Call of the Wilde: Montreal Canadiens fall in critical 6-4 loss to Philadelphia Flyers

It was not good timing for the Montreal Canadiens Thursday night to play the Flyers in Philadelphia. In the morning, they fired Head Coach John Tortorella and replaced him with Brad Shaw.

Usually, the players feel the shock, and the slumber that they were in changes quickly after a firing. They want to impress the new coach as well. That was the script for the Canadiens who faced a hungrier club than they were expecting, and they weren’t ready for it.

The Flyers posted an easy 6-4 win.

While as a team it was a disappointing night, there were individual moments that stood out. Most importantly, Lane Hutson became only the fifth rookie defenceman in league history to obtain 50 assists in a season.

The other four are Larry Murphy, Chris Chelios, Stefan Persson and Gary Suter. That is some select company for Hutson. He earned his 50th assist on an absolutely gorgeous Alex Newhook goal.

Newhook is becoming a better hockey player this season. He used his remarkable speed to blow past the Flyers defenders, then he ripped an absolute rocket into the top corner for the tally.

Newhook has the tools of a top-level player. He skates fast. He shoots fast. He releases his shot fast. He accomplishes three massively important hockey skills at a very high level. That translates to results eventually. That ‘eventually’ is right now.

It was a bit of a struggle for Newhook as a Canadiens player initially, but there is a spot for him playing like this. He will be a strong third line centre with easier match-ups, and he will be a great forward to carry the puck up ice on the second power play unit. Newhook has a lot of worth.

In the third period, Hutson passed Persson and Suter with his 51st assist. He now trails only Murphy and Chelios for the greatest assist total in a rookie season in history. Next up is Chelios with 55 assists. That Hutson assist was on a Cole Caufield goal.

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Caufield demonstrated some remarkable intelligence to earn the tally. He was beside the net, almost behind it, so he banked it in off the side of the goalie and in. That’s 34 goals for Caufield as he looks for 40. He has 11 games to get six more goals.

Christian Dvorak and Patrik Laine scored two late goals when it was out of reach. Nick Suzuki finished with one point on the night on his quest to be a point-per-game player this season. Suzuki has 74 points in 71 games.

The Canadiens have to figure out why they are starting so poorly. Their comebacks have been impressive recently, but comebacks are taxing. The much easier script is to be ready for the start of the game. The third period doesn’t have to be a miracle if the first period is respectable.

In St. Louis, the Blues dominated for 13 minutes to begin the contest with the first 13 shots. In Philadelphia, the Flyers jumped out to the lead early on a Matvei Michkov tally. The Flyers had six of the first seven shots. A not-very-good hockey team was all over the Canadiens.

The Flyers counted their second tally at around the 10-minute mark as the fourth line of recently diminishing returns allowed a goal against Philadelphia’s fourth line. Jake Evans lost his man. David Savard and Arber Xhekaj had poor communication as well. Kaiden Guhle needs to return soon.

One minute later, it’s a third goal for the Flyers. Again, it’s the same culprits on the ice. The defensive pairing was Xhekaj and Savard on for the third marker. Philadelphia was schooling the Canadiens. They hit the cross bar, had a breakaway, and had an open net also in the first period. It was ugly.

The Canadiens are a difficult team to figure out. They have had two five-week segments this season where they were the best or second best team in the entire league. They followed that first epic run by being the worst team in the league for the next ten games.

This time looks the same. After coming out firing after the Four Nations break, they’ve lost their edge. The energy level and defensive-zone coverage have the appearance that they could go into a second absolutely brutal 10-game collapse.

This did not look like a hockey team with the energy or organization to recover this weekend in Carolina and Florida.

That’s the challenge or they will be outside of the playoffs, looking in, if they don’t figure this out quickly. The season is on the line. Wins will be required. They have to find some with 12 games in 21 days. This feels challenging.

The Curious Case of Roman Rotenberg continued in the KHL playoffs Thursday. After benching his leading scorer, Ivan Demidov, for games at the end of the season, Rotenberg doubled down by also not being concerned whether he won in the playoffs either.

The head coach of SKA St. Petersburg made Demidov his 13th forward in his most important game of the season. It was game one in a best-of-seven against Moscow Dynamo with Demidov getting seven minutes of ice time. Moscow won the contest 3-1.

Demidov is a catalyst for offence. Rotenberg is fortunate to have the best player not in the NHL on his roster, yet he doesn’t use him at all, or barely uses him. The reason is some complicated politics that is beyond what any true sportsman would be able to comprehend.

The historic bottom line of winning at all costs has been replaced with some other “at all costs”. How a league can function sending out such conflicting messages to a paying public is a mystery. Fans pay hard-earned money in faith that everyone involved has winning as the top priority.

Demidov is contracted to stay with SKA until May 31st. He will then be contractually free to join the Canadiens. No doubt the organization will breathe a sigh of relief when they see Demidov on Canadian soil.

Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.