Canadiens extend win streak, return home with chance to clinch playoff berth

NEWARK, N.J. — They don’t ask how, they ask how many, and the Montreal Canadiens now have nearly enough.

Their eighth win in a row — sealed on an Oliver Kapanen breakaway deke in a shootout versus the New Jersey Devils Saturday — got them to 100 points on the season. They’re travelling home to what will undoubtedly be a hero’s welcome at the Bell Centre, coming off a 5-0-0 road run that began in Nashville last Saturday and staring down an opportunity to lock up a playoff berth Sunday.

All the Canadiens need is one more point.

But after tying up the Buffalo Sabres for second in the Atlantic Division, they’re gunning for the Tampa Bay Lightning, who are two points ahead with six games to go.

“Why stop now?” asked Lane Hutson, who made it 3-0 with his 12th goal and 74th point of the season with just over half the game remaining.

The Canadiens may have allowed the Devils to score three goals over the next 27 minutes of play, but they persisted for a 4-3 win.

They weren’t happy about how it went. Just like they weren’t thrilled with Thursday’s 3-2 win over the New York Rangers.

But sticking with it and not letting either game completely slip away was indicative of how the Canadiens have matured since their rebuild began in the back half of the 2021-22 season.

“We probably lose those games the last few years,” said Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki, who spent those years searching for positives in losses but now has the luxury of nitpicking at wins.

The 26-year-old is also mature enough to consider the context — of the last couple of games of a pivotal road trip presenting traps against carefree teams playing for lottery odds rather than playoff spots, and of completing five games in eight nights before Sunday’s rematch against the Devils in Montreal — without using it as an excuse.

“I mean, when you’re on the road for 10 days, every day just blends in together,” Suzuki said. “It feels like Nashville was a long time ago, and I think just the way we were able to just find ways to win, even though we didn’t really have our best games, it’s a testament to all the guys in here to just stick with it. We didn’t collapse.”

He stayed on his feet, even if his legs were wobblier against the Devils than they had been in weeks.

Hence, Suzuki notching his 95th point in a game that saw him lose 15 of 21 faceoffs, get caught on the ice for Timo Meier’s goal, and miss for a 17th consecutive time in the shootout.

“It’s been a long road trip,” Suzuki said, “and sometimes the last one’s a bit of a mental grind.”

But the Canadiens fought through it to get to a place few thought they’d arrive at this soon — already at 100 points, with 12 more available to them from here to the end of the regular season.

“For sure, we’re proud of that,” said Martin St. Louis. “But we always focus on the next game, the next action on the ice, whatever it is. It’s fun to look at where we are in the standings, how we’ve been playing recently, it’s fun to see that. But we’re going to stay on task and tell ourselves the truth the next day to keep moving forward and remaining focused on the process.”

It’s been that recipe that’s propelled Suzuki to the most prolific season of any Canadiens player in decades; that’s put Cole Caufield one goal away from becoming the first Canadiens player to hit 50 since Stephane Richer did it in 1991; that’s made Juraj Slafkovsky one of the game’s most dynamic power forwards; that’s made Ivan Demidov the Canadiens’ fifth-ever 60-point rookie; that’s turned Hutson into a point-per-game player; that’s made two rookie goaltenders one of the best duos in the league.

Jakub Dobes stuck to his process to turn a topsy-turvy ride through the first half of the season into an incredibly smooth one down the stretch. He stopped 35 of 38 Devils shots after stopping 129 of 134 in the four consecutive wins he earned prior to Saturday.

On Sunday, Jacob Fowler, who’s progressed a ton since debuting with the Canadiens in December, will take over and go for his fifth win in his sixth start since being recalled from the AHL’s Laval Rocket in the second week of March.

This team has arrived ahead of schedule.

“It’s pretty remarkable,” said Suzuki. “I think just the amount of young guys that we have, how they’ve grown, they’ve been able to win us games. The goaltending’s been awesome. Our rookies have been really good. And guys that have been here just keep getting better with our system. I think our coaching staff’s been better as we’ve grown together, so it’s pretty cool to be in this experience so fast. When we got into this rebuild, it felt like it might take a while, but it’s pretty fun right now.”

It’s hard, too, and that much more rewarding because it is.

Sunday won’t be easier, but the biggest reward of the season could be enjoyed by the end of it.

“I know there’s going to be a lot of energy in the building,” said St. Louis. “We’re trying to earn that every game. I think they see where we try to battle hard every game, with nothing guaranteed. I think they respect that. The foundation of our success, I think it’s our work ethic and our collectiveness. And I feel they feel that.”

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