The Montreal Canadiens narrowly averted a complete disaster on Monday night. Jumping out to a 3-0 lead over the Buffalo Sabres in the first period, the Habs decided to turn on cruise control far earlier than they should have, and ended up surrendering their lead over the following two periods. Luckily, Mike Matheson had some overtime heroics up his sleeve, and they were able to escape with two points despite their collapse in regulation.
If for a moment one can put aside the near disaster, the current marvel on the Canadiens roster is the absolute heater that captain Nick Suzuki is on since the Four Nations tournament.
With four points on Monday night – factoring in on every single Habs goal – Suzuki now has 13 points in the five games he’s played following the tournament he didn’t get the chance to play in. You can’t help but wonder if his omission from team Canada has given him a bit of extra motivation, as he was always a bit of a long shot, but was discussed as an option by plenty of pundits in the lead-up to the official roster announcement. Perhaps he really wants to put himself on the map for the Olympic roster selection, and production like this is certainly a good way to do that.
Monday night was arguably his least impressive overall performance, and yet his highest-scoring individual game since the break. He’s running so hot right now, that even when he has somewhat of an off night, he is capable of a multi-point game. If he keeps this up, he won’t just hit the point-per-game mark that hasn’t been hit in Montreal since Alex Kovalev, the 90-point plateau could be within reach for the first time in his career.
Now, the Habs will want to address the issue of them sitting on leads. If they somehow find their way into the playoffs, nobody will be rolling over for them after one period there, either. Even if they don’t, this is something we’ve seen from the team too many times over the last few years, and they need to eradicate that from their game as part of becoming a true, perennial playoff contender.
Still, a big part of why this team currently believes they can sneak into a playoff spot is their Captain. The way Suzuki has led this team out of the break has shown why he wears the C for this team, and why his long-term contract is starting to look like one of the bigger steals in the NHL today.
