Russ Cohen

RussCo@THNews

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I've been covering the NHL full-time since 2001 and hockey prospects almost as long.

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The Four Nations Has That 1996 Feeling

The 1996 World Cup is something that all Americans remember. From the time the puck dropped in Philly and how the rink just had the seats put in time to get the game off, to the eventual win. Last night’s Canada-USA game had that feeling but we are in the infancy stage of this tournament re-boot. Former Flyers GM Paul Holmgren remembered it well. “I know there were still guys in the locker room area. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the big hot tub in there. Billy Guerin and Keith Tkachuk were in there and they were synchronized swimming. They were still doing the finishing touches. The first game was great. We had a good crowd of close to 20,000 people. From my standpoint, I was working for the Flyers back then. We had guys from Canada. Guys from the U.S. It was a great game.” This tournament has been a success. No matter how it turns out, none of the big powerhouses are eliminated, so anything can happen. That’s important to remember.  Having the game in Montreal was a no-brainer. The atmosphere was supercharged and electric for a lot of different reasons that would take a book to explain. Sending a message on the first shift is something that happened back in 1996 too.  “What I remembered most is how loud they booed Eric Lindros when he was introduced in the first game and even louder in the first Final. It was unbelievable. I remember in the first game of the Final I had Joel Otto pitted against him for the first face-off. I kind of asked Otto on the first face-off, don’t worry about it just give him a cross-check and we’ll see what happens," said Ron Wilson the coach at the time. "Literally, all hell broke loose at that point. Lindros took a step back like ‘What are you doing?’. We kind of sent a message that first shift that we were here. It really meant a lot to us to beat Canada and to win the World Cup.” It worked once, it could work again for Team USA.1y

The Hockey News

Filip Mesar Needs To Have a Strong Finish

Flip Mesar has been enigmatic this season. He’s missed 21 games so far this year and that’s not great. It was an LBI that occurred early in the season. He started out the season with five points in five games and things were looking up for the prospect. Then he only scored four points in his next 19.  Those splits occurred at different times. During the month of February, the Slovak only had a goal and three assists in the new year. 2025 hasn’t started great for him. Why has there been such a drop? Is he not fully rehabbed? That is a possibility and he has some upside so the Canadiens are probably frustrated. Could they include him in a trade? I do think that’s possible but we will find that out next month or at the 2025 NHL Draft. Mesar still takes penalties at bad times. When you take a penalty and it ends up being a goal for the opposition that’s deflating even for the best of teams.  Mesar is under team control for a while and he has good scoring ability. I still think he might develop but it’s clear that this isn’t the season and the hope is next year will be the one where he takes a step forward. He would need to have a strong summer of training and then if the right wing could come into the season strong like he did this year, hopefully, he can sustain that. Consistency is one of the biggest secrets to having a good career.1y

The Hockey News

Tyler Thorpe Continues to Impress

The last time I checked in on Tyler Thorpe he had been on a nice run so I thought I would see how the 130th pick in the 2024 NHL Draft is doing.  The 6’5”, 215-pound right wing, is shooting a lot more than at any time in his career with the Vancouver Giants. He’s averaging six shots per game. His 199 shots on the goal in 51 games is 36 more than last season when he only played in 51 games. That’s impressive and may also help explain why the Montreal Canadiens were able to draft him in the fifth round. This season, he has 21 goals and 21 assists. Of his 21 goals, four of them are on the power play. The fact that he has the majority at 5-on-5, is impressive. He does score some of them because of his size, but that’s ok for now. He may be able to use that going forward when he gets to play for Laval. So what has he done lately? He’s scoring at a clip of 16 points in his last 21 games. That’s a nice crosssection of the season. That’s what I try and do is break it down into good snapshots so it’s not a hot take.  According to InStat, Thorpe averages 2.3 hits per game and he’s winning 48% of his puck battles. Considering his size and the fact he’s 19, I feel that he should be winning more of them. He is going to have to when he plays in the AHL someday.1y

