Alex Newhook keeps finding the net when Montreal needs it most. He scored 96 seconds into Game 2 against the Buffalo Sabres, added another in the second period to help tie the series at one apiece, then struck twice again on Mother’s Day at Bell Centre as the Canadiens moved ahead in the series.
By the time Montreal left the ice, Newhook had five playoff goals, with four of them coming in the last two games described here. He was also winning draws, taking 63% of his faceoffs in Game 3, a detail that underlined how much more than finishing touch he was giving the Canadiens in a stretch that has turned him into one of their most important skaters.
Jake Evans had the simplest read on it. He called Newhook relentless and said he was probably the fastest guy on the ice in Game 2. Nick Suzuki offered the same picture from another angle, saying that after the first goal Newhook just kept dominating the whole game. Newhook, for his part, joked that he was hopefully converting some Leafs fans to Habs fans.
The pace is not new for him. Newhook grew up in Newfoundland and Labrador, a province with fewer than 600,000 people, where hockey names can carry unusual weight. He idolized Daniel Cleary, who won the Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in 2008, and he has long understood what a big moment can mean back home. Michael Ryder brought the Cup to Newfoundland and Labrador after the Boston Bruins won in 2011, and Newhook’s own 2022 Cup parade drew thousands into the streets.
Before that parade, he met kids from his old youth hockey club and told them to keep dreaming, anything is possible. That line fits the way he is playing now. He scored the Game 7 series-winning goal that knocked the Tampa Bay Lightning out in the first round, and the Canadiens were the last Canadian team left standing at the time described here, which only sharpens the attention on every shift he takes.
There is still a long way to go, but Newhook has already become the player Montreal leans on when the ice gets hot and the game gets tight. For a team trying to stay alive, that is the sort of form that changes a series before it can settle.
