Canadiens' Suzuki Itching For Playoff Hockey In Sold-Out Bell Centre

Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki knew exactly what he wanted to accomplish this season before it began.

“I want to be in the playoffs,” Suzuki said at the NHL and NHLPA media tour in September. “I’ve been in the playoffs twice now, and they haven’t been on normal circumstances, so I haven’t got to play at the Bell Centre in front of a sold-out crowd. That’s definitely something I’m itching for this year.”

Lo and behold, Suzuki is on the verge of realizing that goal. 

The Canadiens currently occupy the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference after missing the playoffs for three straight years. Before that, the Canadiens played in front of 3,500 fans at home in the final two rounds of the 2021 playoffs and no fans in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions. 

The prospect of a packed Bell Centre – with Habs fans virtually frothing at the mouth in delight – has to be motivating Suzuki and his teammates. Tuesday’s comeback overtime win over the Florida Panthers was the perfect example.

Suzuki was the deciding factor in the win, scoring the game-tying goal with nine seconds left in regulation, then netting the game-winner 29 seconds into overtime.

The fans gave Suzuki a standing ovation afterward, and the captain kept pumping them up.

“The crowd really kept us going there, especially in the third,” Suzuki told reporters after the win. “We weren’t generating a lot of chances, but the (crowd’s) wave gets going, the guys get fired up, and it really pushed us to the end there. It’s so much fun playing here, especially in games like this.”

In 11 games since March 11, Suzuki has six goals and 14 points. He now has 25 goals and a career-high 79 points in 74 games this season, topping the 77 points he had in 2023-24. 

The 25-year-old is playing the best hockey in his six-year NHL career, and Canadiens coach Martin St-Louis was pleased to see Suzuki making the right choices on the game-tying goal.

“That was a great bounce, but there was somebody on the other side of that bounce in the right spot, and I was happy it was him,” St. Louis said of Suzuki. “To go finish that in overtime, it was an emotional end to the game, that’s for sure.”

The Canadiens beat the Panthers in all four regular-season games this year. That has to make players and fans confident they can at least be competitive in the post-season – and maybe, just maybe, pull off what would be a stirring upset.

They likely won’t face the Panthers in the first round unless they reach the first wild-card spot and Florida wins the Atlantic Division, but beating the defending Cup champs four times is encouraging nonetheless.

Suzuki and the Canadiens are clearly thriving in high-stakes situations, especially with the fans behind them. That’s what you want to see from a young team trying to establish itself as a force to reckon with.

“You get up for these games,” said Canadiens defenseman Kaiden Guhle. “It’s do-or-die for us right now. The pressure is on us, and you want that pressure. And I think we’re thriving with it right now, and when the fans are how they are tonight, and the energy that’s in the building and you score with eight seconds left to tie it and win in overtime, it’s pretty unbelievable. I’m so proud of this group. There’s no quit in us.”

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