When Charlie Lindgren stopped Kasperi Kapanen on the final shot, in the final shootout in the final Canadiens game of the season, there was an immediate sense of exultation and joy amongst the players on the ice at the Bell Centre clad in red, and the millions of Canadiens fans in the stands and watching on television. After all, it was a Canadiens victory on a Saturday night, against the hubristic, self acclaimed “dynastic,” rival Toronto Maple Leafs.
Yet, the thrill of the victory was not in celebration of what was hoped for days earlier, that of confirmation that the team had qualified for the playoffs. No. Rather, the jolt of excitement came from the way this team played, a genuine, helter skelter, firewagon hockey, and for the hope for the future that this team promises.
The game on Saturday night was a thrilling game from start to finish, as the Canadiens traded goals with the Leafs all evening, and where the staunch defensive hockey that the Habs valiantly played over the last month of the season was quickly abandoned for a crowd pleasing, back and forth game of shinny.
No player shone more brightly on that stage, than a youngster from Minnesota playing in his first NHL game. Signed a week earlier to the Canadiens, Ryan Poehling remarkably became the sixth player in NHL history to record a hat-trick in his first NHL game, and capped the historic evening off with a shootout winning goal. The game also marked the final broadcast of the venerable 50 year career of Hockey Night in Canada announcer Bob Cole. Imagine that for a debut; four shots, four goals, in just over 11 minutes of ice-time, on a Saturday night on one of hockey’s grandest stages, broadcast to an entire country and narrated by one of the game’s most legendary voices.
These scenes would not have been fathomable, given the despair and emptiness that resulted from the Columbus Blue Jackets’s win in New York against the Rangers the night before. That result knocked the Canadiens out of the playoff race, and stripped the Canadiens-Maple Leafs’ Saturday night tilt of all of its pomp and grandiosity.
The day Poehling signed with the Canadiens, there was much fanfare and discussion as to whether he would feature in any of the Canadiens games this week, against Tampa Bay, Washington or Toronto. These were do-or-die games, and given how coach Claude Julien stresses the importance of having all four lines contribute, how he emphasizes conservative and disciplined hockey, it was seen as highly unlikely that a raw rookie like Poehling would feature in these “playoff-like” games. Marc Bergevin essentially quashed any notion that Poehling would feature in these games on the conference call in which he discussed the signing.
Thus, it was the Canadiens’s elimination on Friday evening that allowed Poehling to find himself centering the Canadiens fourth line on Saturday night. The Canadiens also rested Carey Price, who started 26 of the Canadiens last 27 games, and played Charlie Lindgren in goal for the first time this season.
It would have been conceivable for the crowd and the team to come out flat, having had their hearts ripped out from their chests less than 24 hours earlier. But after trailing 2-0 early in the game, Poehling’s first goal late in the first period piqued the Bell Centre’s interest. His second goal, in the second period, turned the mood into a more festive one. As the teams traded goals back and forth, and the Leafs held a 5-4 lead in the third, it was Poehling’s hat-trick which sent the crowd into a near delirious state.
From then on, every time Poehling touched the puck, there was an audible murmur, a palpable sense that something would happen. And so when the Habs and Leafs were tied after three shooters in the game’s final act, the shootout, the crowd was stirred into a frenzy when Poehling skated towards centre ice to take the Habs’s fourth attempt. Poehling slalomed down the ice, and fired a sneaky wrist shot past Leafs netminder Frederik Andersen to put the Canadiens up. Lindgren would stop Kapanen, and skate to the Canadiens bench in sheer bliss, as the team and crowd around him exploded with the genuine ecstasy of victory.
After the celebrations on the ice wore off, there was a bittersweet sense to the evening. The Canadiens have missed playoffs in recent years, and in the most recent seasons in 2012, 2016 and 2018, the team was reduced to playing meaningless games for over a month. The atmosphere grew near hostile each of those years, as a series of players who have never been heard from since (Mike Blunden, Petteri Nokkelainen, Darren Dietz, John Scott), mindlessly skated out the season for the sake of filling a lineup card. When those seasons ended, there was a sense of gratitude that fans could move on with their lives, rather than consecrate two and a half hours nightly to such dross and pointlessness.
Yet, in spite of missing the playoffs in back to back years, last night, there was a genuine sense of sadness. This team was one that had expectations of being a lottery team at the start of the season, and there was extreme fan resentment towards Marc Bergevin for his work over the last three seasons, and even Carey Price and Shea Weber felt some wrath for their enormous contracts. Bergevin and Julien’s messages about the team lacking “character” last season (which were cited as a major reason for why they missed the playoffs) were largely derided and mocked by those that felt they were out of touch with the sophistication of the modern game.
However, after 82 games, there is a sense of sadness because this edition of the Canadiens actually did have a lot of “character.” They were resilient throughout the season, were one of the top 5 teams in “5 on 5” situations all season, and played fast, exciting and up tempo hockey. Furthermore, there were glimpses of how this team has some legitimate pieces for the future, whether it be Jesperi Kotkaniemi playing with the Habs, Alexander Romanov playing as an 18 year old in the KHL, Nick Suzuki dominating the OHL and now Ryan Poehling, who put on an unforgettable show in his first NHL game.
In the end, the Canadiens missed the playoffs despite finishing the season with 96 points. Only two teams in NHL history have had more points and have missed the playoffs. Both the 2014-15 Boston Bruins and 2017-18 Florida Panthers missed the playoffs with more points, and ignominiously failed to make the playoffs the following year as well.
Ultimately, there is no guarantee that the Canadiens will make the playoffs next year, despite all their youth and all the promises that youth brings. But, what this year’s Canadiens did provide was a lot of fun for its fans, and an ounce of hope for the future. In the end, those are just some of the reasons we watch the game, and that’s not a bad mindset to go into the summer with.
Jaideep Kanungo
Jaikan Sport 