Canadiens: Three Years Later

When he took over from Marc Bergevin as the Montreal Canadiens' general manager, Kent Hughes said that ideally, his version of the Habs would be fast and focussed on the attack. A few weeks later, he also said a team had to be suited to the bench boss' coaching style and three years on, everything seems to be on the verge of clicking.

Last week, we saw coach Martin St-Louis run in the corridors with a huge grin on his face to go congratulate the players as they came back to their dressing room after beating the Dallas Stars 3-1. For perhaps the first time since taking over, we can see the pilot is having a lot of fun.

Related: Suzuki And Matheson On Standby

While not everything has gone perfectly, it hardly ever does, this is real life after all, the first three years of the Hughes era have gone well. Watching the Canadiens play these days, is munch more entertaining than it used to be and this is now a four-line side. Gone are the days when it was all about Carey Price getting the Canadiens on the doorstep of the playoffs and praying for the best.

Nowadays, Montreal has four lines that are clicking. They're not all setting the league on fire, but they are working. The Patrik Laine, Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook unit is starting to come into its own and there's less and less talk about Dach struggling with his injury and Laine being all about the power play.

From what we've seen lately, and especially last night, the Canadiens are well on their way to having a fast attacking team, one that can bounce back when it falls down and that no longer scores 2 goals or less per game. Right now, the Habs are scoring 3.04 goal per game on average, the last time they averaged 3.00 or more was in 2018-19.

Related: Canadiens: Bouncing Right Back, And Back Again

Hughes hasn't reached his goal of building a perennial contender yet, but it looks like he's on the right path. So far, his core pieces include Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky and Kaiden Guhle, for other players, the audition isn't over but there's also a lot of talent coming down the pipeline. There's no denying this team is better than it was when Hughes took over.

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