LAVAL-SUR-LE-LAC, Que. — Morning coffee near the plush 18th green of the prestigious Laval-sur-le-lac golf course was served with a healthy dose of realism before the Montreal Canadiens unofficially kicked off their 2024-25 campaign.
Rightfully so.
A team that finished fifth from the bottom of the NHL standings last season shouldn’t be making any bold proclamations about playoffs and the Stanley Cup before anyone officially hits the ice for the start of this season.
The Canadiens were 26th in goals and 27th in goals against per game in 2023-24 and they weren’t going to convince anyone they can completely flip those positions with anything they said on this day.
That’s why the term “in the mix” probably got as much wear in the morning as the treacherous bunkers at this course were likely to receive throughout the afternoon.
Canadiens owner and CEO Geoff Molson was the first to spit out that company line Monday before executive vice-president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton and general manager Kent Hughes repeated it, managing expectations in accordance with the stage this organization has reached in its rebuild.
In coach Martin St. Louis’s view, the team is well out of its infancy phase and moving past early childhood and onto adolescence, and just how close it is to adulthood will be determined over the coming months.
But he’s excited, and so are they.
“I think we have a ton of elements,” said captain Nick Suzuki. “I think our forward group is super deep from top to bottom. We know we’re going to surprise a lot of people in that way. We have a lot of young D that are going to make big strides, and obviously with (Mike) Matheson and (David) Savard doing their thing there’s a lot of optimism in the group and in the dressing room. So, I think we’re in a really good position right now, so I’m super excited.”
He’s grounded, too, though.
Suzuki knows that, even with Kirby Dach now healthy and Patrik Laine in the fold, the Canadiens still have much to prove before he might be so inclined to channel his inner Mark Messier and start making guarantees.
But Suzuki, and several other players, expressed confidence that this team will take off on the right foot based on its makeup, its maturity and a level of familiarity and continuity that comes with the group experiencing very little turnover during the off-season.
“I think it makes a huge difference going into a season where guys know the system, know the expectations and what to do out there,” Suzuki said. “It’s way easier on us and the coaches to have that built in already, so I think it’s going to make our transition into the regular season super easy and (help us) get off to a good start.”
Health will be a determining factor in that, as always, so there’s reassurance knowing every player — with the exception of Rafael Harvey-Pinard, who suffered an off-season leg fracture — is clear to start training camp Wednesday at full capacity.
If the Canadiens remain healthy heading into the start of the season come early October, there’s reason to believe they can surprise a lot of teams. As for their goal of just “being in the mix” for a playoff spot, it may not be too lofty but it is reasonable.
The Canadiens have gained valuable experience over the last couple of seasons, they’ve built a healthy culture under St. Louis, and they’re deeper and more talented than they have been at any other point of this project.
That makes them feel they have a chance, even knowing the competition within their own division is shaping up to be fiercer than the one in any other quadrant of the NHL.
The Buffalo Sabres, who are hoping to emerge out of a seemingly interminable rebuild of their own, appear to have improved over the summer. The Ottawa Senators are angling to show their rebuild is actually over this time, despite previous declarations of that ultimately falling on deaf ears. The Detroit Red Wings took a step forward last season and are inches away from a more meaningful one this time around. And we haven’t even gotten to the teams in the Atlantic — the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning and Stanley Cup-winning Florida Panthers — who appear to be virtual locks for the post-season.
The Canadiens aren’t crazy to think they can compete with all of them, but it’s going to be more of a wait-and-see exercise to know if they can beat them.
For Gorton, who reshaped the now-successful New York Rangers before landing in Montreal in 2021, that’s the most logical view to adopt at this stage.
“I would like to make the playoffs and think our team could,” he said. “but I don’t know.”
“I’ve been through this before with a couple of teams rebuilding and you just like to see,” Gorton continued. “I think the players will tell you on the ice if they’re ready. Setting the bar, expectations, I’m not sure that’s something that we need to do, to tell the players you have to do this or it’s a disappointment, because there’s just so much there. There’s so many young players that have to play, that need to keep growing.
“I think I said last year that there’s a lot of players on our team that still haven’t hit their ceilings, so there’s a lot of unknown. As we go into camp and head into the season we’re going to learn more and more about our team and what kind of team we have, so for me to sit here on the first day of camp and say we’re a great team … We’ll see, our players will tell us.”
