TORONTO — If this Montreal Canadiens season is truly about progression and growth, if it is indeed about process over results, then what happened in the opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs was a success.
Martin St. Louis likes to say you have to be careful about how you measure success, so even though the Canadiens lost a game they led 2-0 early and 5-3 late could be seen as a collapse if you are measuring this team’s success in the wrong way, it should be noted the Canadiens outscored the Maple Leafs 4-1 at five-on-five.
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The difference, ultimately, is where the two teams are in their development. The Maple Leafs have continuity, despite the numerous changes they made to their lineup, and that gives them the luxury of working on the details of the game that made the difference.
“I had a lot of confidence in our six-on-five, that’s an area where Guy Boucher’s done a terrific job preparing the guys,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We spent probably more time on our six-on-five this preseason than we ever have in practices. So, credit to Guy for prioritizing that.”
St. Louis doesn’t have that luxury. There are core elements of the Canadiens’ game he needs to work on in training camp instead, elements Keefe has already firmly established with his group. And thus, the Canadiens looked completely disorganized and sloppy on the score-tying goal by Auston Matthews with 1:07 left in the third period and the Maple Leafs goalie pulled, their second six-on-five goal of the game.
And that’s fine.
The Canadiens will get there at some point, but for now, it would be perfectly reasonable for them to focus on the positives of how they performed on opening night.
Again, they outscored the Maple Leafs 4-1 at five-on-five, and the only goal they allowed in that situation was a relatively harmless Noah Gregor shot in the first period that Jake Allen clearly should have stopped, a goal that came moments after a Cole Caufield goal that would have put the Canadiens up 3-0 was called back after Keefe challenged for offside.
Keefe said the Maple Leafs even held a coach’s challenge meeting during training camp, though they didn’t find time to work on killing a four-on-three power play, which they did successfully regardless to close overtime and set the stage for Mitch Marner to win the game in a shootout.
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Process over results. It’s something important for the Canadiens to remember this season, so just as well if a big reminder of it came on opening night.
So let’s look at some process elements of this game.
Juraj Slafkovský has never looked better
Slafkovský didn’t really go there when asked that specific question after the game, saying he felt good in the game, so we’ll do it for him.
This was easily the best game of his young NHL career, and after a training camp where he looked to be showing signs of serious growth, it should be encouraging to the Canadiens that it transferred over to the regular season.
Playing on a line with Alex Newhook and Kirby Dach, it was Slafkovský’s forced turnover that extended what was already a strong offensive zone shift for their line and ultimately led to Newhook’s second goal of the game in his Canadiens debut, a goal that put Montreal up 4-3 just 1:22 after Caufield had tied the game early in the third period.
Dans la zone payante
Hooked on THIS feelingpic.twitter.com/PNSpxxfciQ
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) October 12, 2023
Just as it looked as though the Leafs were about to clear the zone, Slafkovský swooped in and got his stick on the puck just in time, maintaining possession by sending it to Dach. Slafkovský then headed to the net, where Newhook was also posted to tip home the Arber Xhekaj point shot that resulted from that strong play by Slafkovský.
He didn’t get an assist on the play, but he didn’t care. He was smiling from ear to ear on the bench afterward.
“That was a pretty good shift, I would say,” he said. “We had great O-zone time. I kind of jumped on that puck before giving it to Kirby. Me and Newy were both in front of the net, and I was just so happy when he hit that puck.”
It is a building block for Slafkovský, who needs to realize his disappointing rookie season does not define him, something he was feeling to some extent while he was in the middle of it. But he spent his offseason trying to make sure it wouldn’t, and this was an excellent start.
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“I still think I know how to play hockey,” Slafkovský said, though no one suggested otherwise. “I just need to get it back. I think I’m slowly getting my game back.”
If this is Slafkovský’s starting point for the season, and if growth can come from it, the Canadiens will be in a pretty good place with him. St. Louis has focused on how often he touches the puck, and he was touching the puck all over the ice in this game.
“I think he played really well,” Newhook said. “He used his strengths very well, protecting the puck, playing with speed and creating plays. He’s got that ability to be a difference-maker every night, and we saw that tonight.”
Nick Suzuki will have to carry a difficult load
A big part of the success of the Newhook-Dach-Slafkovský line was the fact Nick Suzuki’s line did a lot of heavy lifting against the Matthews line. The Dach line got a steady dose of the John Tavares line, which is far from an easy assignment, but they won the matchup, outscoring them 2-0 at five-on-five.
Suzuki’s line was a big part of that because they broke even against Matthews and Marner.
“I wasn’t trying to get him away from that line,” St. Louis said.
He was limited in his ability to, not having the last change on the road, but the fact St. Louis didn’t even try to says something about how that line played in that matchup. And that trickles down to the fourth line of Jake Evans, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and Jesse Ylönen getting two goals of their own.
Suzuki is not going to mind facing the most difficult matchups all season because his defensive game is something he is looking to improve, and being that guy for his team is something he takes pride in. St. Louis mentioned trying to get him some offensive zone faceoffs, but that it was difficult without breaking the flow of the game.
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It will be interesting to see Saturday against the Chicago Blackhawks in the home opener if St. Louis tries to spread it out against Connor Bedard’s line, because if Suzuki is going to face a steady dose of the most difficult matchups consistently all season, reaching his offensive potential will be that much tougher.
A different message from two different sources
Mike Matheson was encouraged by the Canadiens’ performance in several ways, but he was not all that enamoured of the way they closed the game.
“That’s not easy to be up 3-0, and the next thing you know you’re down 3-2, all in one period,” he said. “So I think that’s what we talked about in the second intermission, that this is a test. How are we going to respond? I thought we responded great. We had a two-goal lead with six or seven minutes left or whatever it was. That’s a big learning experience. It’s not an easy pill to swallow, but definitely one that we have to take.”
What is the lesson?
“Just to close out a game,” he said.
That’s a player’s perspective, and players in the minutes after a hard-fought game don’t necessarily have the proper perspective.
Process over results. Progression. Growth. That’s the coach’s domain.
So when St. Louis was asked what his young team could learn from a game like this, his answer was not the same as Matheson’s. In fact, it was extremely different.
“That we can play against good teams,” St. Louis said.
That is indeed the lesson these Canadiens should take from this loss. They won the five-on-five battle 4-1 against a legitimate Stanley Cup contender on the road on opening night.
That should not be lost in the cloud of a disappointing result.
(Photo of Juraj Slafkovský: Claus Andersen / Getty Images)