No wonder Canadiens fans are torturing themselves with visions of a lineup featuring Michkov, Hutson, Caufield, Laine, Suzuki, Slafkovsky and Demidov.
It’s Matvei Michkov’s birthday Monday.
He’s 20, the same age as Lane Hutson. And he is tearing up the National Hockey League in a fashion most everyone predicted, but ahead of schedule.
It appears Michkov arrived on this continent as a fully formed offensive threat, minus a brief stint in the press box while he learned how to get along with John Tortorella.
The young Russian is hotter than Moscow in July (and trust me, Moscow is hot in July.) He had three assists against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers Thursday, two goals against Boston Saturday. When he was held to a single assist Sunday, it felt like a victory for Utah.
Michkov has 11 goals and 14 assists in 25 games to lead all rookies in scoring with 24 points. That puts him five points up on his rival, Connor Bedard. Last season’s Calder Trophy winner has had his struggles and has only five goals to go with 15 assists in 27 games.
Michkov is a plus-3. Remarkable because the scouting reports said he wasn’t bad on defence — he simply didn’t play defence. Bedard, meanwhile, is a minus-13 for Chicago. At this point, it would appear that Michkov should have gone first overall, ahead of the “generational talent” Bedard.
No wonder Canadiens fans are torturing themselves with visions of a lineup featuring Michkov, Hutson, Cole Caufield, Patrik Laine, Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovský (assuming he gets his act together) and Ivan Demidov, who is slated to arrive in September.
I’m not unsympathetic to fans who feel the Canadiens fell off a cliff on June 28, 2023. That was the date the club shocked the hockey world (or at least their own fan base) by choosing relatively unknown Austrian defenceman David Reinbacher with the fifth overall pick, ahead of Michkov.
Michkov fell to seventh and the Flyers and fans in Montreal went nuts — literally. They pelted Reinbacher with online hatred that was as unjustified as it was odious. The young man, after all, did not draft himself. A better class of fans quickly rallied to Reinbacher’s support and the whole thing died down until Michkov started generating points for the Flyers.
While Michkov is tearing it up, Reinbacher is trying to heal up, recovering from surgery for a pre-season knee injury suffered seconds into a game against the Leafs. Reinbacher won’t be back until March, if then. Before that injury, Reinbacher was coming off an unpromising season in Austria, where he dealt with another injury and a terrible team while recording a single goal and 11 assists.
He appeared more promising in 11 games with the Laval Rocket last spring, but then came the injury this fall and the extended pause on IR.
Predictably, Hab fans are losing their minds on social media over the failure to draft Michkov. (It didn’t help that the Canadiens blew a 2-0 lead while losing to a very good Washington team after Michkov rang up two on Boston.)
It would appear that the young Russian is offensive dynamite. But so, by all accounts, is Demidov — and Demidov is a bigger body. Perhaps Demidov’s arrival will quiet some of the shouting over Michkov, but fans are instinctively greedy: They want both.
Perhaps we all need a reminder that the goal here is to win a Stanley Cup and that big, mobile defencemen have featured prominently on most Cup winners over the past decade whereas Mitch Marner, whose size and skills are comparable to Michkov’s, tends to vanish come playoff time.
With Reinbacher on the shelf, there’s no real way to compare the draft picks. The Canadiens could definitely use another top-four blueliner on the right side, but defencemen take longer to develop and with the injuries he’s suffered, Reinbacher is going to need time and patience — not a quality Montreal fans are known to possess.
Few Nations Cup: The fuss over the roster selections for the Few Nations Cup makes little sense. First, an international men’s hockey competition without the Swiss, Danes, Slovaks and Czechs isn’t really international at all.
Second, I’d rather see players like Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Samuel Montembeault and (especially) Patrik Laine get some rest and stay healthy — and I hope never to see Caufield with Captain Underpants as a teammate.
Better Duck! We’re pleased to see headhunter Jacob Trouba out of the Eastern Conference, though not so pleased to see the guy turn up at the Bell Centre with the Anaheim Ducks Monday night.
Shocking news! We’re shocked that Juan Soto spurned the dysfunctional Blue Jays organization to sign a 15-year, $765-million contract with the New York Mets. Shocked, I tell you.
Heroes: Marie-Philip Poulin, Mikayla Grant-Mentis, Elaine Chuli, Cole Caufield, Lane Hutson, Patrik Laine, Nick Suzuki, Jake Evans, Alex Newhook, Sam Montembeault, Luke Richardson, Anze Kopitar, Nikola Jokic, Wladimir Klitschko, Lewis Hamilton, Dave Parker, Dick Allen, &&&& last but not least, Andrei Markov.
Zeros: Max Verstappen, the Chicago Blackhawks, Jacob Trouba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Brady, Joe Rogan, Wayne Gretzky, the Blue Jays, Mark Shapiro, Ross Atkins, Bud Selig Jr., Claude Brochu, David Samson &&&& last but not least, Jeffrey Loria.
Now and forever.
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