Kaiden Guhle has been solid for the Montreal Canadiens in Sunday night's defeat and he played a punishing style, being a thorn in the Tampa Bay Lightning's side.
Montreal Canadiens defenseman Kaiden Guhle didn’t have the kind of season he wanted to have. He was limited to just 39 games in the regular season as he was once again bothered by injuries. He had to undergo adductor muscle surgery, which caused him to miss 39 games, and he was rested for a few games at the tail end of the season.
When he played his sixth game of the season on January 12, he struggled to find his rhythm, which wasn’t surprising as he had some serious catching up to do, but he eventually got there. Since the start of the playoffs, he’s been used on the Habs’ second pairing alongside Lane Hutson, and he’s played the right way, generally.
In the first four games of the Canadiens’ series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Guhle was on the ice for over 21 minutes; in one game, he played over 26 minutes, and in the first three meetings, he landed 10 hits. Ahead of the series, he had said that he looked forward to “being a prick” against Tampa, and he’s certainly done that, punishing the Bolts’ forwards at every turn, but it was particularly true on Sunday night.
In the Habs’ 3-2 regulation loss, the gritty defenseman landed 11 hits, one more than he made in the first three games combined, and he managed to stay away from the penalty box, which was no small feat. On top of being very efficient on the penalty kill. He was even the architect of the Canadiens’ first goal of the game, spotting Zachary Bolduc gathering speed in acres of space and sending him a picture-perfect pass.
While he was understandably disappointed with the loss, the blueliner remained philosophical after it, telling the media several times, “that’s playoff hockey for you” and that there were “off calls, probably for both sides”. When asked what the lesson was about this loss, he replied:
I don’t know, just hopefully next time, the puck doesn’t go off a guy’s face in the net.
Asked how frustrating it was that Nikita Kucherov was right back in the game after staying down for several minutes and needing the trainer’s assistance after Jake Evans cross-checked him in the back, he replied: “Yeah, it’s frustrating.”
The Canadiens must now forget about that frustration, turn over a new leaf and head to Tampa like it’s a brand new series, just a shorter one that has become a best-two-out-of-three affair.
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