The Montreal Canadiens hosted the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night in the first-ever meeting between Juraj Slavkovski and Shane Wright on Montreal ice.

However, the head-to-head matchup had no chance of boiling over as the Canadiens lost the game after just 10 minutes, allowing four unanswered goals.

Seattle won 8-2.

Wild horses

Obviously there’s nothing to like here on an awkward night, but there were some positives. Cole Caufield again scored his ninth goal of the season in 10 games. Caufield moved into a tie for the top of the league in goals scored. The goal is 40 goals. Vincent Damphousse is the last Canadian player to reach this mark, in 1994.

But the biggest positive is that the head coach did not spend the night complaining that his players failed to achieve their goals. It would have been easy to stand there in disgust. We’ve all seen head coaches step back or quit.

Instead, Martin St. Louis has been going up and down the bench more than usual. Every time he sees a mistake, or a pattern he doesn’t like, he goes to that player and tells him how to do it better.

The teacher knows that the best way to gain knowledge is to cite a real example that can be quickly referenced. It is a powerful reinforcement when fresh in the mind. Video adds another layer of reinforcement for learning.

That’s what you have to do with such a young team. This rebuilding process is at a point where the mix is ​​probably very skewed between young versus old. Older players know how to manage the game and win. Young players have no sense of the moment.

However, this is the current construction. These players are all talented. Most young men are selected in the first or second round. They always figured it out at the lower levels. They will find out here.

They have the right trainer to teach the long way to the more difficult plans to learn. It will pay off. Martin St. Louis is not training at the mid-level in the 2024-25 season, and he is taking corners along the way. He teaches so that the ceiling is higher in the end, having learned the harder concepts that win titles.

Throughout the league, there is a high level of respect for Coach Montial. Be patient as it works with young players.

Wild Goat

All that can be said about a night like this are topics that no one really wants to hear. It will be a long time before the smallest team in the NHL knows how to pay attention to the details that will make them a winner.

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On defense, the average age of a Norris Trophy winner for best defenseman is 28.3 years. Montreal’s blue line had four players 23 or under against the Kraken. They have, in some cases, eight more seasons before they reach their peak.

Some nights it will seem like they are not learning. They’re definitely learning, because when you’ve only played 15 games in the NHL, you’re definitely still learning.

Currently, learning begins with less monitoring of the ball in their own area. All five Canadians on the ice have a terrible habit of staring at the puck carrier, not the player they’re looking to pass it to while wide open over and over again.

It might seem appropriate to go down or give away Arber Xhekaj when he hits the ball in the fourth with a smooth pass. It might seem appropriate to be upset with Jayden Strobel for not scoring a goal.

This is inappropriate because expectations have to change, and they have to change often. Impatience with a 21-year-old will not help his career. Giving away a player who doesn’t have 100 NHL games yet is a surefire formula for anger because he’s discovered that elsewhere in his second hundred.

This will take time. There will be nights like this. Get used to it. Rebuilding is still in its infancy.

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Wild Call

One other troubling trend that needs to be addressed is goaltending by Sam Montembault. After two great starts, he was frankly terrible. His save percentage is just over .800. It is withdrawn from the games. The goals he allowed in this one were very poor. There were three goals from the point — two 55-foot ones that he somehow missed.

Montembault is all they have. There is no short-term solution here. Kayden Primo also doesn’t look particularly strong. Long term, the good news is that Jacob Fuller is hitting .937 in four games at Boston College. Insiders say Fowler will be a first-string NHL goaltender.

One should not give up on Montembault, but he is certainly struggling at the moment. He’s struggling so badly that if you were told that the Canadiens actually had an advantage in expected goals, you wouldn’t believe it, because this game was so bad.

That’s how much the goalkeeping decided in this matter. The Kraken scored eight of 21 shots. The Canadiens goaltenders gave them three freebies. Three Canadian pitchers were robbed. Another reason not to get much from ScoreVision. It can be tricky. At least somewhat deceptive.

Wild cards

One of the keys to Montreal’s success this season is a second line that could improve significantly. After ranking 31st, ahead of only San Jose, in second-line goals last season, it was hoped the return of Kirby Dutch and the arrival of Patrik Laine would ignite the second line.

Although it is not written in stone yet, there are starting to be great possibilities for it to happen. Laine will be out until mid-December with a knee injury, and Dutch needs time to recover from knee surgery. Dach has collapsed analytically with just 30 expected goals.

Maybe when he feels better about his knee’s recovery, he can find better numbers. However, it is also possible that this team is still searching for another Premier League berth.

Maybe it’s just that Montreal’s top six right now is heavy on the wings and light on the centre. Count the top six of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slavkovski, Kirby Dutch, Patrick Laine and Ivan Demidov.

There is only one guaranteed position in the mix. There is no shortage of talent overall, but the position presents a much greater challenge for all its defensive responsibilities and the transition work required. Only Suzuki has been able to fill this role consistently.

Eyes could be focused on Michael Hagg in the future. He’s off to an excellent start at Michigan, but it’s statistically unlikely that all your answers will be found at the 21st pick overall. At the 21st pick, the featured player can beat the odds, but they are odds for a reason.

One name left out is Alex Newhook. Expectations were very high here for Newhook. However, he is not involved enough in his lectures to have expectations that he can rise to that level. Top six players around the puck. They hunt it, they find it, and then they own it.

Bottom line: The hunt for a second top spot continues. There’s really no such thing as a Cup-contending hockey team without two high-performing lines that score in the ball park 90-100 for the first line and 60-70 goals for the second line.

Fortunately, there are options available to management to solve the problem. The club could enter the free agent market. There’s also next year’s draft where the Canadiens may have two top-15 picks.

The Canadiens almost have a roster that can win at the forward position in time, but GM Kent Hughes likely has another target to fulfill.

Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sportswriter, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after every Canadiens game.

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Call of the Wild: Hockey season is back!