In hindsight, Jeff Gorton probably deserves some credit.
The Montreal Canadiens’ executive vice president of hockey operations was surely part of whatever meeting where the team’s management, ownership and coaching staff were told what the messaging would be prior to this season, how expectations would be properly managed and how being “in the mix” for a playoff spot would be the agreed-upon standard this team should be held to this season.
Owner Geoff Molson said it. General manager Kent Hughes said it. Coach Martin St. Louis said it. And ultimately, Gorton also said it. But you could tell it bothered him as he was saying it.
Why should Gorton limit what he believes this team he built can achieve? Why be afraid to say what you actually think? Or what you actually aspire for?
Why not, in other words, say the p-word?
That would be playoffs, a word Gorton refused to utter prior to the 2023-24 season, using “p-word” instead, but a word he couldn’t help himself from agreeing with when asked about the possibility of this team making the postseason despite the corporate messaging the Canadiens cabinet members agreed to stick with.
“The phrase I guess we use is ‘in the mix,’ that’s where we want to be,” Gorton said at the Canadiens’ season-opening golf tournament in September. “But I’m not going to put it past this team to (make the playoffs). I know the players in that room feel very confident about their team and what we can do this year. There’s so much unknown, so much to learn. We haven’t even got on the ice yet.
“But I’m excited about what this team could be.”
Seven months later, despite a circuitous route that included losing three straight potential clinching games in four days, the Canadiens made sure Gorton wouldn’t have to eat his decision to go rogue when the Canadiens beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Wednesday night, clinching the team’s first playoff spot since 2021, when they reached the Stanley Cup Final.
Cole Caufield played as a rookie in those 2021 playoffs, and the Bell Centre was essentially empty through most of it, with limited crowds allowed in the building towards the end of the run as pandemic regulations in Quebec slowly loosened. He was asked recently if he’s ever thought of what it would be like to play a playoff game in a full Bell Centre, and Caufield immediately made it clear he thought it was a pretty dumb question.
“Uh, yeah,” he said. “When that was going on, outside the Bell Centre it was crazy. I never got to experience anything like that. I know it’s a different atmosphere for sure. We just want to get there and see it in person.”
The Canadiens fell into a rebuild almost immediately after that unexpected appearance in the final, with Gorton hired on November 28, 2021, Hughes roughly six weeks later and St. Louis three weeks after that.
A return to the playoffs may be felt by some as being a bit too soon. A portion of the fan base, and likely some in management as well, probably felt one more year of picking talent at the top of the draft would better serve the rebuild. But Hughes decided to put that on the players, to create a sense of ownership among the team’s young core, and they responded.
What makes this more meaningful for the Canadiens than simply a return to the playoffs is that this late-season push has been driven by their young core, the players that will be at the heart of a contending Canadiens team when they are ready to take that step.
When the NHL hit the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off, the Canadiens were one game below .500 and six points out of a playoff spot. Since the return from the break, the Canadiens have gone 15-5-6, captain Nick Suzuki has 37 points in those 26 games, and Calder Trophy favourite Lane Hutson has 25 points and a plus-18 rating over that span.
Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovský and Suzuki have become one of the more dangerous lines in the league. And there is more talent coming, with 2024 No. 5 pick Ivan Demidov scoring a goal and an assist in an electrifying NHL debut Monday and the Laval Rocket of the AHL sitting first overall in the league with an excellent chance at making a run for a Calder Cup powered by several of the Canadiens’ young prospects.
The Canadiens are not a finished product, far from it, but this represents an important step for one of the youngest teams in the league, one that had grown tired of losing and decided to do something about it.
And it provides that young team with a strong message it can use to continue climbing toward reaching the organization’s ultimate goal in the coming years.
“I think it would just prove everything I’ve been selling to the players — that when you quit, you’re not going to get what you want, and when you keep pushing forward and giving everything you’ve got, you’re giving yourself a chance,” St. Louis said recently when asked what making the playoffs would mean to him.
“That would only prove that.”
This team has a lot left to prove. But it has already proven a lot.
(Photo: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
