MONTREAL— If you’re a Montreal Canadiens fan looking for a silver lining after their 6-5 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes—that’s what you’re reduced to in a season that’s been full of dark clouds—you can easily find one in the way Charles Hudon performed.
Hudon’s two-goal, one-assist output against the Hurricanes seems like a more pertinent thing to focus on than the pitiful start to Thursday’s game for the Canadiens. Or the quick strike goals they allowed after erasing three deficits. Or the many empty seats at the Bell Centre from start to finish.
With the Canadiens falling 15 points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for third place in the Atlantic Division and 11 points behind the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card holding Pittsburgh Penguins, it’s no longer about the results; it’s about the development of players who are poised to carry the torch for their team over the coming years.
Hudon looks like he’ll be one of the players capable of doing that, and this lost year for the Canadiens has been essential to his development.
The 23-year-old might not have had this opportunity if Alex Radulov hadn’t left via free agency for the Dallas Stars this past summer. He certainly wouldn’t be getting a look on Montreal’s top line, next to Max Pacioretty and Paul Byron, if Radulov were still here, or if Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin had spent some of the $8.5 million in cap space he entered the season with. But Hudon is proving he can hang with anyone on the Canadiens roster—regardless of what the numbers say.
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They aren’t all that flattering, especially for a kid who’s been a deadly scorer at all of the other levels of hockey. Before Thursday’s game Hudon was stuck on four goals and 12 assists over his first 45 contests of the season.
But you get the sense watching him register all those close calls—those posts, missed nets and blocked shots—is giving him the experience necessary to find the reserves to bury pucks with more frequency down the line. Hudon ranks sixth in high-danger scoring chances on the Canadiens this season, according to naturalstattrick.com, and he’s also done a great job giving his linemates opportunities.
“I think he’s an important player for our team, especially moving forward,” said Byron. “He’s a young guy, extremely talented, so I feel pretty good playing with him and Max.”
Hudon’s got character, too.
He was asked after the game about filling the net for the first time since Dec. 2, but all he shifted the conversation to how he lost Justin Williams in coverage on Carolina’s winning goal, which was scored at 9:41 of the third period.
“I played it like I was on the wing,” said Hudon. “I should’ve stayed up the middle instead of going over to the boards.”
It’s a forgivable mistake when you consider that he was playing the game as a winger but taking draws for Byron—as he has since Phillip Danault went down with a concussion two Saturdays ago.
Hudon won 57 per-cent of the 14 faceoffs he took against Carolina. One of them led to Jeff Petry’s goal, which tied the game 4-4 late in the second period. But his loss to Victor Rask in the neutral zone proved costly for the Canadiens.
Granted, it was no more costly than the other five egregious errors they made in the game.
“When you look at the goals we gave up, they were more or less individual mistakes and the kind of mistakes you don’t make when you’re well prepared,” said Canadiens coach Claude Julien. “He didn’t do the job he was supposed to do on that… but I’m not blaming him for the loss because he played a good game, had a couple of goals…
“He’s a character player, a good young player…He’s a good young player, he’s going in the right direction, and he has all the good qualities we want in a player, and we for sure we have more time for him.”
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It’s one of the reasons Julien had Hudon on the ice for two key offensive-zone draws in the final minute of play, while the Canadiens were trying to chase down the lead once again.
Hudon’s one of a number of young players on this roster—from 19-year-old Victor Mete to 22-year-olds Jonathan Drouin and Artturi Lehkonen to 23-year-old Alex Galchenyuk—who should have elevated roles from here to the end of the regular season.
He’s worked his way into that group by evolving into a more well-rounded player.
“I’m not playing the same way I was in the AHL,” he said. “In the AHL I had my points, but here I’m playing more confident, more complete for sure.”
Canadiens leading scorer Brendan Gallagher, who scored his 18th goal of the season on Thursday, agrees wholeheartedly.
“I think you look at his season and he’s getting better, he’s getting better, he’s improving and that’s what you want,” said Gallagher. “He’s obviously played NHL games before, but this is his first full season and you can see it’s helping him—the experience he’s getting game after game. I think playing against some of the better players in the league as well, if you look at some of the situations he’s been in, look at the improvement in his game and that’s what you want. He’s eager to come and learn.”
That’s one big positive in a season full of negatives for the Canadiens.
