Canadiens complete perfect road trip without Suzuki
No Nick Suzuki, no Ivan Demidov, no Mike Matheson, no functional power play, no problem for the Montreal Canadiens.
They beat the Dallas Stars 5-2 Thursday to cap a perfect road trip against all odds, and did it exactly as suggested they’d have to in the absence of their captain — and other key players and components.
“Just fall back on the collective game,” said coach Martin St. Louis before the Canadiens left for Chicago sans Suzuki one week ago. “We’re just going to keep going. It’s a big piece, but we’ll be ready… And we’re always going to fall back on our collective game.”
Sure, it was nowhere to be found in St. Louis on Tuesday, when Jacob Fowler came up with a miraculous 46-save shutout to steal away two points from the Blues.
But the collective game was there throughout the rest of this 4-0-0 road trip, with several different players stepping up to fill the massive void left by Suzuki.
The Canadiens already had one big hole to patch, deprived of Demidov’s services since Game 3 of their season. But they at least got Matheson back for that first game against the Blackhawks after he missed four with a lower-body injury.
That one at United Center belonged to Jake Evans, who scored two goals in a 4-1 win that kicked this trip off in style.
Fowler was then excellent in Sunday’s Heritage Classic against the Winnipeg Jets, but he wasn’t........