The Hockey News

Arber Xhekaj Is Getting The Job Done

Arber Xhekaj is an interesting player for the Montreal Canadiens. I like his aggressiveness and I like his brand of defense. He’s a player who has to have controlled minutes, but that’s ok. He’s playing a good role on the blueline. At 24, with Brendan Guhle out, he talked about everyone on the blueline stepping up. So that means more minutes for him and his minutes have jumped. This increase in minutes, hopefully, doesn’t mean a big increase in turnovers. He must manage that better especially since he will have a bigger role now. That’s one of my expectations for him.  Xhekaj isn’t a player you expect offense from and that has never been something I expect him to provide. He had eight hits against Winnipeg and two against Minnesota. Sometimes the flow of the game dictates that and the fact that he’s willing to ratchet it up is good. He averages 2.54 hits per game and that’s great. According to Hockey Fights, he’s dropped the gloves four times so his PIMS are in line. No issue there. The 6’4” blueliner can skate and it helps him line up hits and play good defense. His defensive zone coverage has and will continue to improve. He just turned 24, and I think there is more for him to learn. He has currently played 143 games, so reaching 200 will be easy for him to reach. He’s been a big success as an undrafted player.1y

The Hockey News

Rafael Harvey-Pinard Loaned Back to Laval, Heineman Update

Rafael Harvey-Pinard was loaned back to Laval after a lackluster 4-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild. The left wing played exactly 11 shifts. That’s it. All he had to show for himself was one hit. Nothing else. That wasn’t much of an output and the coach only gave him 8:54 of ice time. The revolving door continues on the forward side of things.  So now what? Again, the Canadiens need to acquire a forward in the worst way to stay in the race. The Calgary Flames did their part to try and stay in it and now the Canadiens need to execute something more than a callup or else they risk falling out of it. The answer isn’t in Laval.  The Fourth Period reported that Emil Heineman has a broken wrist and has been out for two weeks and now getting back before the Four Nations is a long shot. Now armed with this news, it makes  With the Canadiens now four points out of contention, a move this week is necessary or they may fall too far out of this. It’s hard to make up ground especially when there are three-point games with teams that are ahead of you. Hockey injuries and losing streaks come at you fast. There isn’t much season left after the Four Nations. Knowing that this is a bad time for the team to start having bad games. What’s going to initiate a turnaround? That’s the question that the team on the ice needs to answer.1y

The Hockey News

Guhle Out Indefinitely, Struble is Back

If it wasn’t enough to lose to the Winnipeg Jets, I wrote earlier about Kaiden Guhle leaving the game with an LBI. Well, that report got worse. The Guhle endured a lacerated quadricep that required surgery. He’s out indefinitely. He is released from the hospital and will have a fairly long path to recovery. While Guhle is out, and it could be lengthy, the team recalled Jayden Struble who was playing with Laval. I wrote about him recently so right now the team is keeping their head above water but how long will that hold up? They’ve now lost three straight. Struble stayed sharp in Laval. He didn’t score any points but overall it was a good tuneup. Now that he’s back with the big club, and with there being a worry again about Lane Hutson’s minutes, it’s time for the Canadiens to try and acquire another defenseman sooner rather than later, they have the assets. They can use a right-handed shot defenseman and some of the teams on the bubble have them so we’ll keep an eye on things and see how things progress. For now, they will have to shuffle the defensive pairings and try and tighten up everything. I think the Canadiens have to play very responsible, but pick and choose the times to take some offensive chances. They will need to score more while their blueline is changing on the fly. It’s not easy, so I would expect more than a few lineup changes in the coming days.1y

The Hockey News

Sam Montembeault Has Room For Improvement

Sam Montembeault is having a decent season. He is getting ready to represent Canada in the Four Nations Tournament but there is still room for improvement. There have been a lot of positives this season like his three shutouts and his 2.99 goals against average but honestly, he needs a hot streak to keep the Montreal Canadiens in playoff contention. When you look at the goalie's advanced stats, he varies. Sometimes he's ranked in the top 31, and sometimes he isn't. He's hard to figure out, but he is getting the job done. He is 2-2 in his last four games. On the whole, he is a just below-average goalie. His game against Dallas was terrific, and his game against Toronto wasn't.  Montembeault is the #1 and that's evident. I'm not going to entertain replacing him anytime soon. Being a backup is much easier than being the top dog. It's a mental battle as much as anything else.  When the defense breaks down, he saves 45 and gets a loss against Detroit because four went in. That's not on him. When looking at In-Stat, the breakaway save percentage isn't great. He's at 63%. Logan Thompson is at 83%. That short-handed goal against Detroit was something he could have stopped. A big save could have been in order, but Andrew Copp found the back of the net.  My expectation for the Montembeault must stop more breakaways and get into a better groove. He's done that before. He's so close to getting over the NHL average goalie hump, and he needs to do it soon because Jakub Dobes is doing his thing.1y

The Hockey News