MONTREAL — Reflecting back to a game on February 29, 2024, the Canadiens suffered a narrow 4-3 shootout loss to the Florida Panthers, a familiar pattern for a team often losing by a single goal.
It was following this game, where Nick Suzuki showcased his prowess against Aleksander Barkov, that coach Martin St. Louis began to contemplate if his captain was only beginning to tap into his vast potential.
“Considering his age and the significant progress he’s shown over the last hundred games, it makes you wonder if he’s just scratching the surface. Could there be even more to come? He’s still quite young,” St. Louis remarked.
These were valid questions, especially coming after the then 24-year-old Suzuki had played his 351st NHL game.
Suzuki entered that period in excellent form, having scored 11 goals in the preceding 12 games. By that juncture, he had amassed 56 points in 59 games. After Suzuki added another goal and two assists against Barkov that night, St. Louis was not alone in questioning whether Suzuki could reach even greater heights.
Advancing 13 months and 98 games forward, the answer is definitively affirmative.
This confirmation was evident even before Suzuki’s recent performance against the Philadelphia Flyers, where he contributed an assist and the decisive goal in a 3-2 victory on Saturday. This performance boosted his season total to 83 points in 76 games, placing him within striking distance of Pierre Turgeon’s 96 points in the 1995-96 season, the highest for a Canadiens player since then. Suzuki has not only matched up against top players like Barkov but has surpassed them since the 4 Nations Face-Off break, accumulating 12 goals and 31 points. His leadership has propelled the Canadiens to a 12-4-4 record, elevating them from six points outside playoff contention to a comfortable four-point lead over the New York Rangers for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The previous Sunday marked the first of two consecutive games against Barkov’s Panthers, where Suzuki replicated his stat line from the February 29, 2024 game.
However, this time, the Canadiens secured a two-goal win.
They continued their winning streak against the Panthers on Tuesday, thanks to Suzuki’s dramatic tying goal with just nine seconds remaining, followed by an overtime winner 29 seconds into the extra period.
He also scored a goal and provided an assist in a 4-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Thursday, further cementing his impactful week that culminated with the game against Philadelphia on Saturday.
