Stu Cowan: Looking at the positives as Canadians focus on the future

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Good teams find ways to win hockey games and bad teams find ways to lose them.

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That’s the best way to describe the Canadiens, who are 4-11-2 heading into Tuesday’s game against the Rangers in New York. (7 pm, TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM). The Canadiens have the second-worst winning percentage in the NHL (.294) ahead of the Arizona Coyotes, who are 1-13-1 (.100).

The Canadiens still have 65 games to play and this will be a very long season.

This is the time of year that can be depressing enough, as the weather turns colder, the sun sets before 5 p.m., and the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

So, with the Canadiens having a day off on Monday in New York, let’s try to see some positives to maybe help disgruntled fans perk up a bit. We will have five more months to focus on team problems as losses pile up.

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Nick Suzuki: The 22-year-old center got off to a bad start this season after signing an eight-year, $ 63 million contract extension that begins next year. He was goalless and five assists in the first 10 games, but has totals of 4-5-9 in the last seven games. and leads Canadians in scoring with 4-10-14 totals.

What has impressed me the most about Suzuki so far this season was his response last week when I asked him how he handles the bright spotlights of playing in Montreal.

“I’ve talked to a lot of the guys before, especially in my rookie year,” he said. “Things to keep in mind, to do. I think the most important thing is to be humble, keep working hard, don’t let anything take you too high or too low. I tried to stand my ground and I think I’ve been that way all my life, so it came naturally to me.

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“It is always good to be recognized on the streets,” he added. “I am very proud of this team and we want to offer a good product and good performance.”

The future looks bright for this child.

Alexander Romanov: The 21-year-old defender has played the last six games very well since making a healthy scratch for a game.

Romanov leads the Canadiens with 47 hits, four more than Ben Chiarot, who is averaging 5:21 more ice time per game. Romanov has been playing more confidently in recent games and is not running as much and getting stuck in position.

“He cares a lot,” head coach Dominique Ducharme said of Romanov after giving him a healthy scratch. “He really cares. He is not lazy. He is hard on himself. He’s a great kid, but we also want to help him. Has a lot of energy. Just concentrating on the right things. “

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Romanov has been doing that.

Ryan Poehling: Injuries gave the 22-year-old forward a chance to be called up from the AHL’s Laval Rocket and play his first three games for the Canadiens since the 2019-20 season. Poehling scored a good goal in Saturday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Red Wings in Detroit and has also shown a more mature attitude, admitting he didn’t handle it well after being sent to Laval for the first time before kickoff. 2019. -20 season.

“From my perspective, I went there and I didn’t have the best attitude, I admit it, and I regret it,” Poehling said.

“It was a big surprise for me.” “I was very young, it was the first time I had moved from home. … I have grown a lot and I have realized that it is not the end of the world (to be sent). So my attitude has definitely changed enormously. “

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Now is the time for Poehling to prove it on the ice.

Cayden Primeau: The Canadiens’ “goalkeeper of the future” was called up the weekend after Jake Allen was forced to leave Saturday’s game after being run over by Dylan Larkin of the Red Wings.

The 22-year-old Primeau has played well this season at Laval with a 4-4 record, an average of 2.41 goals against and a .916 save percentage. Now is the perfect time to give him some NHL experience with the playoffs as a pipe dream and less pressure on him.

The future: The remainder of this season should be seen as a very long training ground for next season and the future beyond for this franchise, which could have a new general manager with Marc Bergevin in the final year of his contract.

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Play young children, including Cole Caufield who is in Laval, let them grow up together with less pressure and live with their mistakes as you work to correct them.

He’s also getting to the point where each loss will help the Canadiens more than one win when it comes to next year’s NHL Draft, which will take place at the Bell Center.

It is time for Canadians to look to the future because the present is truly depressing.

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