Montreal Canadiens: The Sudden Rise Of David Savard

The Montreal Canadiens’ season has had more ups and downs than your favorite ride at the amusement park.

A new General Manager, a new Vice President, a new Coach, trades galore, injuries that never seem to end. There were certainly no shortage of topics to discuss, good and bad.

One player finally deserves to be spoken of in a positive light. I’m talking about David Savard. After coming into the season as a free agent signing on what we thought at the time was a fair 4 year $14 million contract with a $3.5 million cap hit, we thought we were getting something good in the St-Hyacinthe native.

Savard was coming home having achieved what he wanted when he was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning last season – winning the Stanley Cup. Now he hopes to finish his career with his childhood team and once again lift the most beautiful trophy in all of sports.

The Canadiens and their fans alike knew what they were getting Savard in the first place. A hard hitting defensive minded blue liner who might give you 20 points, if you’re lucky.

The beginning of the 2021-22 season was, to put it mildly, rather disastrous for Savard. Either it was the Dominique Ducharme effect or he just struggled to fit in, something that happens often with free agents when they first integrate a team.

He never seemed comfortable in any role given to him, nor it seemed to click with anyone else on the left side. That of course, was before we all figured out what was wrong with the team in general.

Regardless of what the issue was (which let’s be honest, is getting nauseating to talk about even though sometimes in the media, we just don’t have a choice but to report what’s out there) David Savard is finally playing the way we know he is capable to.

Not only is he playing some good minutes alongside Alexander Romanov (and some time with Corey Schuenemann as well), which admittedly has been a blast to watch the two just bodycheck everyone in sight, but he has shown some offensive flashes as well. That sweet backhander against the Bruins was pure skill.

And of course there was that goal against the Leafs, where Laurent Dauphin decided he was Mario Lemieux and dished an awesome pass to a wide open Savard. Not to mention of course that ridiculous little pass from Nick Suzuki to start it all off.

Seeing Savard drive the net just shows he is comfortable on the ice once again, at the risk of repeating myself, shows the trust Martin St. Louis has on his players.

The real David Savard has stood up and looks exactly like the guy who spent the better part of a decade with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He’s proving all of us wrong and he’s definitely still got it.

Trust me everyone, when I say it’s also refreshing for me to write something this positive. Especially about someone we all so easily dismissed at the beginning of the season.

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