Canadiens notebook: Texier confident, Guhle throwing it back, Kreider coming

BROSSARD, Que. — The difference in Alexandre Texier this season has been striking, though you’d never see it just by looking at the traditional numbers. 

Because even though Texier has appeared more productive than he’s ever been, he’s only produced two goals and five points. That’s a five per cent dip in the production rate he posted through the first 283 games of his NHL career. 

To know that Texier has only produced the same number of goals and points through 14 games as Jake Evans has produced over his last five is astounding considering how dominant he’s looked so far — and how under-utilized Evans is offensively.

Astounding was looking at NHL Edge Data and seeing that Texier has yet to record a single speed burst at or above the 21.92 m.p.h. he registered last season. We could’ve sworn the Frenchman was flying before that myth was officially busted.

Not that anyone should care. Least of all Texier, who said after Saturday’s game that he’s in a great mental and physical state.

“I’m obviously confident,” Texier said, though we didn’t need to hear that assertion to know.

We didn’t need the numbers to show us, either, because that goal Texier scored in Montreal’s 5-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins only further confirmed just how confident he’s been since the puck dropped on the NHL season back on Sept. 29.

Texier may not have moved any faster than he ever has to score that one, but how assertively and decisively he moved to put himself in position to let his all-world skill take over was telling enough.

That’s been the 27-year-old’s focus this season.

“It’s just moving my feet,” Texier said. “I’m feeling good about our line, the way we play, our role on the team, so that’s a bit different. But overall, it’s just moving my feet and creating room in the O-zone, offensively trying to be in the right spot. I don’t think I think too much about it; I think just moving is a big part of it. I’m moving my feet to get engaged. To create plays, play physical, it’s all about your feet, it starts with your feet.”

Texier has always used them to shake coverage and extend offensive possession, and that feature of his game has appeared as strong as ever this season. 

But right now, he’s using his feet much more to drive on the rush instead of pulling up to look for passes, and that’s been the most noticeable change in his game.

“For sure,” said Texier. “I think talking with ‘Big Cat’ (Adam Nicholas), our skill guy, it’s all about making the difference. Be a difference on the ice, and it’s kind of that mindset I’m trying to have every night on the ice. 

“Consistency is (also) a big part I’m focusing on right now — every single game, try to play the same way. Obviously, it’s not going to be perfect every night. Some nights, you’re going to have a bad night. But try to have that focus.”

Texier has had it since Game 1, and at least there’s some statistical support to that, with the deeper numbers at five-on-five confirming why he should feel as good as he does. 

They show Texier has won the shot-attempt and expected goals battle more than he has in any of his previous NHL seasons. He’s near 60 per cent in the first category and close to 65 per cent in the second, and that’s despite starting more than 70 per cent of his shifts outside the offensive zone. 

The goals and points will come if Texier keeps doing it. 

The encouraging part is he hasn’t relented yet, which is also different from what we’ve seen from him in other seasons.

Kaiden Guhle throwing it back to Shea Weber

That topic was broached with the 24-year-old defenceman by TVA’s Renaud Lavoie on Saturday morning, and it wasn’t a new one for Guhle, who’s been compared to the Man Mountain since he was drafted 16th overall by the Canadiens in 2020.

Now, Lavoie wasn’t specifically comparing Guhle to Weber in this case. He was talking to Guhle about how Weber had masterful timing — on his hits, on his shot, on his first pass — first as a lead-in to ask him about what impression Weber made on him during his first training camp, and second to suggest to Guhle he had apparently found his best timing since making his season debut four games late.

Guhle wholeheartedly agreed on that point and said he was feeling better about his game than he ever has.

As we stood in on that conversation waiting to talk to Guhle on another subject, we started thinking about the most revealing conversation we ever had with Weber, and how it applied to Guhle.

It was back in 2017 that Weber came as close as he ever did to talking about himself.

