel Montembeault was happy to hear his boss Kent Hughes confirm his number one status on Wednesday. Montembeault, 27, has improved year after year since joining the Canadiens in 2021. His goals against average went from 3.77 to 3.42, then to 3.14 this year. He played in a career-high 41 games this winter, a significant amount considering the menage a trois.

Montembeault obviously hasn’t reached the status of a premier goaltender in the NHL, but he’s effective enough to provide some stability in front of the net. He is under contract for three more years, at a very reasonable annual salary of 3.1 million. Let’s see if 24-year-old Cayden Primeau improves to the point where he threatens his position.

Younger, Jakub Dobes, 22, smoking in Laval in the second half of the season, and Jacob Fowler, freshly drafted, the best goaltender in the NCAA, record of 36-6-1, average of 2.14 and percentage of .926 saves at Boston College, will be able to develop at their own pace.

Ottawa, Detroit and Buffalo have struggled in recent years because they lacked a quality goaltender, although the Sabers finally seem to have found theirs in Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

Kucherov superstar

A few days after Connor McDavid, Nikita Kucherov became the fifth player in history after Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Bobby Orr and McDavid to obtain at least 100 assists in a season. He now has 144 points, six more than Nathan MacKinnon, who leads the NHL in scoring.

Kucherov can be a detestable individual at times. His contemptuous comments about Montreal and the Canadiens after winning the Stanley Cup in 2021 were heartbreaking. His blatant lack of effort during the All-Star Game skills competition did him no credit.

But what a hockey player. Obtaining the Hart Trophy awarded to the most valuable player would not constitute a theft, despite the brilliance of MacKinnon and McDavid.