Montreal Canadiens: Should Nick Suzuki, Cale Fleury Be Scratched For Rookie Mistakes?

The Montreal Canadiens won a wild game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. They feel behind early after a couple of rookie mistakes from Cale Fleury and Nick Suzuki. Will they be punished for their miscues?

The Montreal Canadiens lost their first game of the season to the Carolina Hurricanes in a shootout. Game two appeared to be heading for a worse gate when William Nylander scored early in the third period to give the Toronto Maple Leafs a 4-1 lead. We should have known better though, as we all know how well the Maple Leafs handle 4-1 third period leads against original six rivals.

Anyway, the Canadiens were in a tough spot, down by three to a high scoring team with about 15 minutes of hockey left to play. They were able to come storming back and actually took a 5-4 lead late in regulation before Auston Matthews tied it late. The Habs would win the game in a shootout thanks to a Paul Byron goal.

The Canadiens actually opened the scoring very early in the game. Max Domi finished off a great pass from Artturi Lehkonen just over a minute into the first period and the Canadiens were on top. Their lead didn’t last long and by the end of the first period, they were trailing 2-1. Both of the Maple Leafs first period goals were a direct result of bad plays by a Montreal Canadiens rookie.

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Nick Suzuki and Cale Fleury made the Habs on merit based on their terrific play in the preseason. Fleury, a rugged two-way defender played last season for the Laval Rocket and showed during camp he was ready to take another step in his career. Suzuki was electrifying for the Guelph Storm, scoring 42 points in 24 OHL postseason games, leading the Storm to an OHL championship.

Dominating the OHL as a teenager, faring well as a young defenseman in the AHL and impressing during training camp as a 20 year are all entirely different things than suiting up in a real regular season NHL game especially on a Saturday night in Toronto against the Maple Leafs.

Suzuki and Fleury found that out the hard way over the weekend.

With the Canadiens up 1-0 early on, Fleury was caught chasing William Nylander around behind his own net after he mishandled the puck and wasn’t able to move it up ice. The speedy, skilled Leafs forward was all over him, stealing the puck and then turning Fleury inside out at the back of the Habs goal. Eventually, the puck found its way to Morgan Rielly at the point who jumped into the zone and fed a pass to Matthews who hammered a one-timer past Carey Price to tie the game.

About ten minutes later, Suzuki had his own “welcome to the NHL, kid” moment. He had the puck in full control, heading around his own net. He took his sweet time to get moving and Leafs forward Trevor Moore swiftly swooped in from behind him, stole the puck and quickly fed a pass to Alex Kerfoot who snapped it past Price to give the Leafs the lead 2-1.

Neither player was immediately stapled to the bench. Fleury was right back on the ice about 30 seconds after the Matthews goal. Suzuki was back on the ice quickly as well, and was still counted on to play power play and penalty killing minutes for the rest of the game.

However, by the end of the night, and especially with the Canadiens mounting a huge comeback in the third, Fleury and Suzuki were mostly spectators. Fleury finished the game with the least amount of ice time of anyone in a Habs jersey with 10:28. Suzuki was third last among forwards in ice time with 13:39 and was moved down to the fourth line with Nate Thompson and Jordan Weal in the final frame.

So, the pair of 20 year olds certainly saw their roles reduced when the team was behind. Was this because they were the reason the team fell behind, or did head coach Claude Julien just go with the guys he trusts when trying to come back from a three goal deficit?

We saw an awful lot of Tomas Tatar, Phillip Danault and Brendan Gallagher, followed by Max Domi, Jonathan Drouin and Paul Byron. Those were often lines used last season, so perhaps Julien was just going with what was comfortable.

However, it is entirely possible he was not pleased with rookies making costly errors that resulted in goals against. If that is the case, will Fleury and Suzuki receive further punishment by being scratched for a veteran like Mike Reilly or Nick Cousins?

I hope not. It would not be out of the realm of possibility for a veteran coach to be overly hard on his young players. However, this could be a huge learning experience for Suzuki and Fleury. We saw Fleury conversing with Shea Weber often on the bench after his mistake. What’s a better way for a 20 year old to get better? Learning what not to do on the job and then having one of the best leaders in the game explain what you should do different? Or sit in the press box and watch a bunch of players you barely know play a game without you?

I think it is obvious that the best thing for Suzuki and Fleury is to throw them right back out there. We know they are skilled and we know the earned the right to be here with their exceptional play.

One costly turnover each does not erase all of that. The best thing for both of them is to suit up against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night and show their coach that they learned from their mistakes. Let’s hope Julien agrees.