Demidov pays dividends on power play as Canadiens topple Canucks

They had none of it to start the game, sleepwalking through the first period and emerging fortunate to have not spotted the Vancouver Canucks a bigger lead than 1-0.

The Canadiens didnâ€t start the second any better before falling down 2-0 in the eighth minute of the second period. They were flat, they were forcing passes, they were disconnected at five-on-five, and they were playing the exact type of game that would force their power play to come through.

Turns out the timing was ripe because the Canadiens’ power play, as currently constructed, was designed to do exactly that.

They didnâ€t need it to get them to 6-2-0, but it wouldâ€ve helped them avoid a loss in Edmonton had it hit the ice more than once in that game.

On Saturday, with Demidov replacing Zachary Bolduc and occupying the right half-wall of the top unit for just the second time this season, it offered up three rescue breaths to help the Canadiens turn a sure loss into a 4-3 win. And, in the process, it served notice that itâ€ll be a force to be reckoned with moving forward.

Just having Demidov across from Suzuki makes it so.

“You think back to Tampa, with (Steven) Stamkos and (Nikita) Kucherov kind of going seam-seam, thatâ€s hard to defend,†said Mike Matheson. “Once you can rely that itâ€s going to be in one guyâ€s hands a bit more, you can read off that as a P.K. But when thereâ€s two guys (opposite each other) who are really good with the puck, it really adds an element.â€

Itâ€s not as if Martin St. Louis didnâ€t know.

Long before taking over the Canadiens†bench in February of 2022, he spent plenty of time at his vacation home in Tampa Bay, watching Stamkos and Kucherov torch their opposition time and time again. The coach also had Demidov playing with Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky, Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson through the end of Montrealâ€s first-round playoff series against the Washington Capitals last spring, so he had a fair idea of what they could do together before this season started.

But with Noah Dobson traded for and signed over the summer, and with Patrik Laine healthy, the coach sought more balance by opting to split Suzuki and Demidov so that each power-play unit could have an elite playmaker on it.

With Laine not making the trip through Western Canada, and with him later going under the knife to repair a torn core muscle that will require a three-to-four-month recovery, the impetus to move Demidov up was created.

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There were other things steering St. Louis in that direction, too.

“Iâ€ve known all along that Demi can play on the first wave, first power play,†St. Louis said. “I feel I got to a certain point with Demi where he showed me heâ€s willing to play on the other side of the game, the defensive game, and heâ€s actually very attentive and trying to keep getting better. So, for me, all signs led to: itâ€s time. And it was also a chance for me to get him more ice-time.â€

With it, Demidov not only helped turn around a rough game for the Canadiens; he also helped turn around a game he later said was not his best.

The pass to Suzuki, on a play where just about anyone else wouldâ€ve shot, was brilliant. He made another one to Slafkovsky to tie the game 2-2 just 1:50 into the third period. And then the 19-year-old Russian made several other deceptive ones and just missed scoring on an open net on the teamâ€s final power play to create the momentum Matheson capitalized on at five-on-five seconds later to put the Canadiens up 3-2.

Less than three minutes after that, Demidov completed his best even-strength shift of the night with a one-timer that proved to be the winning goal after a late surge netted the Canucks a goal off Conor Garlandâ€s stick.

But it all started with a power play that came into the game ranked 22nd in the NHL and came out of it ranked 12th.

Hutson, who runs the middle of the point of the top unit, said whatâ€s happening on both sides of him opens all kinds of options that wouldnâ€t otherwise be there.

“I donâ€t think thereâ€s any great strategy (to defend Demidov across from Suzuki),†he said. “Theyâ€re both so dangerous, and theyâ€re kind of learning what works against different kills and all that stuff. So, I think, maybe just stay back and hope they donâ€t seam you.â€

Itâ€s what both Demidov and Suzuki are looking for.

“Heâ€s looking for a seam, heâ€s looking for someoneâ€s stick in the wrong spot so he can hit a seam, heâ€s looking for guys in space, and I try to get in space so I have space to get a puck,†Hutson said of Demidov, but he just as easily couldâ€ve been referring to Suzuki.

The deception with which both players operate makes them a lethal combination.

On this night, it was a life-saving one for the Canadiens.

Outside of the line of Kirby Dach, Joe Veleno and Bolduc, they didnâ€t have much of anything going at five-on-five, which made this game an outlier.

But there will be others like it, and for the Canadiens to know they can change the outcome as convincingly as they did with the man-advantage Saturday is to know they have a chance to win any game.

“Itâ€s great,†said Slafkovsky. “Thatâ€s what changed the momentum… There will be games where itâ€s not going to work fully. But I feel like if we get three chances, we need at least one from our power play every time.â€

So far, Montrealâ€s top unit is two-for-four. And though we wonâ€t read too deeply into such a small sample, we like its chances of scoring on one of every three.

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