What a difference a year can make
Like the Canucks, the Canadiens went young and speedy — and the moves are paying off big time
As another dreary Vancouver Canucks’ season came to an end last April, Canucks’ owner Francesco Aquilini offered the following during a curious 15-post Twitter storm.
This isn’t to be confused with the salvo that followed the abrupt departure of team president Trevor Linden in July. Rather, it was a series of tweets that revealed his take on the Canucks’ rebuild, their young core and, most notably, where the team fit in an NHL that was trending toward youth, speed and skill.
Among other things, Aquilini wrote, “Look at Colorado and New Jersey this year making the playoffs,” citing two teams that had qualified for the post-season after finishing 30th and 27th in the NHL overall standings the year before.
The message was, if it can happen in Denver or Newark, it can happen in Vancouver which must have come as a news flash to a fan base that has endured three straight seasons from hell with their heroes.
But we digress.
The Canucks, it seems, are close to turning things around although how close is a matter of some interpretation. But the more interesting story Saturday concerned their opposition, a team that remarkably finished behind the Canucks last season but seems to have reinvented itself over the space of one year.
That’s a helluva story in Montreal. You just wonder how it plays in Vancouver.
The Canadiens arrived in town as one of the surprise stories of this NHL season and while they didn’t light it up against an undermanned but resourceful Canucks’ team, the evidence of their summer makeover was on display in the 3-2 win.
Over the first two periods, the Habs had the home side chasing the game, taking a 1-0 lead on Tomas Tatar’s breakaway goal and forcing Jacob Markstrom into a couple of five-alarm saves.
The Canucks battled back in the third, forging a 2-1 lead on Elias Pettersson’s power-play goal before the Habs tied it on a cruel bounce off Andrew Shaw in front of Markstrom. Jonathan Drouin, on a late power-play, then supplied the winner, making the Habs twofor-Western Canada on their current road trip.
Now, to appreciate the full scope of the Habs’ turnaround, you have to consider where they ended 2017-18. Last season, the Habs weren’t just bad, they were boring which is an unforgivable sin in Montreal.
In addition to finishing 28th overall, two spots behind the Canucks, they finished 29th in goals scored.
With their fan base in an uproar and demanding the head of GM Marc Bergevin, the Habs huddled this off-season to plot their next course of action and decided, this thing with speed and young players seems to be working for some teams. Let’s give it a whirl.
The Canucks, as you may be aware, have been trying the same thing since Jim Benning took over as GM in 2014. But in one off-season, Bergevin completely transformed the Habs.
Max Domi, who’d struggled through back-to-back nine goal seasons in Arizona, was acquired for chronic underachiever Alex Galchenyuk. Domi is not only top-10 in the NHL in scoring with 10 goals and 24 points, but he has the look of a young star around whom the Habs can build.
In the draft, the Habs surprised when they took Finnish centre Jesperi Kotkaniemi with the third overall pick. The 18-year-old has three goals and 10 points to date and hasn’t look out of place. In a deal with Las Vegas, they also turned Max Pacioretty into Tomas Tatar, their second-leading scorer, lottery first-rounder Nick Suzuki and a second-rounder.
There were other moves but the overall effect has been telling. The Habs are averaging more than a full goal per game over last season, they play an exciting uptempo brand and are re-engaging their market.
“We went into the off-season talking about what we wanted this team to look like and what we needed to do in order to look that way,” Habs’ coach Claude Julien said. “The one thing we felt we had was a good skating team. We just had to add to it.
“You have to go with the flow. The league is getting faster and faster all the time. We’re not unique there. There are a lot of fast teams out there. We had to make sure we had the right people in place to follow that trend.”
One of those people is Domi who, like Pettersson for the Canucks, has emerged as a surprise star. Not everyone can cope with the demands of Montreal’s insatiable hockey market but Tie’s son, who grew up in the Maple Leafs’ dressing room, seems to draw strength from the spotlight.
Young Domi has charisma. He has game. Without overstating the point, those things can turn you into a god in Montreal.
“Any chance you get to play for an original-six team it’s special,” Domi said. “I’ve been around it my whole life.”
“I think he just thrives on that kind of environment,” said Julien. “I know from my first conversation with him, he was excited to come to Montreal. You could sense it in his voice.”
Maybe he knew change was coming. It can happen that fast, or so we’re told.