Canadiens: 4 Things To Look Forward To In Final Season Stretch
Above is the last picture we have of Carey Price on an NHL ice. July 7th, 2021 after the Canadiens fell to Tampa Bay in 5 games of the Stanley Cup Finals.
That’s 9 months without having your #1 goaltender. After going through the NHL Substance Abuse Program along with a torn meniscus that took forever to heal, Price is finally ready to come back.
At least, that will be up to him.
The team has given him the green light to return to action after he has been working out full time with the team for a few weeks now, even travelling with his teammates during their trips to New Jersey and Toronto.
Now with Jake Allen once again being injured, the Canadiens have called up Cayden Primeau from Laval as an insurance policy. Samuel Montembeault will likely get the bulk of starts again but obviously the team would rather have Price in rather than an injured Montembeault.
It’s all up to Price at this point. So we’ll just have to wait until his season debut but at this point, it’s a matter of when rather than if.
One of the most electrifying players in the NHL has 10 more games to keep adding on his already eye-widening stats.
Our favorite winger since Alexei Kovalev no longer needs an introduction. Even with teams now putting more attention towards him on the ice, the dynamic duo of Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki just keeps dominating the opposition. Even if you don’t watch the games, you just look at the scoresheet and know that either player got a point that night.
Caufield currently sits at 18 goals for the season. With 10 games left he’ll easily hit 20 of course. However, how much will he actually finish with? Will he hit 25 goals? Will he go on a tear and hit 30?
Of course we’re all playin the “What If?” game because he has been let loose since Martin St. Louis took over. Caufield currently has 17 goals and 14 assists for 31 points in the last 31 games played in the last 3 months. Only Nick Suzuki has more points (35) but he played more games (38) in that time span.
The 2022-23 season will be the first season Caufield will be guaranteed to play all 82 NHL games barring any injuries.
The last 30 goal scorers the Canadiens had since 2000 are Erik Cole, Alex Galchenyuk, Brendan Gallagher, Max Pacioretty, Richard Zednik and Alexei Kovalev.
40 goal scorers? We gotta go back to 1994 for the last one in Vincent Damphousse.
50 goals? Stephane Richer in 1990. But that’s a select club in Canadiens lore as the list of players to have attained 50 goals ain’t as long as one would imagine as only 6 players in Canadiens history hit the magical 50 goal plateau.
Richer did it twice, Pierre Larouche once, Bernard “Boom Boom” Geoffrion once, and Maurice Richard once in his fabled 50 goals in 50 game season, back when seasons were 50 games long.
Then Steve Shutt did it once in 1976-77 season setting a team record with 60. Then of course the year after Guy Lafleur repeated the feat scoring 60 as well.
Oh and including that 60 goal season, Lafleur hit the 50 goal plateau 6 times in his career.
Let’s wait and see what Caufield does the rest of this season. But we can’t help but dream a little and wonder if Cole Caufield will one day be the first Montreal Canadien to win the Maurice “Rocket” Richard trophy for top goal scorer in the league.
One milestone that has gone under the radar this season is the number of 20 goals scorers on the team.
Since 2010, the Canadiens have had three 20 goals+ scorers on the team only three times.
2010-11: Brian Gionta (29), Tomas Plekanec (22) and Andrei Kostitsyn (20)
2014-15: Max Pacioretty (37), Tomas Plekanec (26), Brendan Gallagher (24) and Alex Galchenyuk (20)
2018-19: Brendan Gallagher (33), Max Domi (28) and Tomas Tatar (25)
This season, the candidates to hit the 20 goal plateau are Nick Suzuki (19), Cole Caufield (18) and Josh Anderson (17). With 10 games left, this is a very attainable goal to reach for all three.
In a season where your team sits tied at 29th in the league in goals for along with the Philadelphia Flyers (187), finishing the year with three 20 goals scorers would represent not just an incredible feat, but a great glimpse of what could be in the future.
The man we have called “Power Horse” since he first put on a Canadiens jersey last season is on the cusp of a milestone in goals. Anderson only needs one more to reach triple digits in 100 career goals.
Anderson finished with 17 goals last season in 52 games, and as mentioned earlier, also sits at 17 this season in 59 games.
Anderson’s most notable seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets were when he scored 17, 19 and 27 goals. With Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield being the team’s top dynamic duo, there’s no reason Anderson can’t become a perrnial 20 goal scorer if paired with the perfect centerman.
Meanwhile, let’s not forget about everyone’s favorite waiver pickup Paul Byron. He currently stands at 98 career goals so only 2 is needed in his case. Byron currently has 4 goals and 3 assists for 7 points in 23 games this season.
Having both acheive the triple digit milestone would be yet another breath of fresh air for this team.
Let’s celebrate what we can out of this season.
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