The Buffalo Sabers came to Montreal on Tuesday night, coming off a 10-game losing streak. For the Canadiens, it was an almost unwinnable night. A win was expected, so anything less than a bombing would not be met favorably.
Knowing that Montreal did just that. They pounded the hapless Sabers 6-1.
Wild horses
The Canadians started the game strong. The Canadiens fired nine shots with five minutes to go. It was ten minutes before Buffalo got a shot, and they were already down by two. It was Montreal’s best start of the season.
They opened the scoring after just 19 seconds as Joel Armia relied on the rebound. It was an interesting decision to start Jake Evans’ line to open the game, but it was a good decision by the head coach as they came out of the gate on top.
And Montreal didn’t stop either. In an attempt to kill a penalty, the Sabers overloaded the area with disastrous results. Nick Suzuki passed it to the left side where Lynn shot very quickly and was in and out before anyone was within 25 feet of him.
The first period also featured another classic moment. It was another occasion where a giant NHL player couldn’t believe what was happening to him against Lane Hutson. Taj Thompson is one of the toughest players in the league. Hutson is nine inches shorter and gives up 60 pounds to Thompson.
Not only did Hutson win the open-ice puck battle, he did so so cleanly that he earned a penalty on the play. Thompson won’t assume this is an easy fight against the rookie again.
The superiority came from Juraj Slavkovski in the second half. Real cleverness for his third goal of the season. He saw that the goalkeeper had missed the near post and was out of position, so Slavkovskiy shot the ball in from his back. Now that’s some hockey sense.
The night was a long list of highlights, but the best of them weren’t even a twinkle in anyone’s eye yet. In the second half, Lin did it again. It was another unstoppable shot. He looked like he was in the net before he was on his stick. Top corner for his second goal of the night.
A minute and 10 seconds later, Lin did it again. It was a repeat of the first two goals, a shot from the left side from 20 feet, and again, it was completely unstoppable. Laine’s shot doesn’t sound like a bullet in common hockey parlance, but it’s an actual bullet.
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Lin has six goals in seven games. As Len sat on the bench, the fans completed their favorite hat-trick in the cathedral: a standing ovation, hundreds of hats falling, and chants of “Ole” and “Len”.
Fans embraced the special moment. They know they have just witnessed the best shot in the world. It was hard not to think about what could have been this season, if the Canadiens had that shot to rely on all season long.
Wild Goat
The Canadians were so strong in this that there were no goats. Everything was rolling. In the first period, they held the Sabers to three shots. This set the tone for the competition.
This was a coach’s dream.
Wild cards
Rebuilding processes take time. Let the sad story of the Buffalo Sabers serve as a warning shot to Canadians about how much patience it takes to get this right.
The Sabers will miss the playoffs for the 14th straight season in April. The Canadiens are in their third season of rebuilding and impatience is already building in Montreal among the media and fans.
Running out of patience would be the worst thing that could ever happen. Impatience leads to being fired, and being fired leads to someone new trying to put their personal stamp on the changes. Since the Sabers last made the playoffs they have had eight coaches and four general managers. This instability has led to stupidity.
The prevailing opinion is that the Sabers haven’t acquired enough good players. The truth is they got rid of their best players.
They had Ryan O’Reilly, who won a Cup in St. Louis. They had Jack Eichel, who won a Cup in Vegas. They had Sam Reinhart, who won a Cup in Florida. Not only did they win, they were a big reason why they won.
In net, Vezina beat Linus Ullmark, who they also abandoned very early. Simply looking at who the Swords have become impatient with, it is easy to see that they already have a foundation for success.
Everyone is looking for the magic formula for successful rebuilding. There may not be a 100% sure list of tasks that should be done, but there is a sure list of tasks that should not be done. The Sabers hit their mark every time.
Don’t fire coaches and general managers every two or three years, because as is human nature, the new guy wants to start over. In fact, he was set to start over. So he does it. The cycle reverses and begins again.
What mistakes can Canadians make as the Sabres?
Get impatient with general manager Kent Hughes and fire him. That would be so ridiculous. Hughes only had two picks in three years in which he effectively managed the first team. Firing Martin St. Louis as head coach would be a disaster. It would greatly destabilize the culture and stability.
Giving away Kirby Dutch would be a terrible idea. First, because his inventory is so low, there will be no return. And also because its shares were once so high. He must be given enough time to recover from surgery.
In fact, giving up on any young player is always a bad idea. It is the single greatest cause of the swords’ inefficiency. The worst idea is always to let go of a young player only to see him break through 80 games later somewhere else.
patience. Preach it to the mountaintops. Let the draft arrive. Let the players mature. Let management ideas flourish. It’s hard to imagine three more years of this in Montreal, but impatience would encourage the tragedy that is Buffalo.
Next season, the Sabers will try to break their playoff drought before he turns 15.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sportswriter, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after every Canadiens game.
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