Stu’s Slapshots: Playoff fever hits Canadiens’ players and coach
Arber Xhekaj grew up in Hamilton in a family full of Canadiens fans. He absolutely loved watching the Canadiens on TV when they made the playoffs.
So when Xhekaj got to play his first playoff game with the Canadiens last season in Game 3 against the Washington Capitals at the Bell Centre — after being a healthy scratch for the first two games on the road — he was fighting back tears.
“It’s a hard one to describe, for sure,” Xhekaj said after Friday’s morning skate at the Bell Centre ahead of Game 3 of a first-round playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. “It’s something that I’ve dreamed about as a kid my whole life. I’ve been watching Montreal play in the playoffs my whole life and finally last year when I played my first game I felt like a fan almost at first.
“I was looking at a kid beside me (in the stands), he was tearing up. I almost started tearing up … I had so much adrenalin,” Xhekaj added with a chuckle. “I was just like: ‘I got to play. I got to go out there. What am I doing?’ So I had to slap myself out of it pretty quick. But it’s a pretty incredible feeling. There’s nothing like it. If you get to experience it, that’s amazing for you. I got some buddies coming to town, too, that I played junior with and my family. It’s something you can’t really put into words.”
I asked Xhekaj what’s the coolest part about being a Canadien — apart from playing the games?
“Apart from playing? I mean, everything,” he said. “The way people see you in the city, it’s pretty special. It’s the biggest hockey market in the whole world and it’s an amazing place to play. I don’t know, there’s so many good things that go with it, it’s hard to describe.
“You feel the buzz in the city,” he added about being in the playoffs. “You see all the jerseys at the grocery store and when you’re walking around. The city’s buzzing right now and you can feel it.”
What a night!
Fans in the Bell Centre and outside at a viewing party went into a frenzy Friday night after Lane Hutson scored in overtime to give the Canadiens a 3-2 win over the Lightning in Game 3 to take a 2-1 series lead.
Game 4 is Sunday at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., CBC, SN, TVA Sports).
Before the game, the Canadiens had former captain Yvan Cournoyer — a winner of 10 Stanley Cups — carry the famous torch into the Bell Centre.
It was wonderful to see the 82-year-old Cournoyer and the smile on his face since the Canadiens legends won’t live forever and they should be cherished while they’re still around.
“I kind of caught the end of it on the TV in the tunnel,” current captain Nick Suzuki said when asked about Cournoyer after the game. “He’s such an amazing guy. I got to golf with him at one of the Canadiens’ golf tournaments and just chat with him. I love that he sticks around and comes supports us almost every night at home, it feels like. He’s such a legend and it was pretty cool to see him walk out there. It looked like he was having fun.”
During the third intermission, Hutson told his teammates he felt like he was going to score in OT.
“I kind of just said jokingly: ‘I think I got it,'” Hutson said after the game. “Luckily it went in and just happy that we got the big win.
“That honestly might have been my first slapshot all year,” he added. “I saw some space, lots of bodies, and just tried to shoot it as hard as I could and luckily it went in.”
Hutson’s shot was considered to be one of the only weaknesses in his game last season when he won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie with 6-60-66 totals. But the 5-foot-9, 162-pound defenceman worked on his shot all summer and had 12-66-78 totals this season.
“It’s definitely something I’ve been working on since I turned pro,” Hutson said. “It’s still lots of work to be done, for sure. But I feel like every day it gets a little bit better. It’s good by me.”
Hutson’s game-winning blast didn’t surprise Xhekaj.
“I told him this year he’s firing it way harder in practice,” Xhekaj said. “I’ve noticed that. He probably shot 3 million pucks in the summer. He’s ripping it pretty good and that’s an unbelievable shot.”
Indeed.
Playoff fever
There really is nothing like playoff fever in Montreal.
Martin St. Louis grew up as a Canadiens fan in Laval and for the second straight season the Hall of Fame player — who won the Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2004 — is in the playoffs as head coach of the Canadiens.
“I mean, it’s an unbelievable experience,” he said after Friday’s morning skate. “I was happy with it last year, just to be part of it. To be behind this group is unbelievable.
“I walk in this morning, get a coffee and there’s, I don’t know, 20, 30 porta-potties outside,” St. Louis added about the setup for the Game 3 viewing party near the Bell Centre. “This place is amazing. It’s just the magnitude of this market and being front and centre, being part of it. It’s not something I take for granted. I’m trying to earn that every day, but there’s nothing like being behind the bench of the Montreal Canadiens. You magnify that with the playoffs and it’s pretty cool.”
