Watching your team lose 6-4 on a Saturday night usually isn’t an idyllic start to your weekend. But when the Montreal Canadiens fell by that precise score to the Vegas Golden Knights last night, most Habs fans were feeling about as good as they ever will in watching such a result. These teams are headed in entirely different directions, so the two points up for grabs were always going to be very difficult for Montreal to obtain.
And the performance of their young guns was worth far more than those two points anyways.
Two goals from Nick Suzuki, one from Cole Caufield, and one from Juraj Slafkovsky formed their offensive output on the night. As a wonderful cherry on top of that youthful sundae, rookie defenseman Kaiden Guhle delivered a gorgeous set up for the Slafkovsky goal in the third period.
Kaiden Guhle with a picture perfect set up for Juraj Slafkovsky’s third goal of the year! pic.twitter.com/EqaucoIrrq
— Scott Matla (@scottmatla) November 6, 2022
Wins and losses don’t matter this season. Development matters, and we’re seeing that with the youth movement leading the charge. Entertainment matters for the fans, and let’s face it, 6-4 losses are far more fun to watch than 2-0 losses. The future of this team put up four goals against a team that has been notoriously difficult to score against this season. It was a perfect loss for the Canadiens.
The bulk of the offense coming from the top line is slightly concerning, but the fact that Kirby Dach has found instant chemistry with Caufield and Suzuki is a silver lining to that concern. Ideally, the offensive output would be more spread out, but if they’ve figured out their top line moving forward, it is a heck of a dangerous one no matter who they play against.
They may be a little top heavy at the moment, but the offensive output is coming from players who will be a part of this team for a long time. That is about as good a sign as you can get in a rebuild.
And if it gets them a little closer to a higher draft pick, well that’s just a bonus.
Click the play button below to listen to your full Bottom Six Minutes, also available on your podcast platform of choice. We’ll be back with another episode following this coming Tuesday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings.
