The key Canadians make the waves since the absence of Josh Anderson causes the chain effect

Montreal – Oliver Kapanen received the call at 15:30 of about, less than four hours before the fall of the album scheduled for Saturday for the home game of Montreal Canadiens against the Filadelphia Flyers.

The striker Josh Anderson would not have been available because he needed to deal with the biggest day of his life – his wife expected the couple’s first son – and therefore Kapanen was suddenly.

Anderson, just a year after suffering for a season in which he felt an insignificant player, is now the opposite. His coach considers him a “Culture Driver” For his team, and with Anderson naturally worried about more important issues, Martin St. Louis needed to take action.

The absence of Anderson had a chain effect in all the formation of the canadiens in this critical-pertician game because the canadiens no longer have non-critical games on their program-and their ability to extract a 3-2 victory without their cultural pilot was largely due to how some of those ripples influenced the game.

“I speak of what the next one is, right? This was the next for me as a coach,” said St. Louis after the game. “The player will not be here, and as a group we talked about it, we will play hard for Andy. We cannot replace what Andy does only with a boy, he is by committee that we have to bring some of these things. Andy gives us a lot of juice. I think our team feeds on his energy.

“I collected collectively that we had done an excellent job.”

This is what made the reaction of the Canadiens to the joyful absence of Anderson emblematic of what this team has become. It is a collective.

Here’s how some of the individual parts of that collective gave the Canadiens a 4 -point pillow for a playoff point that want so desperately.

Oliver Kapanen

Kapanen played his last playoff game for Timrå Ik on March 31st, a 1-0 defeat against Frölunda HC who put Timrå to the playoffs of the Swedish hockey league.

The next day, Kapanen received the call from the Canadiens.

Kapanen left that day, traveling from Timrå to Stockholm to Munich in Montreal, about 24 hours of travel that allowed him to arrive in the city at the end of Wednesday. It was on the ice for the morning skate of the Canadiens the following day.

Then suddenly, without the benefit of a full practice, Kapanen was in training on Saturday evening.

“It was not so difficult to prepare to play a Saturday night here,” he said.

Kapanen’s last game in a Canadiens uniform was November 5, an extraordinarily similar game to this but different in a very significant way.

The Canadiens had a record of 4-7-1 at that moment, they had lost three games in a row, had endured A skating of brutal bags in Washington Four days before, but they had an advantage of 2-1 in the third period against Calgary’s flames.

Brendan Gallagher scored the opening goal of the Canadiens in that game to cancel a 1-0 deficit, just like he did on Saturday evening. Joel Artia scored a short goal in that game, just like Nick Suzuki on Saturday evening, a goal that turned out to be the winner of the game.

But The Canadiens lost that November game When they allowed a Mattone’s goal with less than three remaining minutes in order when Jake Evans lost it in the coverage of the defensive and crowned area marked again in the extraordinary.

They lent Kapanen to Timrå the next day and did not play again for the Canadiens until Saturday evening.

This is the reason why no one was in a better position to comment on the growth of the canadiens from its last game in the uniform match, how things have changed to Montreal, in particular in their ability to cling and win a game that they probably would have lost then.

“Of course you can see that we are playing for great points at the moment,” said Kapanen. “At this moment, there is a great push on the team and they won, finding ways to win the games.

“I think when I was here the first time, we would find a way to lose the game. But now the team finds a way to win those, so it’s a good sign.”

Jake Evans

When Kapanen entered the formation, he insinuated the center of the fourth line because the man who would normally be there was moving to replace Anderson on what had been the second best line of the canadiens for weeks.

St. Louis could not afford to let Anderson’s absence decreased what he was getting from Christian Dvorak and Gallagher, then he put Evans with him and left Kapanen in the weapon center and Michael pieces.

All Evans made Gallagher was established for his 20th goal of the season at the beginning of the third period, erasing the 1-0 advantage of the Flyers and blowing the roof off the center.

His 20th of the season !!

