BOSTON — When Phillip Danault jumped on the ice Tuesday at TD Garden for his first morning skate with the Montreal Canadiens since he was acquired from the Los Angeles Kings late Friday night, he had a little extra juice in his stride. His excitement was obvious.
Two days prior, he flew to Montreal with his wife and two young children, uprooting their lives in Manhattan Beach to bring the family home for Christmas. On Monday morning, he was on the ice at the Canadiens practice rink, and by Monday evening he was in Boston, meeting with coach Martin St. Louis before meeting up with captain Nick Suzuki for dinner.
When Suzuki last played with Danault, it was Danault that had Suzuki’s role. Danault was the top line centre. He got the toughest matchups. He drove possession. Suzuki was 21 at the time, Danault was 27.
Now, Suzuki is 26 and team captain. Danault will be 33 in February.
Danault needed this change of scenery, this return to a place he was comfortable, and he made that clear to Suzuki. But Suzuki needed this too: more experience around him, more reliability, more of a mitigating factor to the Canadiens’ youth.
“I know exactly how his season’s been going, we talked about that,” Suzuki said. “He just wants a fresh start and he’s definitely going to get that here and play a big role for our team. So he’s excited about that and our future. He’s always going to be a guy I can go to. He’s got a lot of experience, he said he’s learned a lot over in L.A., too, so I’ll probably pick his brain about that too. It’s just great to have him back on the team.”
At the morning skate, the Canadiens did a typical two-on-one drill. At one point, Danault was with Suzuki coming down the ice, Danault held on to the puck, looked off Suzuki and shot it, only to be stopped by Jakub Dobeš. As the puck skipped around the boards to Suzuki as he placed himself back in line, he zipped it over to Danault on the opposite side of the ice, a bit of a zinger to note he would have appreciated a pass in that situation.
On Danault’s next time down on the two-on-one, this time without Suzuki, he kept it and scored on Dobeš. Suzuki banged his stick on the boards and let out a loud yell to acknowledge the goal. Danault was smiling ear to ear as he joined Suzuki in line.
Suzuki wanted to make that morning skate goal more important than it actually was.
“He’s a team guy,” Danault said.
Late in the second period of that night’s game against the Boston Bruins, with the score tied 2-2, Suzuki whacked the boards as he was coming off the ice. As opposed to the morning skate, this was a whack of frustration. Two nights earlier in Pittsburgh, Suzuki noted how he was dissatisfied with his line against the Penguins, and if they had been better, they might have won instead of losing in a shootout.
It is important to note that Suzuki never — never — shows his emotion on the ice. This was a rare moment when he did.
“Yeah, it was a little bit of a snowball effect, for sure,” Suzuki said. “I haven’t loved how we’ve played as a line over the last few games, it’s been frustrating for everyone. We just talked it out in the second intermission, we needed to be better and all three of us got a goal. I don’t know if it was perfect, we just capitalized on our chances. But yeah, definitely frustrated a little bit.”
In that third period, Zack Bolduc scored on a broken play, Cole Caufield scored the Canadiens’ first goal of the season on a two-man advantage and Suzuki did the same, alleviating some pressure en route to a seemingly easy 6-2 win ahead of the Christmas break.
Saint Nicholas 🎁#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/YqLjL9s8Rn
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 24, 2025
Up until then, the game was going largely how Danault had analyzed the Canadiens that morning despite just arriving.
“I watched a couple of their games, and they’re super offensive,” Danault said Tuesday morning. “They have a tendency to try too many cute plays at some points in the game, which most of the time they have the lead, and good teams can take advantage of this, especially in the playoffs. So I think that’s the maturity I will bring, in the third period, details, when you have to chip it in. Because it can’t be too risky at all times, because they have amazing skill, like pure skill here, probably one of the best in the league. So that’s the whole point.”
Yeah, a “couple of their games” might be underselling it a bit.
“He’s been watching our games a lot, he said,” Suzuki said. “So he knows all about it.”
The only reason the Canadiens were in a position to win after 40 minutes was because one of their youngest players was in the goal crease. Their goaltending has been an issue all season, but 21-year-old Jacob Fowler is making his case to be a solution to that.
Fowler played his college hockey at Boston College. This was an important milestone for him and he delivered, erasing a number of Grade-A chances. It might be best for Fowler’s career to send him back to Laval as soon as Sam Montembeault re-discovers his game given his age. Very few goalies that young actually succeed long term in the NHL. Yet Fowler is making it more difficult to make that sensible argument each time he plays.
St. Louis agreed when asked about it after the game. “But I think every player, no matter what, when you’re given an opportunity, you want to prove that you belong,” he said.
“That’s what he’s doing.”
Suzuki is also excited by what he’s seen from the young goaltender.
“He’s been really impressive, to be honest,” Suzuki said. “Just really calm, really confident, kind of everything that I’d heard before getting to play with him. He always seems to be in a good position to make the save, he makes the saves he’s supposed to, he really battles, he makes some big saves for the team. It’s been fun to watch him.”
Trading for Danault was an effort by Canadiens management to inject more experience into the lineup and provide more support for Suzuki, who openly stated after a 6-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 9 that the Canadiens lacked the experience to not allow a 2-0 deficit destroy them.
In that sense, the arrival of Danault is as much of a fresh start for him as it is a relief for Suzuki.
“He’s always going to be a guy I can go to,” Suzuki said. “He’s got a lot of experience, he said he’s learned a lot over in L.A., too, so I’ll probably pick his brain about that too.
“It’s just great to have him back on the team.”
Ultimately, this is what the Danault acquisition was about: A fresh start for him that also strengthens the Canadiens’ infrastructure and provides their captain with a support system.