CANADIENS ARE DONE FOR THIS SEASON
His name is Auston Matthews.
He’s a 6-foot-2, 194-pound centre who is a strong skater with exceptional hockey skills. If he had been born a couple of days earlier, the American would be playing in the NHL this season, possibly with the Buffalo Sabres.
It’s a name Canadiens fans will probably be talking about a lot for the rest of this season.
Matthews was born on Sept. 17, 1997 — two weeks after his due date — missing the cut date for the 2015 NHL Entry Draft by two days. He’s already so talented that some scouts believe he might have challenged the Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid as the No. 1 pick at last year’s draft, or at least gone No. 2, where the Sabres picked up Jack Eichel.
The Sabres aren’t complaining, though. Eichel picked up an assist in Wednesday night’s 4-2 win over the Canadiens at the Bell Centre and the 19-year-old has 16-19-35 totals this season. Only two Canadiens have more points: P.K. Subban (4-35-39) and Max Pacioretty (19-18-37).
The Sabres handed the Canadiens their fourth straight loss and it was also the fourth straight game that Montreal scored only two goals. The Habs have scored more than two goals only once in their last 10 games while going 1-8-1. After a franchiserecord 9-0 start to the season the Canadiens are now a .500 team at 24-24-4, sitting in 13th place in the Eastern Conference — only six points ahead of the 14th-place Sabres. In the overall NHL standings, the Canadiens are 23rd out of 30 teams. Forget about the playoffs. The draft lottery is quickly becoming the goal for frustrated Canadiens fans and Matthews is the big prize. In 30 games this season playing against men with Zurich in the Swiss-A League, the 18-year-old has 23-16-39 totals.
If the Canadiens finish the season 23rd overall, they would have a 6.0 per cent chance of getting the No. 1 pick in the draft lottery. The further they fall, the better the odds.
With 30 games left in the season, the Canadiens are only nine points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets — the worst team in the NHL that beat them twice last week. The team that finishes last will have a 20-per-cent chance of getting Matthews.
The Canadiens could end up winning by losing — and how sad is that for this storied franchise?
Eichel has already made a big impact on the Sabres this season.
“He’s a great kid,” Sabres captain Brian Gionta, who scored the final goal Wednesday night into an empty net, said about Eichel. “Fits in well in the group and he’s going to be a big talent for a long time to come.
“He shows a lot of composure for a young guy,” the former Canadiens captain added. “But we got a lot of new guys that came in and really changed the complexity of this team. We battle hard every night and we give ourselves a chance to win. Our goalie (Robin Lehner) played well tonight and gave us a chance.”
Carey Price used to give the Canadiens a chance to win on many nights when they didn’t deserve to. But fans expecting a return of Price from his lower-body injury to solve the Canadiens’ problems are sadly mistaken. When a team can’t score three goals, it’s not going to win many games no matter who is in goal — and Mike Condon is not the problem with this team.
Don’t expect Price back any time soon, either. He was spotted after the game walking toward the Sabres locker room — along with his wife — with a noticeable limp to his right leg to meet up with Gionta and Josh Gorges, another former Canadien with the Sabres.
It’s getting near time for the Canadiens to simply shut Price down for the rest of the season. It would make sense at this point, hoping he can return at 100-percent next season.
It was a totally different scenario the last time the Canadiens and Sabres met back on Oct. 23 in Buffalo. The Canadiens smoked the Sabres 7-2 for their eighth straight victory to start the season. The Canadiens would beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3 the next night to set a franchise record with a 9-0 start and were averaging 3.89 goals per game.
Since then, the Canadiens have scored more than three goals only nine times in 43 games while going 15-24-4. The Sabres have gone 19-21-4 since then, picking up eight points on Montreal in the standings.
“I think we’re learning how to win those close games,” Gionta said. “We’ve lost something like 15 one-goal games. Learning how to win those … if you can go .500 on those you’re automatically right there in the playoff hunt.”
After Wednesday’s loss, the sportsclubstats.com website had the Canadiens listed with an 11.2 per cent chance of making the playoffs, while the Sabres were at 1.0. But at least the Sabres are getting better, while the Canadiens are getting worse.
Last season, there were fans in Buffalo cheering when the Sabres would lose at home, hoping they would end up with the No. 1 pick at the draft lottery.
It wouldn’t be shocking if the same thing starts happening here.