“I was so happy for Drew Doughty when he won the Norris (in 2016),” Weber said. “I think the game has so many great puck-movers and skaters, but he does it all. He’ll block a shot, throw a big hit, he can shoot it, start the rush. He does it all game after game.”

That was Weber’s profile from the first day he stepped into the league in 2005 until the day he hobbled out of it in 2021.

Throughout that time, though, fewer and fewer defencemen had that profile.

And now, with the Quinn Hughes and Lane Hutsons of the world roving position-free seemingly more than Bobby Orr even did, it’s become even rarer.

But Guhle has it.

Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis was right to say the main reason it’s standing out as much right now is because the player is healthier than he’s been in a long time. 

Prior to this season, Guhle’s momentum towards regularly showing it was interrupted by injury. He was sidelined from 120 of the 328 games he was eligible to play by one ailment or another, and another off-season surgery guaranteed he wouldn’t buck the trend through this campaign. 

But the time Guhle missed at the beginning of the season was out of extra caution to ensure he was returning at 100 per cent from that adductor procedure, and he said he’s thankful he made that decision because he’s been just that in every game he’s played.

Not just health-wise, but also versatility-wise.

“He’s able to play with a lot of pace, and his defensive pace is very obvious,” said St. Louis. “When you have that kind of pace and anticipation, you can bring physicality, which he does. He separates the opponents from the puck, which now we get possession, and he’s able to get more touches than before because of what he’s able to do defensively. Our team touches it, he touches it, and his touches are good…”

They may never be good enough for Guhle to put up the Hall of Fame-worthy offence Weber produced. 

And the six-foot-three, 202-pounder may never be able to intimidate his opponents the way the six-foot-four, 230-pound Weber did.

But Guhle’s skating and skill, combined with will and brawn, make him a threat at both ends of the ice. And all that, along with one other element, makes him a bit of a throwback to Weber.

“They’re hard to find — these kinds of players that play that total game — and it’s not like he’s flashy in any way,” said St. Louis. “He helps us keep going. He kills plays defensively, and we go on offence, and he’s able to play offence, too, at the blue line. He’s going to do it differently from Lane, but he’s still able to do his thing, whatever that is. He’s got a good shot, and he plays inside our principles offensively, too, so we’re able to continue.”

The coach concluded Guhle’s start to the season has been “great.”

Guhle has two goals and four points and is averaging a career-high 22:49 per game in the toughest defensive matchups night in, night out. He’s thrived in that role, particularly in the six games minute-muncher Mike Matheson has missed, and his teammates are loving what they’re getting from him.

“He’s a stud back there,” said Jake Evans. “He’s doing all the little things right. He’s extremely hard to play against, it looks like, against most of the (other) teams’ top players. For me, he looks like he’s just willing to do whatever it takes to win games. He has been showing up on the score sheet, but sometimes he won’t. But he has such a big impact for us.”

Chris Kreider ‘going in the right direction’

It’s been a slow burn for new Canadiens forward Chris Kreider, who entered Saturday’s game with just one goal and four assists through his first 13.

But Kreider went one and one against Pittsburgh and might have finally sparked his breakout.

Even if he hadn’t scored, he looked more comfortable in that game than he has in any other since he arrived in Montreal in September. 

That’s normal. This is all still relatively new to Kreider, who mentioned a couple of times in the early going that he could feel that half-second of thinking slowing him down a bit.

The 35-year-old knew it would take time for him to get it down to a quarter-second before eliminating it entirely and just being able to rely on the instinct that’s made him such a productive player in this league, and so did St. Louis.

The coach said it’s coming.

“Like everyone, it’s not linear, but it’s going in the right direction,” he said. “A game like (Saturday’s) could perhaps relax the player a bit and help him gain confidence. If you get traded or come from another team, there’s always an adaptation to style of game, how you’re used, the rhythm in which you get on the ice. So, I’d say there’s nothing linear in that, but it’s going in the right direction.”