Suzuki proving he’s one of the best players in the world, carrying Canadiens

MONTREAL — Let’s revisit the game from Feb. 29, 2024 — a 4-3 shootout loss to the Florida Panthers for a Montreal Canadiens team that was making a habit of losing by a goal.

It was after that game, in which Nick Suzuki went toe-to-toe with Aleksander Barkov, that Martin St. Louis began pondering if his captain was just starting to reach the lower limit of his enormous potential.

“With his age, and how big of a jump I feel he’s taken in his last 100 games, you leave yourself wondering: Is he still just scratching the surface? Is there more? Because he’s still a pretty young player,” St. Louis said.

They were reasonable questions to ask, even if the coach was asking them after the 24-year-old had just finished his 351^st NHL game.

Suzuki had come into it having scored 11 goals in his last 12. At that point, he had accumulated 56 points in 59 games. And considering that, by night’s end, Suzuki had just scored yet another goal and picked up two assists in a hard matchup with Barkov all night, St. Louis wasn’t the only one he left wondering if there was still another level for him to ascend to.

Fast forward 13 months and 98 games, and we have our answer. A resounding yes.

Heck, we knew well before Suzuki registered an assist and the deciding goal in a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday. That gives him 83 points in 76 games and puts him two away from authoring the most productive season a Canadiens player has had since Pierre Turgeon scored 96 points in 1995-96. He hasn’t just been going toe-to-toe with the Barkovs of the world, he’s been knocking them down since the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off — producing 12 goals and 31 points and carrying the Canadiens to a 12-4-4 record to bring them from six points out of the playoff picture to four points up on the New York Rangers for the second wild-card position in the East.

Last Sunday was the first of consecutive games against Barkov’s Stanley Cup-winning Panthers, in which Suzuki had the same stat line as that game back on Feb. 29, 2024.

The Canadiens won this one by two goals, though.

Then they won Tuesday’s game against the Panthers because Suzuki scored with nine seconds left to tie it before potting another goal 29 seconds into overtime.

He registered a goal and an assist in a 4-1 win over the Boston Bruins on Thursday, and then there was what he did against Philadelphia on Saturday.

With Josh Anderson at the hospital with wife Paola due to deliver their first child, Suzuki stepped into his role on the penalty kill and reversed momentum the Canadiens had surrendered with an early goal to Ryan Poehling, and his work on that four-minute kill turned the game.

Suzuki’s goal on the third-period kill won it for the Canadiens, giving him 10 points in his last four games.

Talk about next level.

“It’s unreal,” said linemate Cole Caufield. “The way he’s able to pick our group up and lead the way every night, it’s been special. I mean, with (Anderson) out, he’s on the kill now and he’s just able to step up. I’m not sure how many minutes he was out there tonight, but it could’ve been 25, 30, and the guy wouldn’t stop. Just the best player on our team, no doubts about that…”

Suzuki was already that last year.

What he’s become since is one of the best players in the world, and it’s fair to ask once again just how much higher he can reach.

Is there ceiling above this player?

“If I was a betting man I would say yes because he’s still young and he’s playing with two young players,” said St. Louis. “So I think as they all (24-year-old Caufield, 25-year-old Suzuki and 21-year-old Juraj Slafkovsky) mature together and get older, I think it’s only going to get better.

“What’s his ceiling? I don’t know. I don’t want to think about what’s his ceiling because I want him to dictate what that ceiling’s going to be. For me, it’s fun to be part of his journey and just watch him evolve as a player and take charge and lead. It’s been impressive this year.”

What Lane Hutson’s been doing has been, too.

The 21-year-old took a pass from Suzuki in his own end Saturday and travelled all 200 feet of the ice for a beautiful goal that counted as his 63^rd point of the season. The last Canadiens defenceman to have as many was Andrei Markov, who had 64 points in 2008-09.

Markov was the best defenceman for this team for the better part of two decades, but that was the only time he put up more than 60 points in a season. He was 29, and that was the year he hit his ceiling.

Hutson is a rookie, and he’s nowhere near reaching his ceiling.

Brendan Gallagher hit his years ago, but he’s been turning back the clock of late. His 20^th goal of the season tied Saturday’s game 1:24 into the third period and counted as his fifth goal and 11^th point in his last 10 contests.

Sam Montembeault has started nine of those games for Montreal, winning five and helping them earn points in two losses. He may have only made 21 saves against the Flyers, but the two spectacular ones he made on Sean Couturier sent Suzuki down the ice for his short-handed goal.

“Monty was excellent,” said St. Louis.

Suzuki was next level.

He was great last season, too, and at both ends.

Prior to that game in Florida that highlighted it, Panthers coach Paul Maurice said this about Suzuki:

“When you’re in a Canadian market and you’re a skilled offensive player, there’s pressure to produce, and in that pressure to produce, especially if you’re on a developing team, there’s places for you to value the offensive side of the game more than the defensive side of the game, and I don’t think he’s done that. He’s like a real honest, hard player. And it starts on faceoffs, and he battles, and he’s under pucks. He’ll get into holes when he has the chance.”

Maurice finished the thought by saying, “Barkov would be the same kind of player.”

There are plenty of people around the hockey world who might have debated that a year ago, but those people don’t have a leg to stand on with that argument now.

Others will take notice of what Suzuki has become, too.

“I think he deserves all the recognition,” said Gallagher. “Sometimes it’s hard to believe, but I think he slides under the radar in the league, and he’s a special player, a special talent. We’re lucky to have him.”

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