It’s one outstanding team after another that the Montreal Canadiens face as they wind down their season. While another missed playoffs wasn’t the hope, solace can be taken that the Canadiens improved as the season progressed.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have given the Canadiens a lot of trouble, and Thursday night was no different. The Lightning seized on an off-night for Cayden Primeau to win 7-4.
Wilde Horses
It was a rare night for the Canadiens as they finally had some secondary scoring. Alex Newhook, Brendan Gallagher and Joel Armia took over the reins from the first line led by Nick Suzuki.
Newhook has had a strong season with little praise for it. Gallagher continues to work his tail off, even though his best offensive days are behind him. However, the big story on the line is Armia. He has put together a remarkable comeback season.
His season started in the minors, where it all could have gone extremely wrong for him after a suspect training camp. Armia put his head down and got to work. That work quickly produced a promotion back to the NHL.
Since then, he’s had the best season of his career. Armia scored twice in the contest to up his goal total to 16. That ties his best season registered in 2020. He has seven games to hit a career high in goals.
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Armia is also third on the team in goals despite missing 16 games. He trails only Suzuki and Cole Caufield. Armia is tied with Juraj Slafkovsky, who kept his excellent run going with a tip-in on a point shot. Slafkovsky is learning he cannot be contended with physically. He can go to the front of the net and park, then wait. He’s learning what an outstanding weapon he has.
Slafkovsky used his size again, but in a different manner, on the 6-4 goal. He brought two players to him, and simply had too much strength for the Tampa players to handle. That created space for Suzuki and Caufield. It was Caufield finishing with the shot to the top corner.
Wilde Goats
Kaiden Guhle took a hit in the first period that seemed to have left him with a concussion. He suffered a concussion in October as well. Guhle’s head was rocked against the glass by Nikita Kucherov. No penalty was called, even though the hit nailed Guhle right between the numbers.
The point that defenders of that hit will make is that Guhle has to protect himself, because Kucherov was simply following through on the play. However, the issue taken with that is there was no way that Guhle could defend himself. He was finishing a pass to his defensive partner.
Guhle must play the puck and his hands are low to accomplish that pass. Are we suggesting Guhle must suffer a concussion to make a hockey play? If Guhle does protect himself by pushing his hands against the glass when hit, he cannot simultaneously play the puck.
This is why the rule about “hitting from behind” exists. There are scenarios where a player can’t physically defend themselves in the run of play. The NFL has recognized this. They have recently initiated a penalty called “hitting a defenceless receiver.”
The penalty exists in hockey as well. Simply, call it. Just call it. Guhle was defenceless. He cannot both defend himself and make a hockey play. Let him make a hockey play without also getting a concussion. Let’s protect these players more.
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One of the hardest things to grasp is that drafting is not an exact science. It’s so common to suggest that a mistake has been made on draft day, but a lot of time must pass before a true evaluation can be made on a pick.
In his first year after the draft, Jesperi Kotkaniemi looked like the right pick. At third overall, he stormed onto the scene as a teenager and turned in a strong season. Unfortunately, he never progressed. In fact, he has regressed. Kotkaniemi was even a healthy scratch for the Hurricanes on Thursday night. Carolina is on the hook for that contract until 2030.
For every perfect selection of Auston Matthews, there’s a disaster like Nail Yakupov. Even the number one pick, in a revisit of the draft five years later, can turn out to be the wrong selection.
For this reason, the people who are so certain that a mistake in a draft has been made by the Canadiens need to wait for history to tell its own story.
Early on, when Juraj Slafkovsky struggled to keep on his feet and couldn’t win a puck battle, the knives were out and sharpened. Only a season later, Slafkovsky looks like the right choice at first overall.
With that as the backdrop, it’s quite bizarre to see the same scenario playing out with the next Canadiens early first-round pick. The fear now, and even a certainty, for many, is that David Reinbacher was the wrong choice at five.
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Matvei Michkov is speculated to be a superior player, but let’s wait on that. Michkov hasn’t played a single game in the NHL. He may actually not be all that. He’s not a big player. He’s a winger. He has no defensive game or a desire to have one — at all. He may not be the next Gretzky. Reinbacher may be the best choice, just like Slafkovsky. Give it time.
In the end, Kotkaniemi wasn’t the best choice. In fact, the best went four picks later in Quinn Hughes. Evan Bouchard went seven picks later. Both players were not even on the radar in that draft for Montreal. It was a Kotkaniemi or Brady Tkachuk or Filip Zadina choice.
It’s not a science. Every single year a five can be 10th best and a 10th may be fifth best.
This year, there is quite a lot of consternation that the Canadiens absolutely must lose a sufficient number of games to draft fifth. That is the goal. It would be a benefit to draft higher. This is not the disputed point. Of course, higher equals better over the long course of history.
However, should the Canadiens win more and drop to seven, they will still be able to get a forward in the same tier.
It is expected that Ivan Demidov will be the best of the forwards in his tier. However, it may just be Cayden Lindstrom who is best. Berkly Catton might even be the breakout star, or Cole Eiserman. Tij Iginla could also follow in his father’s footsteps and be a great one who was chosen later than he should have been.
No one knows. As long as the Canadiens get a forward in the top tier, they’ll have achieved their goal. Remember that the Vegas Golden Knights wouldn’t part with Cody Glass, taken at six, but were fine to part with Nick Suzuki, taken at 13, in the Max Pacioretty trade.
If you are still skeptical Montreal absolutely must finish fifth-worst, look at every single draft in history. There isn’t a single one where a redraft would see the same top 10 in the order taken. Not one.
So try not to lose too much sleep thinking this is the first draft ever where the order taken is the exact order of excellence the picks will mature to. Montreal will get an excellent forward in the draft. That is sufficient for the day.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
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GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
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Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
