Call of the Wilde: Laine shines again as Canadiens edge Ducks in ...

Game three of the five game home stand for the Montreal Canadiens taking on the Anaheim Ducks. Montreal is playing its best hockey of the season.

They needed to make sure they didn’t take a step back at home against one of the league’s weaker teams.

They came through with a 3-2 shootout victory. Patrik Laine and Cole Caufield scored on consecutive shots, while Samuel Montembeault stopped both.

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It wasn’t an impressive game from the Canadiens overall, but there were two highlights. Lane Hutson set a rookie record for the club. With an assist on the opening goal, Hutson counted a point in his seventh straight game. He beat the record of six last set by the great Chris Chelios. That’s some special company.

That goal was scored by Patrik Laine. What a start for the Finnish sniper. Laine one-timed a pass from Nick Suzuki for his third goal in four games. All of them power play markers, and all of them showing off that terrific shot.

The assist for Suzuki was his 29th point in 28 games as he looks to become a point-per-game player for the first time in his career.  His career high is 77 points.

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Is it physical or is it mental for Kirby Dach? It is both. However, it is the physical that comes first, because it is the issues with the knee that produce the issues with the mind.

Take the massive giveaway by Dach in the first period that led to the first Ducks goal. Dach had it behind the net, and as soon as he saw the defender coming at him, he gave it away blindly allowing the turnover that led to Anaheim’s rush.

That looks like a mental error, and it is. However, it is fear for his body that makes him make the mental mistake. He does not want the contact that could cause another injury. It is natural fear. This is not the Dach that we knew before the injury.

Dach would have taken the hit. He would have kept the puck. He would have fought for a better play.

It’s not to say the entire goal was on him. Juraj Slafkovsky dogged it on the back check. He and Dach both peeled into the corner. Justin Barron backed into his own goalie taking no one, instead of holding the blue line on the rush.

Goals against aren’t usually just one breakdown. They are usually two or three, but this one started with Dach not willing to take a hit to make a play. That is his season, and will remain his game, until his brain is better ready for this physical challenge.

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The biggest change from this year’s roster to next year’s will be at the centre position. There is a real chance that the only player who is slotted in the same spot as he is right now is Nick Suzuki. Only the captain could remain in his same role as the Canadiens number one centre.

Suzuki plays against the best centres in the world, and somehow, on a club with a differential of 23 more goals allowed than they have scored, Suzuki has managed to be a plus player at plus one. It’s a hockey miracle. Suzuki is one of the most underrated players in the sport. He gets no respect, and none is coming until the club gets a second line centre, so Suzuki can get some easier minutes.

Suzuki leads a team in the middle of the ice that gets almost no garbage goals. No goals leading by three in the third where the opposition has given up the contest, nor empty netters to lift his totals. Every good moment that Suzuki gets, he earns against the best of hockey.

Suzuki is a first line centre, and that is where he will stay.

After that, though, it’s all up in the air. In the next 50 games, Dach will have to prove that he is getting more comfortable on his rebuilt knee to warrant heading into the following year as the second line centre.

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As it stands, he is not. Dach is a league worst minus-21. He has to improve or he must be considered as a third line centre in 2025-26.

If Dach is the third line centre, then the Canadiens management will need to acquire a second-line centre. They can not go into next year without a second line. A second line is expected to get 70 goals. The best second line will score 100 to 110 times. The Canadiens are on pace for 25 goals. Not even close to good enough.

Dach as a third line centre has huge ramifications for Jake Evans. The present fourth line centre is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year, and is playing the best hockey of his career, but there will be no space for Evans if GM Kent Hughes needs to acquire a second liner.

Evans will demand three million, though a contract of 2.5 per for three seasons is more likely for the 28 year old. The Canadiens should not pay that for Evans who would be slotted into the fourth line role again.

The better option at fourth line is the best prospect next October. In Europe, Oliver Kapanen continues his tutelage at Timra. He got a look this season already, and he was close. Next year, he will be even more ready. If Kapanen is not ready in the middle for a fourth line role, then Owen Beck could be.

The AHL is a league where prospects just out of junior hockey go to die offensively. It’s an extremely difficult league to score in. It’s a structured league where big men play big hockey. Beck does not seem bothered. He is second in the league in rookie scoring and he is leading the Laval Rocket in points. Beck looks ready.

There is no future of Christian Dvorak getting an offer to stay in Montreal. It simply does not feel like he is a fit, and if Hughes has him pencilled in on his whiteboard that would be a shock.

The Canadiens would then go with Suzuki, an acquisition via trade or free agency in the second line role, Dach in the third line role, and Beck as the fourth line option as he grows his game to perhaps a ceiling we have not imagined yet. Beck does have an outstanding 200-foot game.

Second-line centre is the most important hole to fill next season. Who fills that role changes everything. The lynchpin before the season began was Dach. It remains Dach now, and it will remain Dach until the season concludes.

Clarity comes in the next 50 games. They won’t count on a minus-21 two-goal player in the top-six to start 2025-26. They cannot.