His father is a family doctor who wasn't really into hockey, but told him to work hard, be a good teammate, be a good person and have fun.
Sportsnet’s Mark Spector wrote a really good column this week on former Canadiens defenceman Brett Kulak, who is having a strong season with the Edmonton Oilers.
Under the headline “How Brett Kulak’s upbringing turned him into an honest defenceman” Spector wrote about how Kulak grew up on a farm in Stony Plain, Alta., and would flip a tractor tire across the yard as a young boy to help build strength.
Kulak never had the luxury of a personal trainer, a skills coach or a dietician as a kid and he didn’t go to any hockey schools. Instead, he would tie a rope around his waist with a truck tire on the other end and run the length of the farm’s driveway.
Spector wrote Kulak’s father, Gil, worked for 17 years as a mechanic at Spruce Grove Pontiac and also took care of the family’s 1,400-acre farm. Spector noted Kulak learned about work ethic from his father and how to be happy every day from his mother, Laura.
Kulak has 5-4-9 totals in 26 games this season with the Oilers and a plus-2 differential while averaging 19:13 of ice time per game.
Canadiens GM Kent Hughes traded Kulak to the Oilers at the NHL trade deadline in 2022 in exchange for defenceman William Lagesson, a second-round pick at the 2022 NHL Draft and a seventh-round pick in 2024. The Canadiens used the second-round pick to select defenceman Lane Hutson, who has 17 assists in 26 games this season as a rookie.
Spector started his column on Kulak by telling the story about his sports writing mentor, Ray Turchansky, who taught him among many things how to personalize an interview once in a while by asking a player what his mom or dad did for a living. By taking that advice, Spector learned how Bobby Dollas’s dad was a Montreal furrier, Wayne Gretzky’s father worked for Bell Canada as an installer and repairman, Kevin Lowe’s father worked at the family-owned dairy in Lachute and Paul Coffey’s father delivered bread for Christie’s in Toronto.
After reading Spector’s column on Kulak, I decided to borrow the advice he received from the mentor he called “Turk.”
After the Canadiens practised at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard on Wednesday, Kaiden Guhle was sitting by himself in the locker room taking off his skates. Seemed like the perfect opportunity to ask about his father.
“My dad (Mark) was never a really big hockey guy,” Guhle said. “He always liked sports. He liked basketball and he played high-school basketball growing up, but he was never really a big hockey guy. He didn’t really know a whole lot about hockey, which I think kind of helped me in a way. He was never one of those dads that was super involved in the game. It was always just work hard and have fun.
“My mom (Carrianne), too, didn’t really know much about hockey,” Guhle added. “Watching me and my brother (Brendan) playing growing up they know more now, but they would never get mad if I didn’t score or put up points or anything like that. They just wanted me to work hard, be a good teammate, be a good person and have fun. Kind of the motto I’ve gone by and the advice I’ve gone by my whole life and in my career. Work hard and have fun.”
The apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree with Guhle.
Guhle’s father is a family doctor.
“He loves his job,” Guhle said. “Obviously, it’s a lot of work and a lot of hours at the office. He used to work in a hospital, too, when I was younger. He was at the hospital doing emergency a lot, so there were a lot of times when I didn’t really get to see him much. It was tough, obviously, for me and my brother, but he was doing his job, working hard and doing something he loves.
“I think the biggest thing that I learned from him is do something you love, find something you love,” Guhle added. “He always says it to me. You ask him how he does it with time away from his family and time away from us, and he says he just loves it. It’s not even work for him. It’s just something that he loves to do. He loves learning things about the body and doing research. It’s something I’m not really into, but it’s something that I learned from him. He’s always had something that he loves to do and he works hard at it.”
What’s Guhle’s favourite hockey memory with his dad?
“Let me think …,” he said. “There’s a lot of them. He was always the guy driving us to the rink early in the morning. My mom did, too. But he was always up early for work anyways. I remember him waking me up when it’s minus-40 outside at 6 a.m. and driving me.”
