Nick Suzuki’s journey plans out of Milan may very well be serving to him excel for Canadiens

MONTREAL — On the day of the lads’s hockey gold medal sport on the Milan Cortina Olympics, there was a logistical nightmare brewing within the type of an enormous snowstorm bearing down on the American Northeast.

The NHL/NHLPA constitution flights have been imagined to go to the New York City space the day after the sport, very early Monday morning. Because of the storm, these charters have been diverted to Miami, which suited the gold medal-winning U.S. crew just fine.

But for everybody else on these charters, that meant scrambling to seek out one other flight from Miami, with the NHL schedule resuming simply two days later.

The constitution flights have been probably the most snug manner for the gamers to journey, however it will be an 11-hour flight as a substitute of the roughly 9 hours it will have taken to fly to New York, to not point out the additional time for folks to get dwelling from Miami versus one of many three airports within the New York space.

Montreal Canadiens captain and Team Canada ahead Nick Suzuki by no means received on that snug constitution. He needed to get again to Montreal as quickly as potential, and flying to Miami was not the way in which to do this.

He flew industrial as a substitute.

“Luckily, I got a ride from Milan to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Montreal,” Suzuki stated after the Montreal Canadiens beat the Washington Capitals 6-2 on Saturday evening. “I didn’t get on the charter. I would have got here way later.”

Suzuki had his fifth 3-point evening of the season Saturday, with a purpose and two assists, the purpose going into an empty internet because the Capitals pulled the goalie with 3:26 left in regulation and down 4-2. It was a second of excessive anxiousness simply due to how a lot hassle the Canadiens have had defending at five-on-six this season, one thing that bit them in a 4-3 extra time loss to the New York Islanders on Thursday, because it has so many occasions this season.

But lengthy earlier than that vacant internet purpose, which got here on a backhand from the sideboards after Suzuki chased down Alex Ovechkin within the Capitals zone and received a stick on his go try, there was a second the place Suzuki put one other stamp on this sport.

It got here on the shift after Ovechkin’s second purpose of the sport decreased the Canadiens’ result in two with 7:48 left in regulation.

It was a dangerous time, particularly contemplating the final time the Canadiens confronted the Capitals on Jan. 13, they blew a two-goal lead within the third interval earlier than dropping in extra time. The Capitals are additionally the crew that dispatched the Canadiens in a tidy 5 video games within the first spherical of the playoffs final season, and had crushed them in 9 of their earlier 11 matchups.

Suzuki was despatched out to take the following faceoff after Ovechkin’s second purpose and misplaced it. The Capitals have been organising within the Canadiens’ zone when a go went to Jakob Chychrun on the blue line, and when he bobbled it, Suzuki was proper there. He received a stick on the puck and together with Cole Caufield broke towards the Capitals’ zone, which is the place they spent the following 30 seconds of the shift, working the puck round, possessing it removed from their very own internet, dampening any momentum the Capitals might need felt.

If there was one message Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis needed his gamers to take from the loss to the Islanders, it was that possessing pucks within the offensive zone when main within the third interval is one of the best ways to keep up that lead. And if there may be one main automobile on this crew for almost any message the coach desires to ship, it’s Suzuki.

His management has by no means been in query, however Suzuki additionally went via a management boot camp in Milan, spending two weeks residing within the orbit of Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon.

Mainly Crosby.

“I just learned a lot from being around him especially, but all those guys,” Suzuki stated after his first apply again with the Canadiens on Wednesday. “Just how he carries himself, he does everything the right way and just leads by example more than anything. He doesn’t need to say stuff; he just goes out and does it with his actions. But when he speaks, obviously everyone’s listening. He’s so smart to play with, helping guys on the bench, helping other lines. If he sees something his line is having success with, he’ll try to let the guys know that they’re doing well in that situation. It’s a lot of things like that.”

Compare that reply to this one from Caufield after the sport when requested about what Suzuki might need introduced again from Milan.

“I think just the relationships he built with those guys, I think every one of them, just to get close with off the ice and see how they carry themselves. I think it’s pretty cool,” Caufield stated. “He’s a guy that everybody wants to be around, and he just takes what he learns and brings it back.

“He might not be the loudest guy, but just the way he carries himself, it’s very calming in the room.”

Even although Suzuki feels his expertise on the Olympics has proven in his play the final two video games — his tempo elevated and his particulars sharper — maybe probably the most telling a part of his efficiency Saturday was that neither Caufield nor St. Louis noticed a lot of a distinction.

“He just does what he does,” Caufield stated. “He’s doing it every night, and he didn’t get a break like we did. He just never complains, wants to do things the right way, and we’re very lucky to have a leader like that, that does it every night.”

St. Louis shrugged when requested about how the Olympics modified Suzuki.

“I thought he was excellent against the Islanders, I thought he was excellent tonight,” he stated. “I feel he’s in control a lot. When he’s at his best, I feel like that’s what you see from Nick. But the way he’s played the last two games, I feel like we expect that from Nick, and I think we’re lucky to have him.”

Suzuki’s Olympic expertise was not a lot about how it will change him because it was about validation, the pure development of the whole lot he has been constructing towards since coming into the NHL, how the manufacturing retains climbing and the main points maintain getting sharper. The empty internet purpose was indicative of the affect Suzuki has on his crew, as Caufield stated.

It was calming.

Suzuki’s robust return from an anxiety-rich and disappointing expertise on the Olympics goes again to his determination to get on that industrial flight out of Milan, selecting to get again to Montreal as quickly as potential as a substitute of that comfortable constitution to Miami.

Perhaps if Canada had gained gold in Milan, Suzuki would have taken that constitution, and nobody would have blamed him for having fun with the victory together with his teammates. But Canada didn’t win gold. Suzuki needed to place the loss behind him as shortly as potential and get on with the enterprise of successful with the Canadiens.

Beating the Capitals, the highest crew outdoors the playoff image within the Eastern Conference, created a 6-point hole for a postseason spot for the Canadiens. It assures nothing, however the win made a second straight Canadiens playoff look more likely.

And Suzuki’s fingerprints have been throughout it.