TAMPA BAY, Fla. — All the ingredients have come together for the Montreal Canadiens at the right time.
With the playoffs finally in view and an appearance in them all but secured, the Atlantic Division is up for grabs with only eight games remaining.
For much of this season, the Canadiens needed a reliable goaltender, and two have now emerged. Up until recently, it felt like they bled two great scoring chances for every one they created, but they’ve buckled down defensively to change that. Their penalty kill, which mis-clicked for months, has suddenly fallen into place. And while locking down leads seemed impossible for a good stretch, they’ve combined all those improvements to buck that trend convincingly.
The result? A season-high six consecutive wins, all earned in regulation.
This last one—a 4-1 win secured by two empty-net goals against arguably the hardest team in the Eastern Conference to keep at bay—was “probably the biggest win of the season,” according to captain Nick Suzuki.
He labelled it so due to the Canadiens proximity to the Lightning in the standings—they’re now only two points behind—and to the Buffalo Sabres, who are four points up having played one more game.
Of course, the 10-point gap opened on bubble teams Ottawa, Detroit and Philadelphia by beating this formidable Lightning team and keeping the NHL’s hottest scorer, Nikita Kucherov, off the board in the process also spoke to how big of a win this was for the Canadiens.
“When 86 is on the ice, it’s never easy,” said Jakub Dobes, who made 18 saves before pushing aside a Brandon Hagel breakaway to preserve the Canadiens’ 2-1 lead with one second left in the middle frame.
Dobes then made another 17 in the third because the Lightning were relentless.
So were the Canadiens.
From Dobes to Suzuki, and from Kaiden Guhle to Joe Veleno, who started the season as the 13th forward, got relegated to 15th at one point, and now might be impossible to remove from the lineup once Kirby Dach and Alex Texier return to health.
“I think he’s been a great player for us this year in terms of giving us some depth, especially defensively,” said Martin St. Louis of Veleno. “He’s a guy I trust on the ice… Whenever he comes in, he understands the way we want to play, he respects the rules that we play in defensively and stuff, and he’s a good skater. He can get on the forecheck, he can bring some physicality because of his skating. He’s been really good for us.”
Veleno, and everyone else.
That’s what you need to win games at this time of year, and it’s definitely what you need to beat the Lightning.
“This is a team that has had a lot of success,” said St. Louis, who was once a superstar player in Tampa. “I feel like when I took the job (in February of 2022), I looked at that team, their path, and how they did it. It’s something that we were trying to get to, and I feel over the last few years we’ve gotten closer... And when you do that, there’s a bigger responsibility now: it’s to not get satisfied with it just because you win, but sticking to that process that we’re trying to bring each and every day. You need that process against teams like that because you can do everything right against a team like that and still lose the game. So I’m just proud of the intention we had today.”
You could see it in the physical implication, which was epitomized by Guhle, who may have lost partner Alex Carrier to an upper-body injury before the game but didn’t lose the swagger he’s been playing with through this winning streak.
The 24-year-old defenceman talked about his early-season struggles, linking them to chasing offence rather than leaning into his defensive identity, and referenced a mentality switch that’s brought out exactly what the Canadiens have needed from him through this crucial stretch.
“Just being an in-your-face prick type of player,” Guhle said. "My game is being hard to play against and being in your face and not giving the other team’s players time and space. Offence will come, and I’ve found since I started doing that, I’m playing a lot better.”
Whatever mental reset Dobes went through has brought him up several levels from where he was through early December.
Since then, the Czech netminder has been a wall, finding better balance in his crease—and with his emotions.
“I’m still a rookie, so every time I learn something it’s part of the process,” Dobes said after being tagged back into post-game media availability following an eight-day timeout from those responsibilities. “I know I’m going to make mistakes and I’m going to learn every week, almost every day, so I’m just used to it. Just trying to work on my craft, that’s really it.”
It’s really working.
When Dobes was winning earlier in the season, it was while allowing four, five goals per outing.
He was named the NHL’s first star of the week Monday after stopping 100 of 104 shots in wins over Carolina (x2) and Columbus, and he was impenetrable Tuesday against the Lightning.
“I feel like he looks in the zone right now,” said St. Louis.
“I see a very confident guy right now who’s playing with some swagger. He looks big in the net,” he added.
You could say the same of Jacob Fowler, who’s won three of four starts since being recalled from the Laval Rocket in the second week of March.
In front of both goaltenders, the Canadiens stars have shone bright.
On this night, Juraj Slafkovsky made dominant plays to continue his remarkable season. The six-foot-three winger, who turned 22 Monday, notched his 15th power-play goal and 29th tuck of the season 12:25 into the first, and then he charged down the ice in the 13th minute of the second to give Cole Caufield one of the easiest of the 47 goals he’s scored through 74 games.
The individual performances from both players and Suzuki, whose empty netter counted as his 27th goal and 92nd point of the campaign, have driven the Canadiens to another level.
But it’s really about the collective and what it’s accomplishing when it matters most; the way it’s facing its problems head-on and finding ways to correct them.
“I feel the guys are having the right intentions in trying to reach our objectives in terms of what you have to do on the ice,” said St. Louis.
It’s preparing the Canadiens for what comes next, with two games remaining on this road trip and six others to play before the real fun begins.
