Cowan: Young Canadiens are showing what a winning culture looks like

I guess we can stop calling this a rebuild now.

In the four full seasons since team owner/president Geoff Molson hired Jeff Gorton to start a full rebuild, the Canadiens have remarkably gone from the worst team in the NHL to the second round of the playoffs after beating the Lightning 2-1 in Game 7 of their first-round series Sunday night in Tampa.

For the second straight season the Canadiens are the youngest team in the playoffs, havin glost in five games to the Washington Capitals in the first round last year.

There’s still work to be done — there always is with NHL teams — and the Canadiens can use another proven top-six forward with size and another right-shot defenceman.

But after beating the Lightning, Gorton, general manager Kent Hughes and head coach Martin St. Louis now have a legitimate Stanley Cup contender and a team that should only get better over the next few years.

Very impressive.

Canadiens players celebrate their Game 7 win over the Lightning Sunday night in Tampa, Fla. Luis Santana / Tampa Bay Times

Next up is the Sabres in the second round with Game 1 slated for Wednesday in Buffalo (7 p.m., CBC, SN, TVA Sports). This marks the first time the Canadiens and Sabres will meet in the playoffs since the second round in 1998, when Buffalo swept the series. The teams split their four-game series this season with the Canadiens winning the last matchup 4-2 in Buffalo on Jan. 31.

I picked the Lightning to win the first-round series in six games because I believed Tampa had the edge in playoff experience and goaltending, plus the fact Canadiens defenceman Noah Dobson was sidelined with a thumb injury. The Canadiens showed that youth can beat experience — in large part because rookie goalie Jakub Dobes outplayed Lightning veteran Andrei Vasilevskiy — and the defence raised its level of play without Dobson, who rejoined the team for Game 7.

But the biggest reason the Canadiens beat the Lightning is the team culture that has been built over the last four years and the family feeling in the locker room.

“It’s easier to build a good culture when you have good people and I wouldn’t have taken this job if I didn’t think that Gorts and Kent are great people,” St. Louis said near the end of the regular season. “It’s easier to move along and get there quicker when you have consistency in behaviour.

“It’s always part of the equation,” St. Louis added about culture. “I think it’s something that every year we work on it, we talk about it.”

There were several examples of that winning culture both on the ice — with the pressure of all seven games decided by one goal — and off the ice from players who weren’t even in the lineup.

Brendan Gallagher — a healthy scratch for the first four games — scored the first goal in the Canadiens’ 3-2 win over the Lightning in Game 5 in Tampa. Following a post-game interview with Sportsnet’s Kyle Bukauskas, Gallagher was swarmed by his teammates — led by a beaming Patrik Laine, who hasn’t played a game since Oct. 16 but is still travelling and practising with the team.

After Dobes made 28 saves in the Game 7 victory — giving him a .923 save percentage for the series — a smiling and very happy Samuel Montembeault delivered a shaving-cream pie to his face during a TV interview. Montembeault hasn’t played a game since March 6 after losing his starting job to Dobes.

Arber Xhekaj was made a healthy scratch for Game 7 to make room for Dobson, but when St. Louis led a post-game celebration in the locker room the giant defenceman had a huge smile on his face and was pounding his chest and stomping his feet along with his teammates.

Phillip Danault — who made it a tradition to celebrate series victories with post-game pizza when he helped the Canadiens advance to the Stanley Cup final in 2021 before losing to the Lightning — delivered a slice of pizza to Mike Matheson while he was being interviewed after Game 7, saying: “A little slice, my friend? Cheers, bud.”

It was a special way for a teammate to help Matheson to celebrate the first playoff series victory of his 11-year NHL career.

It’s obvious the Canadiens love playing for their coach and that can go a long way for a team.

“I think he’s one of the best coaches in the whole world,” Suzuki told reporters in Tampa after Game 7. “The way he can find ways, it seems like he says the right thing at every single situation and knows how to get the best out of his guys.

“Obviously, no one was happy with that second period (when the Canadiens failed to get a single shot on goal) and he comes in all fired up, getting us going for the third,” Suzuki added. “Really motivating the guys. He’s our leader and everyone will do anything for him. He’s a hell of a coach and he’s only been doing this for a short period of time, so I can imagine he’s going to continue to get better. He just loves what he does and we love playing for him.”

It shows.

Prediction: Canadiens over Sabres in six games.

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