MONTREAL — On the day of the men’s hockey gold medal game at the Milan Cortina Olympics, there was a logistical nightmare brewing in the form of a massive snowstorm bearing down on the American Northeast.
The NHL/NHLPA charter flights were supposed to go to the New York City area the day after the game, very early Monday morning. Because of the storm, those charters were diverted to Miami, which suited the gold medal-winning U.S. team just fine.
But for everyone else on those charters, that meant scrambling to find another flight from Miami, with the NHL schedule resuming just two days later.
The charter flights were the most comfortable way for the players to travel, but it would be an 11-hour flight instead of the roughly nine hours it would have taken to fly to New York, not to mention the extra time for people to get home from Miami as opposed to one of the three airports in the New York area.
Montreal Canadiens captain and Team Canada forward Nick Suzuki never got on that comfortable charter. He wanted to get back to Montreal as soon as possible, and flying to Miami was not the way to do that.
He flew commercial instead.
“Luckily, I got a ride from Milan to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Montreal,” Suzuki said after the Montreal Canadiens beat the Washington Capitals 6-2 on Saturday night. “I didn’t get on the charter. I would have got here way later.”
Suzuki had his fifth 3-point night of the season Saturday, with a goal and two assists, the goal going into an empty net as the Capitals pulled the goalie with 3:26 left in regulation and down 4-2. It was a moment of high anxiety just because of how much trouble the Canadiens have had defending at five-on-six this season, something that bit them in a 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders on Thursday, as it has so many times this season.
But long before that empty net goal, which came on a backhand from the sideboards after Suzuki chased down Alex Ovechkin in the Capitals zone and got a stick on his pass attempt, there was a moment where Suzuki put another stamp on this game.
It came on the shift after Ovechkin’s second goal of the game reduced the Canadiens’ lead to two with 7:48 left in regulation.
It was a perilous time, especially considering the last time the Canadiens faced the Capitals on Jan. 13, they blew a two-goal lead in the third period before losing in overtime. The Capitals are also the team that dispatched the Canadiens in a tidy five games in the first round of the playoffs last season, and had beaten them in nine of their previous 11 matchups.
Suzuki was sent out to take the ensuing faceoff after Ovechkin’s second goal and lost it. The Capitals were setting up in the Canadiens’ zone when a pass went to Jakob Chychrun at the blue line, and when he bobbled it, Suzuki was right there. He got a stick on the puck and along with Cole Caufield broke toward the Capitals’ zone, which is where they spent the next 30 seconds of the shift, working the puck around, possessing it far from their own net, dampening any momentum the Capitals might have felt.
If there was one message Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis wanted his players to take from the loss to the Islanders, it was that possessing pucks in the offensive zone when leading in the third period is the best way to maintain that lead. And if there is one primary vehicle on this team for just about any message the coach wants to send, it is Suzuki.
His leadership has never been in question, but Suzuki also went through a leadership boot camp in Milan, spending two weeks living in 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 said after his first practice back 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 answer to this one from Caufield after the game when asked about what Suzuki might have brought back 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 said. “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 though Suzuki feels his experience at the Olympics has shown in his play the last two games — his pace elevated and his details sharper — perhaps the most telling part of his performance Saturday was that neither Caufield nor St. Louis saw much of a difference.
“He just does what he does,” Caufield said. “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 asked about how the Olympics changed Suzuki.
“I thought he was excellent against the Islanders, I thought he was excellent tonight,” he said. “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 experience was not so much about how it would change him as it was about validation, the natural progression of everything he has been building toward since entering the NHL, how the production keeps climbing and the details keep getting sharper. The empty net goal was indicative of the impact Suzuki has on his team, as Caufield said.
It was calming.
Suzuki’s strong return from an anxiety-rich and disappointing experience at the Olympics goes back to his decision to get on that commercial flight out of Milan, choosing to get back to Montreal as soon as possible instead of that comfy charter to Miami.
Perhaps if Canada had won gold in Milan, Suzuki would have taken that charter, and no one would have blamed him for enjoying the victory with his teammates. But Canada did not win gold. Suzuki wanted to put the loss behind him as quickly as possible and get on with the business of winning with the Canadiens.
Beating the Capitals, the top team outside the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference, created a 6-point gap for a postseason spot for the Canadiens. It assures nothing, but the win made a second straight Canadiens playoff appearance much more likely.
And Suzuki’s fingerprints were all over it.