Moving forward, I will try to share more stories about the parents of Canadiens players in Stu’s Slapshots.
Matheson his own biggest critic
Canadiens defenceman Mike Matheson was minus-4 in last Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Boston Bruins.
After the game, Matheson told the media in Boston it was “definitely one of the worst games I’ve played.”
The 30-year-old with 10 years of NHL experience added: “It’s not (a problem) with concentration. It’s really frustrating right now, but I know that’s not the real me. All I can control is being ready for Tuesday.”
Matheson bounced back in Tuesday’s 2-1 win over the New York Islanders at the Bell Centre, picking up an assist and posting a plus-1 while logging 25:19 of ice time. He was even better in Thursday’s 3-0 win over the Nashville Predators at the Bell Centre, logging 28:17 of ice time — including 8:52 short-handed — along with another plus-1.
In 24 games this season, Matheson has 2-13-15 totals and is minus-8 while averaging a team-high 24:14 of ice time.
One of the things head coach Martin St. Louis likes most about Matheson is his honesty when it comes to evaluating his own play, adding it’s something younger players can learn from the veteran.
“It’s very important and it’s more difficult when you’re young because they don’t have the perspective,” St. Louis said. “I think the older you get the less it’s about you. I think you understand that the older you get.”
St. Louis said having children helped him realize that during his own playing career. St. Louis had children quite early in his Hall of Fame career and his three boys were 12, 10 and 7 when he hung up his skates
“For me, having kids makes you think about life a little different,” St. Louis said. “Whenever I would go through a tough time I’d always ask myself: How would I want my kids to handle that? And usually it steered me in a direction. I wasn’t the same human at 28, 30 that I was at 20, 21. It comes with maturation, for sure. Some people get there earlier and sometimes you’re influenced by the environment that you’re in as well and I think we’re trying to do that.”
Father figure
Matheson’s wife, Emily, gave birth to their second child in May — a girl named Mila Rose. Their son, Hudson, is 3.
Matheson agrees with St. Louis becoming a father helped him deal better with the ups and downs of being an NHL player through the long 82-game season.
“Definitely,” Matheson said. “It just forces you to reset and focus on something else for a while. At the end of the day, if I played horribly or played the best game of my life, my kids don’t care. They just need me to be the best dad I can be when I get home. I think that helps a lot.
“Not to say that I had kids to help my hockey career,” Matheson added with a chuckle. “But it’s definitely special regardless of what happened at work to be able to come home and be with my family.”
Matheson, who grew up on Montreal’s West Island and played midget Triple-A hockey for the Lac St. Louis Lions, said he has never had a problem admitting when he had a bad game.
“I think it’s more just being able to admit that and not have it kind of ruin your confidence and kind of snowball,” he said. “I think that’s a very difficult thing to do that I’m still trying to get better at. But I feel like just being around for a little longer and more mature maybe has allowed me to accomplish it a little faster.”
It’s a lesson Matheson is now trying to pass on to the Canadiens’ younger defencemen, including the 20-year-old Hutson.
“I think when you’re in the middle of the season there’s so many highs and lows,” Matheson said. “I think for him it’s a lot about reinforcing just the things that he might think are unimportant or go unnoticed. For me, I’ve just been trying to really reinforce those. That those are the things that will make you progress into a really, really good defenceman for a long time.”
Hutson promoted to No. 1 PP unit
Matheson has now lost his spot on the Canadiens’ No. 1 power-play unit to Hutson, but the veteran isn’t complaining.
“For me, I’m here to do the best I can in whatever role I’m doing,” Matheson said. “That’s what I’ll continue to do.
“It’s the success of the team that’s the most important thing,” he added.
St. Louis said he wasn’t penalizing Matheson by taking him off the first power-play unit, adding as a coach “you take decisions sometimes that help the group.”
“For sure Matty is a competitior,” St. Louis added. “He will continue to play the game he’s capable of playing.”
