{"id":399002,"date":"2026-01-09T05:49:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T05:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/399002\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T05:49:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T05:49:16","slug":"call-of-the-wilde-montreal-canadiens-drub-panthers-6-2-on-another-magical-night-montreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/399002\/","title":{"rendered":"Call of the Wilde: Montreal Canadiens drub Panthers 6-2 on another magical night – Montreal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The defending Stanley Cup champions are formidable, but somehow in the last two years not against the Montreal Canadiens.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Canadiens have beaten the Florida Panthers five straight times, including a 3-2 win in Florida over the Christmas holiday.<\/p>\n

The Panthers had revenge on their minds on Thursday night, but the Canadiens continued their dominance with a 6-2 win.<\/p>\n

Wilde Horses<\/p>\n

For 15 seasons, when it was \u201cPrice and a Prayer,\u201d it was the Canadiens trying to slow the game down. It was the Canadiens who just tried to stay in it; get enough saves from the world\u2019s greatest goalie to perhaps force overtime. Keep it to low-event hockey and maybe the goalie would be good enough.<\/p>\n

This version of the Canadiens is a complete flip of that boring script. This team is exciting. They are the ones trying to bring beautiful hockey to the rink. Even the Florida Panthers, who are the champions, are trying to make it physical, slow it down, stay in it, get the goaltending.<\/p>\n

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Montreal is suddenly putting it together at such a level that they are playing beautiful hockey. The puck is moving rapidly and rhythmically across the ice. They turn what seems like nothing \u2014 or at best, very little \u2014 into goals and high-danger chances.<\/p>\n

The first period saw the Canadiens score twice. Noah Dobson scored from 55 feet thanks to a deflection from AJ Greer. The second came on a tremendous forecheck from Ivan Demidov and Jurah Slafkovsky. Demidov was the first in causing chaos. Slafkovsky followed up, using his big body now to great advantage, kicking it out front to Oliver Kapanen to bat it out of the air for his 15th of the season.<\/p>\n

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The entire NHL is waiting for this rookie\u2019s bubble to burst, but it\u2019s the second half of the season, and it\u2019s not happening. Kapanen is the leading rookie goal scorer. His shooting percentage is 18.2. Among the healthy, that\u2019s tops on the team. His mature game is allowing Demidov and Slafkovsy to be creative.<\/p>\n

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In the second period, the Panthers put the game into quicksand. It\u2019s the way to win playoff hockey, and they know how to make an opponent earn every inch of the ice. The Canadiens didn\u2019t get their first shot until 14 minutes had been played, and they scored on it.<\/p>\n

Alexandre Carrier saw Alexandre Texier in front of the net to the left of Sergei Bobrovsky. He put it right on his tape for his fifth of the season.<\/p>\n

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In the third period, it was Texier again. He led a two-on-one with Cole Caufield. He tried to pass to Caufield, but it was blocked, then came right back to him. Texier calmly flipped it upstairs for 4-1. After a Juraj Slafkovsky empty netter, it was Texier again.<\/p>\n

He batted a puck out of the air for his hat trick. The hats rained down from the rafters at the Bell Centre while the crowd sang \u201cSweet Caroline\u201d by themselves. It was a second magic night in two nights, for the fans, and for Texier.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s six points in two games for Texier. Texier has gone from being released from his contract to finding himself on the first line of one of the hottest clubs in the NHL. It\u2019s a remarkable story, and a remarkable pickup by GM Kent Hughes.<\/p>\n

Wilde Goats\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Panthers looked like they do when they win the Stanley Cup. They cut down the ice. They give no time. They are on each puck carrier like a blanket. They finish every single check. They lost by four goals.<\/p>\n

No goats as the Canadiens move to a season-high 12 games over NHL .500.<\/p>\n

Wilde Cards<\/p>\n

Lane Hutson isn\u2019t worried that he didn\u2019t make the Olympic team for the United States this February in Italy. Hutson seems more interested in making the U.S. selection committee, led by Bill Guerin, look inept by not choosing him.<\/p>\n

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Hutson was left off the roster because of his lack of size. That height issue is attached to a supposed inability to play defence well enough to make up for that spectacular offence he brings.<\/p>\n

Firstly, any good coach for the U.S. can choose appropriate spots to allow a player to be at their best with the right setup. For Hutson, if a coach is erroneously worried about his defence then use him on the power play, use him down one, use him with the goalie pulled.<\/p>\n

However, that thoughtful strategy idea makes the assumption that the USA committee might be right. Let\u2019s go straight to the heart of the matter to end this ridiculous assumption that this phenomenon can\u2019t play defence.<\/p>\n

Old school plus-minus sees Hutson tops on the Canadiens with a plus 16. He is also 26th in the entire NHL in plus-minus. He is higher in that stat than every single American defender chosen to go to the Olympics instead of him.<\/p>\n

To the new school analytics for more persuasive numbers: Hutson in 5-on-5 expected goals against per 60 is one of the best in the entire league. He is well ahead of supposed players far better than he is like Zach Werenski, Cale Makar, Devon Toews, Thomas Harley. This isn\u2019t to say that he is better than those defenders. It\u2019s to say that it is ridiculous to single him out for defensive deficiencies that simply do not exist.<\/p>\n

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In believing Hutson has defensive issues, the USA passed up on a points-per-game blue liner with 21 points in his last 14 games. That isn\u2019t just top among defenders. That\u2019s sixth in points in the entire league. Believe it or not, this kid is actually finding another level right now.<\/p>\n

Hutson is third in the league among defenders in points. He also is fifth in skating speed among defenders should someone argue that he isn\u2019t fast enough.<\/p>\n

The only believable reason to not choose Hutson is that you\u2019re completely inept at your job.<\/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":"The defending Stanley Cup champions are formidable, but somehow in the last two years not against the Montreal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3382,5,45191,4,292,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-399002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-call-of-the-wilde","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-montreal-sports","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-nhl-hockey","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399002","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=399002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}