Todd: Overdue for some good luck, Canadiens poised to make waves in 2026

What a weekend.

Even in this compressed NHL season with the Winter Olympics looming, this one was on fast forward, start to finish.

It began late Friday night with a trade that Canadiens GM slipped in just ahead of the holiday roster freeze, bringing Phillip Danault back from Los Angeles for a second-round draft pick.

Saturday evening, with the trade still the primary topic in the hot stove league, young Jacob Fowler took the ice at the Bell Centre against Pittsburgh and Sidney Crosby and stoned the Pens in a 4-0 shutout that included a couple of stunning, highlight-reel saves.

Josh Anderson had two goals, Owen Beck got his first after scoring for the third time (it’s the NHL, folks) and Fowler cemented his status as the best goaltender in the organization, if not the actual starting goalie for the balance of the season.

Even this triumph couldn’t pass without an injury to Jake Evans on a knee-on-knee hit that may negate the effect of the Danault trade before he slips on his No. 24 jersey to take the ice in Boston Tuesday. It makes the latest Hughes move seem frighteningly prescient.

Then it was on to Pittsburgh for the second half of the home-and-home duel, with Crosby still needing a point to tie Mario Lemieux’s franchise record at 1,723 points. Crosby quickly got that business out of the way with a goal and an assist to break Lemieux’s record.

(It may seem churlish to point this out, but it took Sid the Kid 472 more games to reach the same level, which is a pretty accurate measure of the gulf between him and Super Mario.)

Back to Sunday night, with Juraj Slafkovsky, Oliver Kapanen and Ivan Demidov meshing like top-flight veterans to produce two brilliant passing plays for a pair of goals. That might have been enough for the win if not for some egregious errors and goalie Jakub Dobes (the tallest of the three netminders on the roster) making himself small at the wrong time.

So Boston looms and then the Canadiens get a break until Sunday night, when they resume the season in Tampa. Win or lose, they have to feel good about where they are after 36 games that included long-term injuries to at least four and perhaps five (depending on the extent of the Evans injury) key roster players and the near complete meltdown of goalie Samuel Montembeault.

The Canadiens are 19-12-5 for 43 points, good for second in the Atlantic. A year ago, they had just completed a home-and-home sweep against Detroit, with Patrik Laine scoring his fifth power-play goal in three games to improve their record to 14-16-3 for 31 points.

Now, they plug Danault into the lineup, a shift I did not see coming because Hughes has tended to shy away from expensive veterans. But this team is clearly moving into a different phase of the rebuild and, by any fair reckoning, they are way ahead of schedule.

If we guessed wrong on the possibility of a trade for the veteran Danault, it’s because the game has changed. Now, it’s about winning. Not that elusive 25th Stanley Cup, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but learning to win. Danault can help most in those games where the Canadiens have held a one- or two-goal lead and can’t hold it.

With Danault in the fold, the goaltending stabilized and players returning to the lineup for the stretch run, the Canadiens are poised to do some winning. First, they are going to need some luck with the injuries. They’re overdue.

Schmoe-lympics: It’s a popular topic, the fact that American GM Bill Guerin has dissed Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson, while Canadian GM Doug Armstrong has yet to signal his enthusiasm for Nick Suzuki at the Milano-Cortina Olympics.

I understand these young men want to play for their countries — if they didn’t, you wouldn’t want them on your team. But for the sake of the Canadiens, I hope Caufield, Hutson and Suzuki spend most of February on a beach.

Suzuki seems especially weary and battered. My first thought when I heard about the Danault trade was that he can lift some of the burden from Suzuki, whose consecutive-games streak stands at 491 — the number of games he has in the NHL.

The Canadiens play on the road in Winnipeg on Feb. 4, then shut down for the Olympics and don’t have another game until they meet the Islanders at home on Feb. 26. That’s a good, long stretch for Suzuki and everyone else to get rested and healthy.

Happy holidays, folks. If you can’t be with the one you love, love ‘em anyway — and find a way to let them know.

Heroes: Sidney Crosby, Lane Hutson, Oliver Kapanen, Ivan Demidov, Juraj Slafkovsky, Cole Caufield, Zachary Bolduc, Owen Beck, Josh Anderson, Phillip Danault, Marie-Philip Poulin, Dara Greig, Sandra Abstreiter, Reece Howden &&&& last but not least, Jacob Fowler.

Zeros: Jake Paul, Andrew Tate, Carter Hart, Enhanced Games, gambling ads while play goes on, Dillon Brooks, Wayne Gretzky, Bud Selig Jr., Claude Brochu, David Samson &&&& last but not least, Jeffrey Loria.

Now and forever.

@jacktodd.bsky.social

jacktodd46@yahoo.com

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