Hickey on hockey: Gruelling stretch could foretell Canadiens' fate

The poet T.S. Eliot wrote that April is the cruellest month.

But he didn’t have to deal with the December schedule facing the Canadiens.

The Canadiens’ 2-1 win in Calgary Thursday began a 16-game odyssey that will concludes with a Jan. 3 game in Nashville.

The Canadiens’ performance during the next month will determine whether the team has a shot at the playoffs. And yes, dear reader, it’s time to recognize that this team has a better chance of making the playoffs than it does of falling into the Connor Bedard draft sweepstakes.

But there is a direct correlation between the team’s performance in the December meat grinder and the team’s final standing. Do well in December and you can usually count on playing hockey in mid-April. If you come out of the month with a losing record, it’s time to start looking at tee times.

During the past 10 full seasons, the Canadiens have a 22-36-6 record in December for the five seasons they missed the playoffs. Those figures are skewed a bit because Montreal had a 10-5 record in 2018-19, when they missed the playoffs with 96 points. That tied an NHL record for the most points from a non-playoff team.

In the five seasons the Canadiens made the playoffs, they were 37-28-7.

It’s not the volume of games that poses the challenge. Every team faces a similar schedule, but the Canadiens play an inordinate number of games on the road with only four of 16 games at the Bell Centre through Jan. 3.

The Calgary game was the first in a four-game western swing. Montreal returns for four home games sandwiched around a trip to Ottawa and then it’s back on the road for seven games from Dec. 19 to Jan. 3 with three days off for Christmas.

Did we say three days off? Actually it’s not that long because the Canadiens are in Dallas on Dec. 23 and their charter flight will touch down at about 4 a.m. on Christmas Eve. That leaves Christmas and Boxing Day to recover from jet lag before flying to Florida on Dec. 27.

The schedule has been like that for decades and some of the pain is self-inflicted. The Canadiens have to go on the road before and after Christmas to make room for family entertainment. Over the years, we’ve seen circuses (the old-fashioned version with animals), Ice Capades, Disney on Ice, Stars on Ice and, this year, Cirque du Soleil.

I understand the desire to fill seats with paying customers but, if your primary business is hockey, you would think that giving your team the best chance to win would override any financial considerations. That’s particularly true because Groupe CH has Place Bell available. As a longtime Cirque fan, I think the Laval facility would provide a more intimate setting for the show.

Sharpshooter Nick: Cole Caufield leads the Canadiens with 13 goals after scoring a power-play winner in Calgary, but the most accurate shooter on the team is Nick Suzuki. He has 12 goals on 47 shots for a shooting percentage of 25.5. Juraj Slafkovsky, who opened the scoring in Calgary with his fourth goal, is at 16 per cent. Caufield, who has a team-high 85 shots on goal, is at 15.3 per cent and he also has 32 missed shots. Suzuki has missed the net only 13 times, while four of Slafkovsky’s 11 misses hit a post.

And while people who should know better insist that Joel Armia has a great shot, he has taken 24 shots this season without hitting the back of the net.

Good things come in small packages: A lack of size hasn’t been a problem for defenceman Lane Hutson since making the jump from the U.S. national team development program to the NCAA.

Hutson, who has sprouted an inch to 5-foot-9 since the Canadiens drafted him in the second round (62nd overall) this year, has been lighting it up as a true freshman at Boston University. He was the Hockey East player of the week last week after scoring the winning goal for the ninth-ranked Terriers against Notre Dame. Hutson, who has six goals and eight assists in 12 games, was the Hockey East defender of the month for October and he has been rookie of the week twice.

phickey@postmedia.com

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