Ups and Downs | Three Stars of the Week, NHL, Habs, Montreal Canadiens, Tyler Toffoli, Shea Weber, Josh Anderson
ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA — Hello there, folks! Back with another edition of my three stars of the week column!
Players will earn points each time they appear as a star in this column and at the end of the year, I will award my three stars of the season.
The Canadiens were having a pretty rough stretch but are now winners of three of their last five games. They are finding just a little bit of consistency that Habs fans have been starving for all season, so who has led the way for them of late?
☆ THIRD STAR: Jake Evans
While the Canadiens were waiting for the arrival of Eric Staal, after trading for him at the end of March, Jake Evans put together a stretch of games to do his best to convince those who make decisions that he was somebody worth keeping around. He had a wonderful performance against the Senators back on April 1st with two assists, but when Staal was available, Evans was always going tot be the odd man out.
But Evans came back into the lineup against Calgary last Saturday after being out of the lineup for the Habs last six games before that. He picked up an assist on the Canadiens first goal of the game, showing no rust after the lack of game action. He has been a bright spot of late, doing a little bit of everything for the Canadiens.
The last two games in particular have been great for Evans. He has lined up alongside Artturi Lehkonen and Cole Caufield and the trio looked particularly effective against the Jets. Evans has a two-game point streak, but of course with Evans it goes beyond points.
Earlier this season he was beginning to show that he was somebody the coaching staff could trust in all situations. He was a staple of the penalty kill, he was active on the forecheck in five-on-five play, using his speed and offensive abilities to wreak havoc in the opponent’s zone and more often than not, he would be somebody that could be trusted for a big faceoff.
Presented with the chance given the Canadiens are missing some bodies up front, Evans has stepped right back to the level of play we saw before the arrival of Staal. Roster decisions are out of Evans’ control, but one thing he can control is making it as hard as possible to leave him as the out man out and he has done that.
☆ SECOND STAR: Cole Caufield
I debated having Caufield as the third star of the week but decided to put him here as the second star. Caufield has been fine, certainly the adjustments that he has had to make in a short period of time deserve some consideration and he certainly brought some excitement and entertainment value with him.
But the impact in terms of goal-scoring that some thought might have been there right away took a little bit of time. Perhaps the expectation that he could step in and do that right away was a little bit optimistic, but he peppered goaltenders and was able to get into good positions to score but just could not find the back of the net in his first three NHL contests.
Then came the fourth and building off of a nice performance against the Jets, alongside the aforementioned Evans and Lehkonen, Caufield stepped onto the ice in overtime against the Senators and did what potent goal-scorers do with that much space. From the moment his skate touched the ice, it felt like the moment was his. That’s what having a pure goal scorer is like.
Sure, it was just one goal and perhaps there were others who produced a little more consistently during the week who merited consideration, but with that one goal the Canadiens have been given a considerable amount of breathing room in the North division standings and are now just two points back of the Jets for third in the division.
Now that the first NHL goal is out of the way, let’s see what Caufield does the rest of the way.
☆ FIRST STAR: Nick Suzuki
There was simply no other choice. Nick Suzuki gave me absolutely no other choice this week. He currently has a five-game point streak, including a three-point performance against the Jets. Suzuki got off to a great start to the season with points in each of the first seven games, and while he has been a pretty consistent producer for the Canadiens, that level of production to start the season perhaps raised expectations to an unrealistic level.
The start was great, the middle of the season saw some lapses from Suzuki in all areas of the ice, some nights he was a little too lackadaisical in his own zone, but he has really ramped it up of late. People say that first impressions are lasting, and the first impression Suzuki made this season with his production set the bar pretty high, but last impressions are lasting and as the Canadiens near the end of their season, Suzuki has been a force offensively.
There is no higher praise to give a player than to say they are someone who raises their game when the stakes are at their highest. The performance from Suzuki in the bubble in Toronto this past summer indicated he was someone who could do that and with the Canadiens needing to solidify themselves as a playoff team, here is Suzuki once again.
Last week I said the Canadiens needed more guys to step up and produce offensively to help out Tyler Toffoli and Josh Anderson. Nick Suzuki answered the call.
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