Short history lesson for you: The Montreal Canadiens lose Paul Byron and Jonathan Drouin in the same game, in November 2019, and then proceed to go 15-18-4 until they’re back in February 2020. It’s a stint that features two eight-game winless streaks, with a Brendan Gallagher concussion smack in the middle of it, in case you forgot.
Just hideous.
It’s barely been a year since then, but it feels like it all happened much longer ago — especially on this night, with the Canadiens notching their third consecutive win sans leading-scorer Tyler Toffoli and first-pairing defenceman Ben Chiarot.
It was a 4-1 domination of the Ottawa Senators that was anything but ugly.
So, what’s different? Let’s start with the depth of the roster. Boy, did it shine through on Thursday.
Let us count the ways:
1. Backup Jake Allen was excellent, improving his save percentage to .922. He’s won five of 12 starts and collected points in four of the losses.
2. Byron scored the 10th shorthanded goal of his career, Montreal’s eighth this season, and it was his third point in his last two games. He was on waivers twice this year, but that feels like a distant memory now, too.
3. Victor Mete, a regular top-four defenceman over the last two seasons who had to wait until Feb. 1 to get into a game this season, had an assist and helped the Canadiens control 53 per cent of the shot attempts in just over 14 minutes of ice-time at 5-on-5 from the third pairing.
4. With Eric Staal all but certain to take his job when he comes out of quarantine, rookie Jake Evans played his best game of the season, setting up two goals in style.
5. Tomas Tatar and Phillip Danault, two players in contract years who were relegated to secondary roles and struggled mightily in them through the first half of the season, combined for four points in this game. Danault, who didn’t score a goal for the first 24 games of the season, had one on this night to bring his total to three, and he has eight points in his last four games. Tatar had two assists to keep a five-game point streak alive, over which he’s notched two goals and seven assists.
Depth was supposed to be this team’s superpower — especially in a North Division rife with superstar talent the Canadiens are short on.
“From the start of the year, it’s something we touched on is the depth that our team has and the internal competition,” said Jeff Petry (one guy who’s played like a superstar) earlier on Thursday. “No matter who’s in, who’s out, we feel like we have a lineup that can win every night.”
The Canadiens looked like they were going to do that after rattling off seven wins in their first 10 games, but it was all put in doubt over an eight-game stretch that cost Claude Julien his job as head coach. A stretch that looked far too familiar to that ugly stuff we saw last year.
But that’s starting to feel like it happened ages ago, too. Suddenly, the Canadiens once again look like the team they’re built to be, they’re growing, and that has much to do with interim coach Dominique Ducharme.
“I’ve played behind a few good teams in the past, I’m very fortunate,” said Allen, who won the 2019 Stanley Cup with a St. Louis Blues team with Craig Berube taking over for Mike Yeo as coach mid-stream. “Tonight, I felt like I was behind one of those really good teams again. It’s just the way the guys supported the puck, they were in the right positions. They were patient with it, they dumped pucks in, they didn’t force any plays. It’s not always about just shooting pucks to the net; it’s about being patient with the puck.
“I think it’s obviously taken some time to buy into the system that Dom’s put into place. I’ve been through coaching changes, it takes a couple of weeks, a month. I think things are starting to click and everyone’s buying in. If we can do that consistently, we’ll have a good chance to win every night.”
It took several sleeps to get to this point. An ugly loss or two, some heartbreakers in overtime/the shootout and some hard-fought wins that were anything but perfect before the Canadiens emerged again as the team we thought they were when the season started.
And it took an unexpected one-week break in the schedule, due to two players being placed in COVID Protocol last Monday, to cement what Ducharme has been building as a foundation.
“We knew we had a week off, but nobody took it for granted,” said Danault. “We worked out. Even if it’s not easy — you have a bye week, you want to relax — but we worked out… We also stayed sharp mentally. We had a couple of meetings, and everyone was in on the call, so I think it shows the dedication of our team.”
The way the Canadiens played in Tuesday’s 4-0 win over the Edmonton Oilers and Thursday’s win over Ottawa showed the dedication to the system.
And good dedication comes from a healthy team culture.
“Culture takes so long to change, and it’s so hard to do. It’s hard work, and it’s not always fun work,” Danault said. “But we worked on it a lot (over the last year) and I think the arrival of Dom really helped us polish the little details that were missing.”
Combine that with the depth and the internal competition and you’re getting somewhere.
And when the results start to come from that, like they have over the first three consecutive wins since January, that creates belief.
“It’s really important,” said Ducharme. “I mean, when you put things in place and guys start to feel the impact into the game, that’s where the belief grows. And our guys are doing a great job. We said it before, we have a great group of guys — they’re a united team and they want to have success. They’re playing with the right mindset and the right attitude right now. We’ll keep that and we’ll make our game better every day.”
It’s what the Canadiens weren’t able to do a year ago, but something they must continue to do right now — with 23 games to play in 40 nights to not only lock down a playoff spot but to establish themselves as a top team.
