There was no easing back into things for the Montreal Canadiens coming out of their Christmas break. With an immediate back-to-back against two strong teams in Florida, there was little time for them to shake off any surface rust. In a surprising turn of events, they played a solid game against one of the top teams in the Atlantic division in the Florida Panthers, blanking them 4-0 in the first half of that back-to-back on Saturday.
The story of the game was of course the shutout by Jakub Dobes, but we also saw a flash of the player that this organization had hoped Kirby Dach could be.
As recently as a week ago, a two-goal performance for Dach was something that would have felt about as likely as the team winning the cup this year. Both of his goals were the result of good positioning and anticipation, which have been lacking in his play since game one of the season. Add in some nice finish – particularly on his second goal shown above – and he was arguably the most important player aside from Dobes in the win.
The Habs owned about two thirds of the high-danger scoring chances while Dach’s line was on the ice. Another issue this season has been him tossing pucks into open space and creating turnovers. When he wasn’t scoring in this game, he was making pretty sound decisions with the puck. Continuing to play like this wouldn’t just be great for himself, but could have significant implications for the five-on-five results of Alex Newhook and Patrik Laine.
It is going to take a lot more than one solid game for anyone to truly believe this is a return to form for Dach. But this was as good a start coming out of the holiday as he could ask for. We’ve seen players round into form mid-season before, and if he can bring that level of play consistently, that is what we could be witnessing.
One game at a time. He’s got another chance this afternoon to show that his performance in the Panthers game was more than an appearance of the ghost of the player he can be.
Click the play button below to listen to your full Bottom Six Minutes, also available wherever you usually get your podcasts. We’ll be back tomorrow, as the Habs will finish their back-to-back in Florida against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