On Monday, his players were giving us reasons the Canadiens can do more than just “be in the mix.”
“I think we play a good team game,” said Dach, who watched it from off the ice for all but five periods last season after tearing the ACL and MCL in his right knee in Game 2. “I don’t think there’s a lot of teams that play the game the way we do with the puck and how we can transition, and everybody’s a year older and a bit more mature. They’ve got a bit more experience in them and adding Laine — honestly one of the best shots I’ve ever seen, his release — it’s definitely going to add a little more skill and talent up front.”
“I think the league just continues to get more fast and I think a part of our team is we have speed up and down the lineup,” said Alex Newhook, who figures to start as a linemate of the rehabilitated Dach. “We’re a team that can skate with the best of teams in the league in terms of pace, and we’re also big and strong and can also play that mean, gritty type of game, so I think we’re a very versatile group…”
Cole Caufield, who set career highs with 28 goals and 65 points last season, feels the Canadiens’ relentless nature and their willingness to fearlessly face long odds in nearly every game as qualities that can help put a more seasoned group in a better spot in more contests this season.
But he fittingly followed that up with his own version of “talk is cheap” when he offered that “expectations are just something you say.”
Caufield said the Canadiens will do their talking on the ice, “night-in, night-out.”
There are reasons to suggest they can accomplish something bigger and better this season.
At least one of them is Laine’s intention to rebound from a tough final season in Columbus that ended with a shoulder injury and a long stint in the NHL/NHLPA Players’ Assistance Program.
The gregarious Finn, who was traded from the Blue Jackets to the Canadiens in August, was a 44-goal scorer at one point in this league and said he’s aiming to be one again this season.
Skating alongside playmakers like Suzuki and Dach on any given night can only help him.
Meanwhile, Laine’s presence has the potential to not only balance out the top six but also insulate what appears to be a deep bottom six.
Who rounds out the six on the back end is anybody’s guess, with upwards of 10 viable candidates competing for jobs there to start training camp.
But the mix on the blue line sure is intriguing.
There’s a lot of skill between Matheson, who scored 62 points last season, and rookie Lane Hutson, who appears ready to give former Boston University teammate Macklin Celebrini a run for his money in the race for the Calder Trophy.
There’s some grit there, too, with the veteran Savard leading young-but-suddenly-experienced defencemen Kaiden Guhle, Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble through the next phase of their respective developments.
And if goaltenders Samuel Montembeault and Cayden Primeau are at least on the level they exhibited last season, while the Canadiens were hemorrhaging chances at a nearly unmatched rate, that should only help.
They — all the players, really — need to be held to a higher standard than they have been so far for the Canadiens to remain “in the mix” through the trade deadline and into April.
St. Louis knows.
“I don’t know if it’s about being less patient. I’d say it’s about being more demanding,” he said. “We’ve reached a step where we can get into more details. And it’s not as if we didn’t get into details last year, but you evolve as a team. You don’t ask of a 10- or 12-year-old or 15- or 16-year-old the same thing you would of a six- or seven-year-old kid; you expect more, and that’s how it is coaching a team.
“It’s not about being impatient or severe, it’s about being just and calculated.”
It’s also about being real.
Both St. Louis and Hughes know they can only make decisions that prioritize results over development if the team shows it’s ready for that.
There’s no question both coach and GM are willing, though.
“Our focus (over the last two-and-a-half years) was on accumulating assets and trying to do something to rebuild this team and, as we kind of come out of that phase where we’re getting to a point where maybe somebody’s going to be on an expiring contract and he’s helping us win a hockey game and we’re keeping him even though we could trade him for an asset, those are decisions from a management perspective that we have to evaluate,” Hughes said. “And I think the coaches, from a coaching perspective, are going to make those decisions about, in November, can playing this player make us better in December or January or February as opposed to another?
“It’s a fluid situation. We’ll take it as it comes, and information helps. Every day, every week we get a little more information and we can make more intelligent decisions.”
With time, the Canadiens are also hoping to get to a point where they can expect much more.
But, for now, the goal of “being in the mix” places the bar where it should be.