Montreal Canadiens rookie Ivan Demidov may only be 20 years old, but he is wise beyond his years and he showed it against the Carolina Hurricanes.
While the Montreal Canadiens didn’t play a perfect game, far from it, against the Carolina Hurricanes, despite their 5-2 win, the game allowed us to see how rookie Ivan Demidov reacts to provocation. In the second frame, Canes defenseman Sean Walker hit the young Russian with a hard slash, sending him back to the bench in pain.
After the game, speaking to the media, Demidov explained that he was kind of mad that there was no call on the play, which gave him a burst of energy. I doubt that the youngster saw the 1992 classic The Mighty Ducks, but it was as if he had heard Gordon Bombay’s speech in it: “We’re going to hit them where it hurts the most: up there.” That’s exactly what he did. It’s great to see that, despite still being only 20 years old, the youngster has the maturity to respond appropriately in that situation. Plenty of players would just have gotten frustrated and tried to get Walker back.
From the moment he was hit with that slash, Demidov turned on the jets and showed just how skillful he is with the puck, making it so hard for the Canes to cover him. In one sequence, he dizzied Jalen Chatfield with a series of twists and turns. As Martin St-Louis said in his post-game press conference, when a team tries to cover the rookie man-to-man, Demidov has the advantage.
In another instance, he deked through the whole Carolina defence and made his way to Frederik Andersen. However, he couldn’t manage to get a shot, and linemate Oliver Kapanen, who was riding his coattails, missed the wide-open net. It was still an impressive display of both stickhandling and footwork by number 93.
It felt like Demidov wasn’t going to be denied, and when he was able to take flight on a breakaway in the third frame, it was obvious that he wasn’t going to miss. He easily beat the Danish goaltender to score the all-important insurance marker and get a second point on the night. That gave him a total of 54 points in 70 games, and it allowed him to cut Beckett Sennecke’s lead to just one point in the rookie scoring race.
As for fellow rookie Kapanen, he had one goal in the contest, his first in seven games. He now has 21 on the year, tied with Sennecke and just one goal behind league leader Matthew Schaefer. While it appears like a foregone conclusion that Schaefer will win the Calder Trophy this season, the Canadiens can’t complain about their rookies’ performances this year. Demidov and Kapanen have had a productive offensive season, while goaltender Jakub Dobes leads all rookie goaltenders with 23 wins on the season, almost 60% of the Canadiens’ wins.
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