Ivan Demidov. Lane Hutson. Cole Caufield. These are three of the Montreal Canadiens' young stars, and one of the things that ties them all together is their high-end talent. They have that 'it' factor and can break any game in half, and can single-handedly win the game.
In Canada, it's impossible to escape the machine that is the Toronto Maple Leafs media, which, let's be honest, is any Canadian hockey channel. And for the past almost decade, we've heard about the Leafs high end talent.
Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, William Nylander, Morgan Reilly. Almost too much high-end talent than you know what to do with. Well, the Leafs knew what to do with it: throw a bunch of money at them (too much money, really), and while it didn't get them too far in the playoffs, they saw great regular season success.
Ask any Leafs fan, and there were plenty of games that Toronto absolutely did not deserve to win, but just one little wrister from Auston Matthews, or an impossible pass from Mitch Marner, completely broke the game open and won them the game.
And now this is happening with the Montreal Canadiens.
Is it too much to say that Ivan Demidov is already a star in the NHL? At the very least, like the Eastern Conference playoff race this season, the Calder race between Demidov and Matthew Schaefer will come down to the wire.
So far this season, Demidov has played 13 games, scoring 4 goals and 12 points. And two of those goals are some of the most clutch goals of the season.
Against the Seattle Kraken, Demidov out-waited everyone on the ice to score a beauty backhand. But the big thing was the Canadiens were down by a goal with 2:41 left in the game. Same with the game against the Ottawa Senators, where Demidov rips one while the team was trailing by one goal with 2:23 remaining.
I remember years ago, when the last few minutes of a game where the Habs were losing were pointless, as it seemed like they couldn't find the back of the net.
Not anymore. Now you don't turn off the game if the opponents have taken a shot on the open net with 10 seconds left to play, in case you miss a miracle Cole Caufield goal.
The Canadiens have played 13 games and won 9 of them. Of those games, six have gone to overtime, one to a shootout, and the Canadiens have won all but one of them. If that doesn't indicate high-end talent, I don't know what will. When it comes to just three aside and all that open ice, that's where talent shines. Talent that the Canadiens have in abundance now.
And no team is going to be perfect. An NHL team has never, and will never, go undefeated in a season. It's frankly impossible. No matter how good you are, there will be off nights. Sometimes the puck just doesn't go your way, or you run into a hot hand.
The difference between good teams and great teams is the ability to win those games that you really shouldn't have. The top teams in the league don't get to the top because they win the games they should; it's because they win the games they have no right to.
Take their last game against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Canadiens lost their first game that went to extra time, falling 5-4 to the Philadelphia Flyers. But that doesn't tell the whole story.
The Flyers absolutely killed the Canadiens in the first period. They scored three goals on 6 shots, and ultimately outshot the Habs 12-2. That realistically should have been the end of it. A 10-shot and three-goal difference after one period should have been it.
Then the second period happened. Dach (twice), Suzuki and Demidov scored to give the Canadiens the lead somehow. In the third period, the Flyers did end up tying the game and would wind up winning it in the shootout. Which is good, because we would have all been saying "What a steal! They should've never won that game!"
And you know what? Watching that game, the Canadiens didn't deserve to win that game. They didn't deserve the pity point for losing in extra time. The Flyers still outplayed them. The Habs were outshot 42-20 at the end of the day.
But that doesn't matter. All that matters is what happened on the ice. And what happened was the Canadiens played into overtime and got a precious point in the standings. It is what good teams do, and the Montreal Canadiens are proving that they have the makings of a truly great team.