TORONTO — All was not lost.
Just a hockey game and a series, both of which were there for the taking for the Montreal Canadiens.
They came to Toronto as the 24th-ranked team in a 24-team tournament for the Stanley Cup. They knocked off a championship-caliber Pittsburgh Penguins team in four games in the qualifying round. And they gave the Eastern Conference’s top-seeded Philadelphia Flyers everything they could handle in a hard-fought, 3-2 Game 6 loss — and for the five games that preceded it — and now they’re leaving the bubble having taken a considerable step forward in the reset they embarked on in the summer of 2018.
If the Canadiens made it this far, it was largely due to Carey Price and Shea Weber, their elder statesmen who played as well as they ever have in the important games that have defined their Hall-of-Fame-worthy careers. Weber averaged over 25 minutes a game, had two goals and five points, and Price had stopped 250 of 265 shots he faced for a .944 save percentage and a 1.64 goals-against average before he was beat by three shots that banked off bodies in front of him.
It was a heartbreaking outcome in a game the Canadiens dominated from start to finish. They out-shot the Flyers, 33-17, and out-chanced them, 22-11, and they put up an effort Brendan Gallagher — their heart-and-soul player whose series came to an end in Game 5 after receiving a Matt Niskanen cross-check that knocked out teeth and broke his jaw — would’ve been proud of.
Surely the 33-year-old Price and the 35-year-old Weber recognized the signs of growth in this Canadiens team. The ones that can allow them to believe that they might soon contend while they’re still capable of playing at the level they offered in these playoffs.
Montreal’s two youngest players, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Nick Suzuki, established themselves as stars in the making. They finished as the team’s leading goal scorers, with Suzuki scoring two in this devastating loss to tie Kotkaniemi with four goals in the playoffs.
For Kotkaniemi, the 20-year-old taken third overall in the 2018 draft, it was a complete redemption from a disastrous and injury-plagued sophomore season.
“From Day 1 [of Phase 3 training camp in July], he came in with a different mindset, and I want to be on the record on this: It’s not about Marc Bergevin meeting him at the end of the year, not about Claude Julien, it’s not about Joel Bouchard having this magic wand; it’s about KK taking it upon himself,” Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin said earlier on Friday. “So, I give all the credit to him to realize that he had to be better and he did, and we see a KK that wants to be a Montreal Canadien and wants to have the potential that we saw when we drafted him. And I think he has a bright future ahead of him.”
Bergevin was effusive in his praise of Suzuki, as well. He acquired the former 13th overall pick along with Tomas Tatar and a draft choice the Canadiens used to select promising defenceman Mattias Norlinder in trading Max Pacioretty to the Vegas Golden Knights in September of 2018, and he watched the 21-year-old earn his way into the rookie-of-the-year conversation during this past regular season.
And then Bergevin — and the rest of the hockey world — watched Suzuki author a brilliant performance in these playoffs.
“What I love from Nick isn’t just how he’s playing but that he’s doing at this moment of the season,” the GM said. “We’re in the playoffs, in difficult and physical games, and he’s elevated his game. He’s reminding me of the player who was the OHL’s leading playoff scorer [2019], the one who came back from down 3-1 [3-0] to [the]London [Knights] with [the]Guelph [Storm]. He’s a character player, and we see it today. Hats off to Nick Suzuki for becoming the good young player everyone expected.”
Jake Evans, who was drafted 207th overall in 2014, emerged as well for the Canadiens. Victor Mete, 22, gained precious experience and got better with every game. And even Jonathan Drouin, the 25-year-old whom Bergevin considers a member of this young core, played his best with the team’s back against the wall — delivering two assists in each elimination game and finishing tied with Suzuki for the team lead in points (6).
It was a learning experience for one of the youngest teams in the NHL, and they took it to heart. The Canadiens fought valiantly and lost, but there’s no doubt they gained something too over these three weeks — and it wasn’t just the 15th overall pick in the upcoming draft.