Gally’s 20th goal of the season !!#Gohabsgo pic.twitter.com/evnd0ror4w

– Montreal Canadians (@canadiensmtl) April 6, 2025

That goal came after Evans had created Dvorak for a possibility in the slot in the second period that was labeled for the top corner of the network before the Flyers goalkeeper Sam Ersson grabbed him with his glove.

Evans has not replaced all that Anderson provides, but he made the mission to keep that line effective.

“We love when Andy is in formation, brings that rhythm and energy and hits everything,” Cole Caufield said. “It is difficult to have him out. But I thought everyone has come forward and brought a little to his game to theirs.

“This was for him tonight.”

Nick Suzuki

With Anderson he left, Suzuki was left to take his minutes on the killing killing, at the top of the huge minutes he plays five out of five. Shortly after the Flyers rose 1-0, Alexandre Carrier was awarded a minor double for Matvei Michkov. It may have been a disaster for the Canadiens.

Suzuki played three shifts on the penalty killing of four minutes.

“That four -minute killing could have gone to the other side for us, but the killing has increased,” said Suzuki. “He probably had more possibilities for us than they had.”

So in the third period, once again killing a penalty with the Canadians who cling to an advantage of 2-1, and immediately after Sam Montembeult made a series of bailouts on Sean Couturier to maintain that advantage, Suzuki added to it with the winning goal.

Or captain! My captain!

Our captain, our boyfriend, our leader#Gohabsgo pic.twitter.com/sb6ng0t54l

– Montreal Canadians (@canadiensmtl) April 6, 2025

The goal of Suzuki and the assistance to the sixth goal of the Hutson-Hutson-a-to-end racing season that ended with a pack of goals from the Goal line that challenged the logic-He gave Suzuki 83 points this season, ensuring that it would be a top player for the first time in his career, and the first to do it in a uniform Canadins since Alex Kovalev had 84 points in 2007.

To put it in perspective, Suzuki was 8 years old at the time, Caufield was 7 years old, Kapanen was 5 years old, Hutson and Juraj Slafkovský were 4 years old.

Suzuki has 9 points in his last four games and 31 points in 20 games from the return from the pause of the 4 nations.

He is guiding the Canadiens bus with an incredible ability, and is all around him.

“It’s unreal,” Caufield said. “The way he is able to collect our group and open the road every evening was special. With (Anderson) outside, he is now in killing, and he is not just able to intensify. I am not sure how many minutes he was there tonight (22:09), but he could have been 25, 30, the boy would not stop.

“It’s just the best player in our team, there is no doubt. It was incredible.”

The Canadiens who won a game so similar to those who lost when Kapanen was the last in the formation allowed them to open a 4 -point gap for Jolly’s latest spot in the Eastern Conference, thanks to the New York Rangers who lost in the regulation of the New Jersey Devils on Saturday. The Canadiens have 83 points and the Rangers have 79 with both teams that remain six games. The Jackets Blue Columbus also lost, against the Toronto Maple Leafs, leaving them and the Red of Detroit 6 points behind with each who had seven left games.

The Canadiens have improved 12-4-4 from the return from the 4 nations.

“It was fun to do it with this group of boys,” Caufield said. “Things could have gone in both cases to the expiry (commercial), things could have gone in both cases after the break. To do it with these guys and work through these ups and downs – we had two long sections of hard hockey and we found a way to dig from those. So continue to go on, continue to put the foot in gas. It is not yet finished.”

But then Caufield had another thing he wanted to add synthesizing the way the canadiens recovered from a slow start to win a game they had to have. It is something that seems to define this group and, whether they play the playoffs or not, it will probably resonate for years.

“We wouldn’t have accepted the defeat,” he said. “Even until the end, fighting five out of six, four counter-sei … those boys fought to the end. (Montembeult) was fantastic again.

“I love this team.”

(Photo by Oliver Kapanen who aims against Cam York: Eric Bolte / Image Images)