Habs Highlights: Slafkovsky, Caufield, Suzuki Want Playoff Hockey

The Montreal Canadiens were in Vancouver on Tuesday night, facing a Canucks team that’s equally hungry for important wins to bolster their playoff odds.

Between now and the end of the regular season, almost every game will qualify as a ‘must win’, because there’s very little margin of error left when it comes to Montreal’s playoff hopes. If the Habs want to play springtime hockey, they need to quickly get back to their winning ways.

Tuesday was a great start, with the first line driving the offence charge, as per tradition. The Habs could have used a little support from any other trio, but the top line managed to score a few goals, which just enough to secure the 4-2 win against a Canucks team that offered very little cohesiveness until attempted referee Chris Lee decided to play his usual chaos card late in the third period.

Let’s dive into the highlights!

Perfect Start

It took Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki a little over a minute to open the scoring with a little help from his friends, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky. Say what you will about the team’s playoff chances, it’s quite clear that Suzuki is not going to give up his quest for playoff hockey any time soon, and that’s exactly how a leader ends up commanding respect for his troops. That’s very different from demanding respect, which is how bad leaders go about it, but that’s a topic for another day.

It also helps that Suzuki can score beautiful goals every now and again, just as he did in the first period against the Canucks.

Le capitaine ouvre la marque de belle façon à Vancouver pic.twitter.com/TiOEySVmZQ

— TVA Sports (@TVASports) March 12, 2025

Slafkovsky followed it up with a very nice individual effort of his own. It wasn’t as sexy as Suzuki’s goal, but some nerds, such as myself, describe shot production as sexy, so I think the mere fact that he didn’t hesitate to shoot makes it a sexy play.

And now I’ve used the term ‘sexy’ three times in the same sentence while talking about shots, and that’s the legal limit.

Weird hockey vernacular aside, any shot tends to be a good shot.

Any shot by Slafkovsky is a great shot, because it’s the most pressing issue about his overall play, a clear lack of shot production.

Besides, we all know the classic hockey adage, ‘When you put the corsi on net, good things will happen.”

Juraj Slafkovsky a le compas dans l’oeil. Le CH mène 2 à 0 contre les Canucks! pic.twitter.com/IMbW9YIZrp

— TVA Sports (@TVASports) March 12, 2025

Secondary Production? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Secondary Production

Believe it or not, the first line was not on the ice for the Canadiens’ third goal of the game.

Okay, those of you who chose not to believe that statement got it right, but it was worth a shot.

These late-game recaps always get weird.

Anyhow, the first line continued its great play via Caufield’s 32nd goal of the year, which took place midway through the second period. As much as I would like to praise Caufield, who certainly deserves his fair share of the credit, I can’t help but be impressed by Slafkovsky’s play since the 4 Nations Faceoff.

Sure, Suzuki has produced roughly 216 points since the tournament ended, but he was already playing quite well before the 4 Nations break. Slafkovsky, on the other hand, has clearly found another gear, as evidenced by his third point of the game, yet another sign he’s in the zone.

When Slafkovsky does not hesitate to take shots, he’s in a good place, but when facilitates the transition thanks to great work in the neutral zone, he’s at his best.

It was also more evidence to support the idea that both Caufield and Suzuki play well together, and they’d produce regardless of the third member of the top line, but no other Canadiens player makes a bigger positive impact on the team’s dynamic duo than a confident Slafkovsky. When he’s in the zone, the top line becomes flat-out dominant.

It’s worth noting the Canucks scored two late goals, with a little help from their friend in stripes, but it was too little, too late, especially since Mike Matheson scored an empty-net goal in the dying seconds of the game.

Impossible d’arrêter ce duo, vous pouvez seulement espérer le contenir

You can’t stop this duo, you can only hope to contain them#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/OUWdVkqN1w

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) March 12, 2025

The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Wednesday. They will face the Kraken in Seattle, with the puck drop scheduled for 10 pm ET. All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.