{"id":397577,"date":"2026-01-08T13:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/397577\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T13:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:42:16","slug":"call-of-the-wilde-montreal-canadiens-dominate-the-calgary-flames-montreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/397577\/","title":{"rendered":"Call of the Wilde: Montreal Canadiens dominate the Calgary Flames – Montreal"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a successful 15-day road trip, the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> finally returned home Wednesday night. Montreal captured 10 of 14 points on the trip, but that first game back home is often a trap game.<\/p>\n

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The Canadiens were clearly aware of that, because right from the drop of the puck, they brought enormous energy. Montreal skated to a convincing 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wilde Horses<\/p>\n

There were moments for the Canadiens when the hockey was so extraordinary it looked like the Central Red Army at the height of its powers. The passing was crisp. The positioning was perfect. The shots were so well placed that Calgary goaltender Dustin Wolf had no chance.<\/p>\n

Wolf tried his best. The Canadiens had a 14-7 shot advantage in the opening frame, but the Flames goalie held his club in it. Owen Beck absolutely ripped a shot off the crossbar, and the feeling after 20 minutes was that this could be a game that the goalie steals.<\/p>\n

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In the second period, though, the talent kept shining through, and the inevitable happened. Alexandre Texier started it off with a shot at the side of the net that he ripped over Wolf\u2019s shoulder, with the goalie playing in the reverse VH style, and under the crossbar.<\/p>\n

The second goal of the period was the prettiest. The Canadiens had just finished killing off a penalty. Phillip Danault led the charge. His shot was stopped, but Montreal kept pressing. Danault got it back in the corner. He passed to Lane Hutson, who slotted his eighth of the season.<\/p>\n

The second line continued its excellence as well. Oliver Kapanen forced a turnover with a hard forecheck. It led to a Juraj Slafkovsky shot that Kapanen seized on the rebound. He didn\u2019t just fire it, but rather made an inside-out deke, so his shot was into a wide-open cage. Kapanen continues to show excellent finish. He already has 14 goals on the season.<\/p>\n

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The gorgeous goals kept coming. It was a marvel that Cole Caufield even controlled a cross-ice pass from Texier that was at his waist. Caufield corralled it, then fired a shot over the shoulder and under the bar. It hit the roof of the net before it hit the back of it from 25 feet. One of the best shots Caufield has taken. It was the 21st goal of the season for Caufield, and for Texier, it was his third point of the night.<\/p>\n

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The Canadiens continued their excellence in killing penalties with Danault in the lineup. He has improved the outlook while shorthanded. The club was 76 per cent before his arrival. They are 81 per cent successful on the kill since he joined the team against the Bruins in Boston on Dec. 23.<\/p>\n

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While those are some of the numbers, what is etched in the mind more than statistics is the organization of the club on the ice. Each player is finding the actions of his teammates more predictable.<\/p>\n

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It almost looked like wide receiver routes in football, where the quarterback knows exactly when the receiver will cut. However, this isn\u2019t a designed play of football. This is the chaos of hockey. Hockey usually doesn\u2019t look predictable, where each player knows their teammates\u2019 next action.<\/p>\n

This feels like the arrival of the lessons that head coach Martin St. Louis has been trying to teach his players. All that is left is to watch them execute at this beautiful level more frequently. These are the first moments when it looks this smooth, this convincing.<\/p>\n

Imagine a scenario where they add talent to the roster, get to know each other even better in their reads, and advance these techniques over the years. It could be breathtaking.<\/p>\n

There will be ups and downs, of course. The club is extremely young still, but it is so obviously coming together. The glimpse of greatness Wednesday night lasted but a period. Soon it will last all game. After that, it will last a season.<\/p>\n

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It was a dominant performance. The Canadiens are a season-high 11 games over NHL<\/a> .500. The team left the ice to a standing ovation. The players deserved it. There are no goats.<\/p>\n

Wilde Cards<\/p>\n

Generally, state-of-the-union addresses at mid-season for NHL clubs are weighty. The general manager is forced to deal with inevitable issues, and the media can be relentless. It\u2019s a rare day when the picture is so rosy that nothing is found to be concerned about.<\/p>\n

However, when a club is exceeding all expectations on every front, it gets rather friendly in a big hurry. Kent Hughes held his mid-season news conference on Tuesday and essentially nothing significant was said. \u201cWow! You\u2019re awesome\u201d does not pique a lot of interest, but there wasn\u2019t anything earth-shattering to report.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the only concern is that the club doesn\u2019t know which of its three goalies presently playing well needs to leave the nest to make it a more manageable two. Hughes would only say not to expect a move in the next 24 hours. The truth is they can wait, and they\u2019ll decide it when one truly struggles.<\/p>\n

On the spot in the standings, he said the club is ahead of schedule and everyone is excited to come to the rink. On Hutson, he said simply that he didn\u2019t think he would be this good, this fast. On Kapanen, Hughes believes that no doubt he can be the club\u2019s second-line centre.<\/p>\n

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On Kirby Dach, he indicated that the team will be extremely cautious because the foot fracture is on the same leg as the knee reconstruction. On the trading deadline, Hughes believes that it will be a tranquil one for the Canadiens. On Michael Hage, Hughes thinks he is headed in the right direction to arrive in Montreal this spring.<\/p>\n

And finally, on Jacob Fowler, Hughes admits the plan was for him to spend the season in the AHL, but the goalie has developed so nicely and his mental preparation is so good that he is ready to be an NHLer.<\/p>\n

All in all, a lot of good tidbits, but not a surprise among them. It\u2019s a well-oiled machine in year four of rebuild well ahead of schedule, with nothing beyond their scope of understanding.<\/p>\n

The organization is impressive. The rebuild is powerful.<\/p>\n

Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on<\/a> globalnews.ca<\/a> after each Canadiens game.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a successful 15-day road trip, the Montreal Canadiens finally returned home Wednesday night. Montreal captured 10 of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[3382,265,5,264,21,5147,4,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-397577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-call-of-the-wilde","9":"tag-canadiens","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-montreal","12":"tag-montreal-canadiens","13":"tag-montrealcanadiens","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115859773577650178","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}