The Canadiens’ power-play and penalty-killing units are both doing well this season.
By limiting Matheson’s time on the PP, St. Louis has been able to use him more on the PK, as was the case in the win over Nashville. The Canadiens went 1-for-3 on the power play against the Predators with Hutson picking up an assist on Patrik Laine’s second goal in two games since returning from a knee injury, while the penalty-killers were a perfect 5-for-5 with Matheson logging huge minutes.
After the game, the Canadiens ranked 14th in the NHL on the power play with a 22-per-cent success rate and ranked third in penalty-killing at 83.5 per cent.
The Canadiens No. 1 power-play unit now has Laine, Hutson, Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky and Cole Caufield. I asked St. Louis after Thursday’s win over the Predators if that’s the No. 1 unit he expected to have at the start of the season if Laine hadn’t injured his knee during a pre-season game.
“No,” St. Louis said. “I didn’t have my mind set up before the season. I wanted to see. I didn’t know if Lane was ready to play in the NHL. You just don’t want a power-play specialist. He showed us that he can play on five-on-five and can defend and can help the team. You get steered in a direction and I think it helps when you manage other stuff.”
While Hutson is still looking for his first NHL goal after 28 games — including two at the end of last season — his 19 assists give him the most points in Canadiens history for a defenceman in his first 28 games. Hutson is one ahead of Tom Kurvers and three ahead of Chris Chelios, according to TSN’s StatsCentre.
Laine and Lane
Laine has only played two games with the Canadiens since recovering from his knee injury, but he has scored two goals — both on the power play. Hutson assisted on both goals.
When I asked Laine after Thursday’s game what he likes most about Hutson on the power play, he said: “Everything.”
Laine added: “Just the shiftiest guy I think I’ve seen. He reminds me of a smaller (Cale) Makar (of the Colorado Avalanche) kind of what he does. It’s just so hard to read what he’s going to do. I have no clue half the time what he’s going to do, so no chance the PK’s going to know. Overall, he’s such a good player. It’s a pleasure to watch him and being on the ice with him at the same time. Just an unbelievable player.”
Laine has an unbelievable shot — and he showed it with both power-play goals he scored. Laine said he grew up watching the Washington Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin shoot the pucks and worked on his own shot all the time back home in Finland.
“Summer, winter, doesn’t matter, I was constantly shooting pucks over there,” Laine said. “Nothing else to do. I didn’t really do anything else other than shoot pucks. Now it’s fun since you’re kind of collecting from back in the days, so it’s been paying off.
“I’ve always been watching Ovi growing up and just working on it,” Laine added. “Never had a shooting coach or anything. Just watching YouTube and firing millions of shots back in the day. Even after a long break (not playing a game in almost a full year) it seems like it seems to find the back of the net, so that’s a good sign.”
Home, sweet home
Saturday’s game against the Washington Capitals (7 p.m., CITY, SNE, TVA Sports) will be the third of five straight at the Bell Centre for the Canadiens, who have won the first two.
Against the Capitals, the Canadiens will be looking to win three straight games for the first time this season. They only accomplished that once last season, winning three straight in late March.
As usual, the Canadiens will play six straight road games over the holiday period as the Cirque du Soleil’s OVO show takes over the Bell Centre from Dec. 27-Jan. 5.
“I think the more you read into that stuff … I mean it’s out of your control,” Matheson said about the annual holiday road trip that will include a three-day Christmas break at home from Dec. 24-26 after playing in Columbus on Dec. 23. “If you let it bother you, it’s going to bother you. You can definitely think of the fact that you’d rather be closer to family and kids through the holidays, or you can just take advantage of the three days that we get off and get back to work.”
No 4 Nations Face-Off for Suzuki, Caufield
The fact Suzuki and Caufield weren’t picked to play for Team Canada and Team USA, respectively, at the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament — slated for Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston — might end up being a good thing for the Canadiens.
