Stu Cowan: Surprisingly, the Canadiens are still in playoff picture

Jeff Gorton didn’t want to say the word playoffs heading into this season.

The Canadiens’ executive vice-president of hockey operations said at the team’s golf tournament in September that he wanted the focus to remain on development and the growth of players both individually and as a team during the second full season of a rebuild.

That was before Kirby Dach was lost for the season after suffering a serious knee injury in the second game, Alex Newhook suffered a high ankle sprain that has sidelined him for the last 10 games and will keep him out for another 7-9 weeks, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and Jordan Harris suffered lower-body injuries that have kept them out since mid-November, and David Savard missed 22 games with a fractured hand.

Despite all that, the Canadiens went into their Christmas break with a 15-13-5 record and were 5-2-3 in their last 10 games. Through Tuesday’s games, the Canadiens were only five points out of a playoff spot.

It’s still hard to imagine this team making the playoffs.

Last season, it took 92 points to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. To reach that total, the Canadiens would need 57 points from their final 49 games — a record equivalent to 27-19-3. On Wednesday, the Sportsclubstats.com website had the Canadiens’ odds of making the playoffs listed at 11.8 per cent.

To steal a line from the Dumb and Dumber movie: “So, you’re telling me there’s a chance.”

The Canadiens will be back in action Thursday when they face the Hurricanes in Carolina (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM). It’s the fourth of seven straight road games for the Canadiens, who have been better on the road (8-4-3) than they are at home (7-9-2).

Head coach Martin St. Louis said he doesn’t really look at the standings, but he likes the position the Canadiens are in as a team, noting there has been a “very good evolution” over the last month.

“We’re not introducing so many new things,” St. Louis told reporters in Minnesota after a 4-3 overtime loss last Thursday to the Wild. “We’re at a point I feel like it’s ingrained a little bit and guys are not thinking too much, they’re just reacting and playing. That comes with experience together, practice, reps, video. We’re evolving.”

The Canadiens are still in the playoff hunt despite the injuries and despite the fact Cole Caufield has only eight goals and is on pace to finish the season with 20 after scoring 26 goals in 46 games last season before suffering a shoulder injury that required surgery. Brendan Gallagher has only five goals and has gone 19 games without scoring. If Caufield and Gallagher can start providing more offence, the Canadiens’ chances of making the playoffs will improve.

One thing that has been a constant since St. Louis took over as head coach in February 2022 is that the Canadiens don’t give up. They were down 2-0 and 3-2 to the Wild, but fought back both times to earn a point with the OT loss. The Canadiens also have a perfect 8-0 record this season when leading after two periods.

“We never stop coming,” Savard said after the game in Minnesota. “I think it’s part of our DNA.”

That says a lot about St. Louis as a coach.

About 90 per cent of coaching in pro sports these days has to do with getting the players to want to play for you and having them buy into what you’re selling. The only coaching experience St. Louis had before joining the Canadiens was with Connecticut’s Mid-Fairfield Youth Hockey Association (where his three sons played). But the Hall of Fame player noted from Day 1 on the job that he could relate to what every player was going through as someone who was never drafted, was placed on waivers and was a fourth-liner before working his way up to the first line and star status. He won a Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning, along with a Hart Trophy as league MVP and two Art Ross Trophies as the NHL’s leading scorer.

St. Louis often talks about the “rules of the game,” noting he’s not talking about offside, icing and penalties. It’s the rules he wants his players to follow to play the type of game he wants. It has been a learning process, but players now understand those rules and feel bad when they break them.

That happened to defenceman Johnathan Kovacevic during a 4-3 shootout loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Bell Centre on Dec. 13.

“Everyone loves playing for Marty and you know how good of a player he was, so when you screw up, it’s like, I let him down,” Kovacevic said following practice a few days later. “There’s some coaches where a coach can be on you and it pisses you off, but sometimes with Marty, he gets on you and you’re like, I messed up, I did him wrong, I let him down.”

The Canadiens probably won’t make the playoffs this season, but they are continuing to grow and develop.