Canadiens: Guhles Is A Gamer
With less than two minutes left in last night's game, Montreal Canadiens' blueliner Kaiden Guhle was sent to the box for a questionable holding call. With the score tied at one all against the Colorado Avalanche, the timing of the penalty was awful, but the Habs pulled through and killed it.
Then, when Guhle came out of the sin bin, he found himself with an opportunity to win the game on a breakaway against Mackenzie Blackwood. The local netminder prevailed, it wasn't all that surprising as Guhle is no Cale Makar or Lane Hutson, but less than two minutes later, he showed exactly what he is: a master of the defensive game.
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When the soon-to-be 23 year old blueliner saw that Artturi Lehkonen was about to take off and get a breakaway against rookie netminder Jakub Dobes, he not only caught up to him, but he neutralized the threat. Not only was Lehkonen unable to get so much as a shot on goal, but he was also promptly sent to the box for goaltender interference.
Granted, Guhle didn't score the game-winning goal in the shootout but his solid play allowed the Canadiens to take the game to overtime, and to the shootout. In his post game press conference, Martin St-Louis had this to say about the rearguard:
Guhle is a gamer, he's a hockey player. He possesses everything he needs to face those big challenges [of playing against the best players]. It's not the first time he does it, we have assets that help us play against a fast game [like Colorado's].
To the untrained ear, there's nothing special about being a hockey player, but when you know the Canadiens' bench boss, you know there's a big difference between being a guy who plays hockey and a hockey player. It's just about one of the highest praise St-Louis can give his players.
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Clearly, GM Kent Hughes agrees since he signed Guhle to a six-year deal worth $33.3 M last Summer, making him the first defensive member of the Canadiens' young core he's committed to long-term.
Last night, Guhle was on the ice for over 24 minutes, that's three full minutes more than his average workload this season which stands at 21:08. He didn't look tired, he looked energized and was the author of nine of the team's 20 blocked shots. Four of those blocks were against league leading scorer Nathan MacKinnon and two were against Mikko Rantanen, those two have combined for 41 goals so far this season so they were important blocks indeed.
There's more to hockey than just putting up points and every night, Guhle remind us of that. Last year, David Savard did not lead the Canadiens in blocked shots, Guhle did with 178 (Savard had 164) and he's on pace for 201 this season.
When the Montreal Canadiens are ready to contend, Guhle will be a huge part of their defense corps, he already is to be fair, but he's yet to reach his ceiling.
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