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Today, before the Canadiens take on Patrick Roy and the Islanders, Lane Hutson and Boston University will take on Sam Harris and the Denver Pioneers in the tournament’s first semi-final. Then, at 8:30, Jacob Fowler, Luke Tuch and Boston College will take on Michigan. The two winners will face off in the final at 6:00 PM on Saturday. What does that mean? Well, it means that win or lose, the latest day on which Lane Hutson can be available to sign his entry-level contract with the CH will be Sunday night after the final, although he might have something else on his mind on that night. Hutson has already confirmed he would like to end the season with the Canadiens this year, so expect to see him burn the first season of his ELC deal, especially with Harris and Xhekaj currently out of the line-up.
If you fancy a bit of daytime hockey, the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Championship will all be played today. At 10:00 AM Finland will take on Switzerland, at 1:30 PM Czechia will face off against Germany, at 5:00 PM Canada will battle with Sweden and at 8:30 PM, the Americans will take on Japan.
Plenty of PWHL players will be taking to the ice and it will be interesting to see if Marie-Philip Poulin looks more like herself today. “Captain Clutch” was injured in early March and missed three PWHL Montreal games but returned to action for Canada’s first game of the tournament. Unfortunately, she doesn’t seem to be quite right, not the same speed, not the same intensity, and not the same impact on games. Her biggest contribution to Canada’s preliminary round game against the Americans was to screen Ann-Renée Desbiens on the USA’s overtime goal. This is not me criticizing the world’s best player, it’s me worrying about her health and wondering if she should be playing at all. On the other side of that quarterfinal will be Lina Ljungblom a promising young Swede who was drafted by PWHL Montreal at the last draft. She’s expected to sign a deal and join the team for next season.
Finally, at 7:30 PM, the Canadiens will take on the Islanders in Long Island. Patrick Roy’s men are involved in a fight to the finish to qualify for the playoffs. The Islanders have 87 points while Washington has 85 and both Pittsburgh and Detroit have 84. New York has won five games in a row and fully intends to stay in third place of the Metropolitan division. The two teams played against each other twice this season and both times, Martin St.Louis’ men took the two points. Goaltenders for this important match-up have yet to be confirmed.
Cole Caufield and Mike Matheson are both on a five-game point streak and will hope to keep that going. In those five games, Caufield has got four goals and he’s one goal short of 25, not the number most people expected before the start of the season, but it’s still a respectable number and makes him the second-best sharpshooter on the team, behind captain Nick Suzuki who has 33, a career-high for him. Speaking of Suzuki, he’s got 75 points and with four games left, it’s still in the realm of possibility that he could reach the 80-point mark. Meanwhile, the third part of the Habs’ most exciting line in years, Juraj Slafkovsky just needs one goal to reach the 20-goal mark and is two points short of 50.
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