For Canadiens' Guhle, latest comeback a lesson that poise doesn't always pay off

BROSSARD, Que. — This was one mind game Kaiden Guhle wasn’t anticipating, and it played tricks on him almost immediately.

Guhle knew that spending nearly three months out of NHL action would rust more than just his skate blades. Unfortunately, his extensive previous experience on the sidelines taught him that his hands and feet may also betray his mind on occasion, with timing always the last piece to fall into place. And he planned for his lungs and legs to burn a bit more than he was accustomed to after surgery to repair a partially torn adductor muscle forced him into the longest rehab of his career.

But Guhle couldn’t have expected that the poise he’d been developing over his first three seasons in the league would be an impediment to his smoothest return possible, until it proved to be exactly that in a 4-0 loss for his Montreal Canadiens against the Detroit Red Wings on Jan. 10.

Don’t get us wrong. Eight days before his 24th birthday, Guhle rode adrenaline through a relatively strong individual performance against the Red Wings, especially considering how much time he had missed.

But if there was one knock on Guhle’s game that night, it was that he was a bit slow to react to how quickly his time and space with the puck was being taken away by his opponents.

You could forgive Guhle for thinking he had more of it. Convincing himself of that got him playing what he believed was the best hockey of his life last season. And watching the Canadiens play so many games from the press box since — as his latest injury healed up — gave him a false sense of security that time and space would once again be there for him when he would finally step back into a game.

But Guhle fell into a trap, and he acknowledged that he hadn’t quite dug his way out of it through the two games that immediately followed his first one against Detroit.

Guhle struggled against the Vancouver Canucks last Monday, and he had an even tougher time against the Buffalo Sabres Thursday after skipping Tuesday’s game against the Washington Capitals.

“I think I’m just trying to do a little bit too much at times, trying to maybe make a perfect play and thinking a little bit too much, too,” Guhle said from Ottawa on Friday. “As good as it is to be able to watch up top at times to see every play develop, you can kind of overthink the game a little bit (once you’re back on the ice), which for me is not where I need to be mentally.”

In a 6-5 win over the Senators on Saturday, Guhle got to a better place. He played a much simpler 15:42 spread over 18 shifts and registered three hits and, most importantly, zero giveaways. He moved the puck harder, faster and without hesitation, meeting his goal to reset the foundation of his game.

Once that foundation is firmly back in place, and once he’s regained rhythm and caught back up to speed, Guhle can begin to start slowing things back down again.

Just like he was doing last winter.

“That time-and-space factor, I started to get really comfortable with that at both ends of the ice,” Guhle said.

It was most apparent before he fell and cut his quadricep muscle last January.

“You get hurt, then you kind of start from ground zero,” said Guhle. “Then you have summer, and you work on stuff and go to camp and deal with something. And then five games and, boom, you’re out for three months. It’s tough.”

The condensed schedule made Guhle’s return even tougher, and not just because of how taxing it could be on a freshly rehabilitated player.

Guhle jumped back into what was a playoff flow established for everyone else around him back in October. He returned as his own team was in the middle of its most hectic sequence — five games in seven nights — and his opponents were playing at a similar clip.

None of them had time for practice, but none of them needed it that much either.

Guhle did. Everyone else could play with poise, but it took time for him to realize he’d be better off relying on less of it for now.

Kirby Dach should have the same approach if he plays Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild.

A broken bone in his foot has sidelined the forward since Nov. 15 and the poise he generally plays with could be a disadvantage to him in the opening phase of his return.

Until Dach gets through it, he should just play simple, hard and as fast as he can.

Guhle is doing that now, and he intends on regaining his poise in due time.

“I’m not going to say I have all the time in the world to get it back,” Guhle said, “but I believe in myself that I am going to find that part of my game again. I’m still confident.”

No sleep for Martin St. Louis

The Canadiens took four flights last week, but their coach took six because his other job was calling.

“Your son only turns 18 once,” St. Louis said when we asked him about it Monday.

On Friday, the Canadiens surprisingly practised because, as assistant coach Stephane Robidas said, it was a better option for the team than just sitting around the hotel in Kanata.

St. Louis’ best option was to be with his son, Mason, on his milestone birthday.

“His two brothers are in college, and they played on Friday, and so I wanted Mason to feel the presence of his family,” St. Louis said. “You try to do as much as you can, and I can only do so much. But when there’s an opportunity, I take advantage of it.

“The easiest thing to do would be nothing, because there’s logistics to it. But I’m willing to deal with the logistics because these are moments you can’t get back.”

To enjoy this one, St. Louis stayed in Buffalo on Thursday and flew home Friday morning.

He and his wife then hosted Mason’s entire hockey team, including parents of all the players, for a birthday dinner at his golf club Friday night before he flew first thing Saturday to Ottawa, arriving in Kanata on time to conduct his morning meetings with Canadiens coaches and the players.

The Canadiens-Senators game on Saturday night started late due to a ceremony to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Canadian Tire Centre, and, mercifully for St. Louis, it ended 33 seconds into overtime.

The coach then did his post-game press conference 20 minutes later before rushing to the airport for another flight home.

This one was to catch Mason’s Sunday hockey game in person, and St. Louis made it with plenty of time to spare.

“But the game ended up getting cancelled due to bad weather,” he said.

St. Louis still got extra hours with his wife and son before returning to Montreal to run Canadiens practice Monday.

There wasn’t much time for sleep baked into his insane schedule, but he didn’t seem to care about that.

“It meant a lot to me for me to be there,” St. Louis said. “It worked out great.”