Suzuki has never missed a game during his six seasons in the NHL. With 399 games, he ranks third among active NHL players in consecutive games played behind Carolina Hurricanes defenceman Brent Burns (869) and St. Louis Blues defenceman Ryan Suter (480).
The Canadiens will have played 56 games before the NHL season takes a pause for the 4 Nations Face-Off and the 13 days off between games will be a nice break for Suzuki, even though he’s disappointed not to be on Team Canada. The same thing applies for Caufield.
TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger believes Suzuki’s decision to turn down an offer to play for Team Canada at this year’s IIHF World Championship might have factored into him not being named to the 4 Nations Face-Off team. Instead of playing at the world championship Suzuki went to a resort in the Dominican Republic, where he got engaged to longtime girlfriend Caitlin Fitzgerald.
Dreger told Montreal’s TSN 690 Radio that Hockey Canada made about a dozen calls to players who weren’t named to the 4 Nations Face-Off team to explain why they didn’t make it.
“I don’t know that Suzuki got that call,” Dreger said. “I think that if Nick Suzuki had played maybe the first 15 games of the regular season the way he’s played the last 8-10, maybe we’re not having this conversation.
“I will say this,” Dreger added. “I don’t think it would have been a huge, huge factor. I think Hockey Canada has been disappointed in the past because Nick, unfortunately, has had life things that have impacted his decision to decline the invite by Hockey Canada and Team Canada to participate in the men’s worlds. So, did that factor in looking at a team like this?”
Canadiens goalie Sam Montembeault also turned down an offer to play for Team Canada at this year’s world championship. However, he did go the year before and helped Canada win a gold medal by posting a 1.42 goals-against and a .939 save percentage for the tournament. Montembeault was named to Team Canada for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
“I can tell you that the history of Hockey Canada was on the list of criteria,” Dreger told TSN 690. “It wouldn’t have been anywhere near the top. Play your way onto the roster … you can play your way out of the conversation as well. But history with Hockey Canada matters and I think Sam Montembeault is Exhibit A in that regard. They’ve got two Stanley Cup champions in (Adin) Hill and in Jordan Binnington representing the goaltending core and Sam Montembeault is added to the mix and I think it was because of the work that he did in helping Canada win at the men’s worlds. I think that’s a bit of a reward and a message to all those that when Canada calls you better have a real good reason to say no.”
Craig Button, TSN’s Director of Scouting, is upset Suzuki didn’t make Team Canada.
“Really? You’re picking Seth Jarvis over Nick Suzuki,” Button said on The Sick Podcast with Tony Marinaro. “There is not a person on this planet that’s going to convince me that that is a choice that should have been made. There’s no way in my world view and if I view both those players — and Seth is a good player. He’s not a better player than Nick Suzuki.”
Jarvis, who has 8-9-17 totals in 19 games with the Carolina Hurricanes this season, was named to Team Canada.
Suzuki leads the Canadiens in scoring with 10-17-27 totals in 26 games.
Nice necklace
Canadiens defenceman Arber Xhekaj is wearing a new gold chain around his neck with a double-headed eagle medallion. It’s symbolic of the flag of Kosovo, where his father, Jack, is from. The family name is engraved on the back of the medallion.
“I had a jeweller make it for me,” Xhekaj said. “It’s pretty cool.”
Xhekaj scored a goal in a 4-3 loss to the Washington Capitals last season on Feb. 17 at the Bell Centre, which was also Kosovo Independence Day.
“My dad usually never calls me before the games. He’s always at work,” Xhekaj said after that game about his father, who is a welder for National Steel Car in Hamilton, building trains. “But on the weekend (it was a Saturday night game), this is the first time he called me. He said: ‘Get one for me and get one for the Kosovo Independence Day.’
“He wanted me to put up the (Kosovo) eagle (sign) for the fans, but I couldn’t with the glove on,” Xhekaj added about his conversation with his father before the game on what he should do if he scored.