How does he control that playoff fever as head coach?
“You got to see things clearly through the chaos,” St. Louis said. “It’s going to be chaotic out there tonight. I’m sure not just on the ice, in the building. Just like as a player, you got to be able to make the reads and see things clearly. Don’t let the emotion, the noise, cloud your reads.”
He writes, he scores!
The Players’ Tribune published a fantastic first-person story by Cole Caufield on Thursday about his journey from a young boy growing up in Wisconsin with dreams of one day playing in the NHL to a 51-goal scorer this season with the Canadiens.
The headline was “Can Someone Get My Old Man a Canadiens Hat?” after his father, Paul, was shown on video in tears while wearing a Milwaukee Brewers cap at the Bell Centre after his son scored his 50th goal this season.
“I think most people have probably seen the clip of my dad crying in the stands,” Caufield says in the Players’ Tribune article. “Me and my brother were cracking up, because of course he’s wearing a Brewers cap. The guy’s son plays for the Habs and he’s weeping on camera in the quarter-zip and the Brew Crew hat. I guess he had Opening Day fever. Classic. (Security, don’t let him in the building tomorrow without a Habs hat on.)”
In the article, Caufield talks about all the hours spent in the family van with his father, mother, brother and other teammates driving from Wisconsin to tournaments in Chicago or Minnesota or Detroit with the movie Kicking & Screaming — starring Will Ferrell, Mike Ditka and Robert Duvall — usually playing in the back on a flip-down DVD player.
After Friday’s morning skate, I asked Caufield if he was planning to become a sportswriter.
“I never had those writing skills,” he said with a chuckle.
The ghost-writer who worked with Caufield did a wonderful job.
“Honestly, it was kind of their storyline,” Caufield said. “They wanted the timing (of publishing it) to work out like that (before Game 3 at the Bell Centre). I think it’s pretty cool. Obviously, there’s enough buzz around the city regardless of that, but definitely tried to get (the fans) fired up.”
Caufield said the feedback he has received from the story has been “pretty cool.”
“A lot of old friends or family members have sent me (notes) to say they’ve been pretty emotional about it,” he said. “It’s good to kind of look back on those stories of how you got to where you are.”
In the article, Caufield says he and his older brother, Brock, probably watched the movie Kicking & Screaming 1,000 times in the back of the van while driving to and from hockey tournaments.
I asked Caufield Friday morning when was the last time he watched the movie?
“Well, I’ve been trying to get Guhls (Kaiden Guhle) to watch it,” he said. “I mean, he loves it, too. So we’ll find a time on the road trip (to Tampa) next week.”
Has he ever met Will Ferrell?
“No,” Caufield said. “I’d love to.”
Ferrell is a huge hockey fan and attends a lot of Los Angeles Kings games, so it would be pretty cool if that meeting could somehow be set up next season when the Canadiens are in L.A.
As for his father’s Brewers cap, was Caufield able to get him a Canadiens cap for Game 3 so that security would let him in the Bell Centre?
“Yeah, I have a couple floating around here,” Caufield said with a chuckle.
Taking a punch
Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson once famously said: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
The Canadiens’ Juraj Slafkovsky can now relate to that after taking a punch to the face from Tampa’s Brandon Hagel during a fight in Game 2 Tuesday night, which the Lightning won 3-2 in overtime in Tampa. Hagel dropped Slafkovsky with a right to the chin during the second-period fight, but Slafkovsky got right back up.
It was only Slafkovsky’s fourth fight in the NHL, according to HockeyFights.com, and it was the 17th for Hagel, who at 6-foot-2 and 186 pounds is one inch shorter and 39 pounds lighter than Slafkovsky. Hagel had a big upper hand — and right hand — in experience and probably knew that going into the fight.
Did Xhekaj, who has had 46 fights in the NHL according to HockeyFights.com, give Slafkovsky some tips after his fight with Hagel?
“No, not really,” Xhekaj said. “Just had a good laugh about it. He’s a good sport. We loved to see it and we were happy he got in there and did his thing. For someone who doesn’t fight a lot, I think he did well. We love what he did.”
Xhekaj said learning how to fight in hockey isn’t easy and the only way to get better is to actually drop the gloves.
“You can wrestle all you want in practice, but I think when you get punched in the face it feels a lot different in the moment,” Xhekaj said. “I honestly want to say that’s probably the first time he’s got hit in the face like that. He popped right back up like an animal and he was ready to keep going. The refs broke it up, but that’s the main thing is getting hit in the face for the first time and seeing how you react to that.”
Does Xhekaj remember his first hockey fight?
