The Canadian | Forty-eight hours that have changed everything

When cutting the tatter and tasting the Christmas log, the Montreal Canadiens arrived at 14^e Rank of the eastern association, seven points behind the last place available in series. Montreal players did not suspect it, but the following two games were going to change the course of their season.

Posted at 12:52 p.m.

That day, Jakub Dobes arrived like a UFO, a bit like something that we did not expect. Cayden Primeau was not going at all, and it was necessary to do something, especially since the team had just taken a painful result in Columbus four days earlier.

But here, under the palm trees of Fort Lauderdale, there was a little something in the air, with this young goalkeeper that the Canadian was going to send in the mouths of the panthers the next day, without warning. “I just want to show what I can do,” Dobes said, eyes large like two dollars.

An all green goalkeeper in front of the reigning champions? It didn’t get anything good, and there is a small parenthesis that is essential here: since I write on the ups and downs of this team (often the stockings), the traditional holiday trips in Florida is usually the opportunity to bury the Canadian. The match in Sunrise generally ends with a defeat and afterwards, between colleagues, we often make the same joke, looking at our fictitious watch: well, the season is over!

On this match day, on December 28, it was six years since the Canadian had not won during the holidays in Sunrise, and our traditional seasonal joke was probably still used.

But not this time.

This time, the Canadian beat the panthers with the 4-0 brand. Zero went to the Dobes file – not a bad way to initiate a career -, and afterwards, the hero of the day mostly wanted to talk about his mother, dispatched to a disaster in Florida to attend this first.

Before being able to enter the locker room and talk to the players, the journalists present on the spot were able to hear very strong music broadcast on the other side of the doors, as if the Canadian had just done something.

Which was the case, in a way.

* * *

The time of celebrations was going to be brief, since 24 hours later, the Canadian put his suitcases a little further north, on the side of Tampa. Alexandre Carrier had just arrived with the club, but already, he was aware of the Canadiens’ setbacks in Florida during the holidays. “I know it’s never an easy trip,” he said.

Indeed, and then the last time the Canadian had swept the two Florida teams in the holiday season, it was in 2009. From memory, Tomas Plekanec and Benoît Pouliot had been the heroes during this journey.

The Canadian ended up winning this match too, by the 5-2 brand. Montreal players have launched 37 times on the lightning net, nothing less.

Pointing and results is one thing, but the most important thing may be what Nick Suzuki told journalists in the locker room after the meeting. The captain, not used to spectacular statements, had noticed something quite important.

The Canadian left Florida the wind in his sails, to continue with a victory in Vegas on December 31. Then the Montreal club won 7 of the following 10 games. The tone was set, in short, and more recently, defender Kaiden Guhle identified this end of the calendar as a turning point in the club season.

Now what’s going to happen? Washington’s capitals are waiting, and it would obviously be tempting to bring together this spring and spring halak, although all the characters in this series are gone, except two. It will also be tempting, too, to bring together with other editions of the past, those of 1971 or 1986, for example, which led to the greatest surprises in the history of this club.

All this matters little, because in a way, the 2024-2025 edition has already caused its own surprise to itself. A surprise that started, against all odds, where this team is used to going to die very often.