“I was in a lot of fights as a kid with the cages on when we were trying to rip each others’ helmets off,” he said. “My first fight with a visor — I had a couple of fights in Junior B, too — but the first fight with a visor I remember getting hit in the face and it felt weird and I just wanted to go down to the ground right away and tackle the guy. But after a few (fights) you know just to take a deep breath and reset.”
Before turning pro, Canadiens defenceman Jayden Struble played four years of NCAA hockey at Northeastern University, where players wear full-face cages and there isn’t any real fighting.
Struble still remembers his first fight with the AHL’s Laval Rocket three years ago against the Utica Comets’ Joseph Gambardella after switching to a visor.
“It was awful,” Struble, who has had seven NHL fights, said after practice Thursday in Brossard. “I was kind of just swinging all over the place. My next one was fine and then you just kind of get the hang of it. One fight you’ll just be there, like: ‘OK, I’m kind of chilling here and you see punches coming.’ It gets a little different, but (Slafkovsky’s) not going to have to fight a ton. But I feel like if he does go, he can get guys. He’s just that strong. He’s huge … he’ll be fine.”
Hagel could have been a Hab
Speaking of Hagel, he attended the Canadiens’ rookie camp in 2018 as an invited player, but was never offered a pro contract by former general manager Marc Bergevin.
Hagel was selected by Buffalo in the sixth round (159th overall) of the 2016 NHL Draft, but never signed with the Sabres and was then invited to the Canadiens’ camp.
Shortly after the Canadiens’ camp, the Chicago Blackhawks signed Hagel as a free agent ahead of the 2018-19 season after he had posted 41-61-102 totals and 80 penalty minutes the previous season with the WHL’s Red Deer Rebels. Less than five months after signing Hagel, the Blackhawks traded him to Tampa, where he has developed into a star.
The 27-year-old Hagel has hit the 30-goal mark in three of the last four seasons and had 36-38-74 totals in 71 games this season. He was also part of Team Canada when it won the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament last year and again this year when Canada won a silver medal at the Milano-Cortina Olympics.
Jake Evans was also at the Canadiens’ rookie camp in 2018 after completing his fourth and final season at the University of Notre Dame. The Canadiens selected Evans in the seventh round (207th overall) of the 2014 NHL Draft.
“I’ve said it many times to the guys here, we missed out on a really good player, which is crazy,” Evans told The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun in a story he wrote this week about Hagel. “I do remember him being there. Obviously, he took huge steps after that.
“I’ve actually brought that up a few times,” Evans added. “Every time we play them, I feel like I bring that up.”
An unsung hero
An unsung hero in the Canadiens’ successful rebuilding process is Adam Nicholas, the team’s director of hockey development.
I always get a kick out of watching Nicholas working on the ice with players because of his booming voice and uplifting enthusiasm. Friday’s optional morning skate at the Bell Centre was another example.
Everyone in life should be lucky enough to love their job as much as Nicholas loves his.
“He’s been awesome,” Guhle said after the morning skate when I asked him about Nicholas. “He loves what he does. He loves hockey and he loves helping us out. Whenever we need something, he’s always the first guy you call to talk about the game when you’re going through a rough patch. He’ll do what he can to help you get out of it. He’s been really good for us.”
When Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes was a guest recently on The Sick Podcast With Tony Marinaro he spoke about what Nicholas has done since being hired four years ago.
“Just so we can get it out in the open, Adam Nicholas is the Big Cat,” Hughes told Marinaro. “And he should never be referred to as anything else ever again in this city of Montreal. OK, the Big Cat. And the hockey players call him the Petit Chat.
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“It all starts with Marty,” Hughes then added about how St. Louis works so well with Nicholas. “I suspect that with most hockey teams the player development guys are not on the ice in practice. They’re not in on meetings. They’re not fully integrated. Whereas Marty did that right away and I think that’s been so critical to Adam being able to impact the organization. Because absent that, two different silos and one guy’s working with a player in terms of what he thinks he should do better and that (can be) working in direct contrast to what the coaching staff is trying to do.
“So, I would say the strongest way this has impacted our organization the most is Marty’s approach to just: ‘OK, get in on the meetings, become part of it’ and then there’s a lot of dialogue between them. Adam will understand what Marty’s trying to do and the things that Marty wants of Cole (Caufield), for example. And then Adam’s able to constantly reinforce.”
Guhle said he has no idea how Nicholas got the Big Cat nickname.
“He probably made it up himself,” Guhle said with a grin.
Do the players really call him the Petit Chat?
“When we’re giving it to him now we’ll call him that,” Guhle said.
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