I'm trying my hardest, but it's getting very difficult.
When you see how Benoit Pouliot played in Tuesday night's gutsy 2-1 win in Madison Square Garden over a tough New York Rangers team, it's very easy to get sucked into the belief that this may be the player the Canadiens will see for the rest of the season.
The one who has an effortless skating stride, but puts effort in regardless. The one who finishes his hits, who goes to the net, who battles along the boards, who moves his feet, who even backchecks.
When Pouliot outskated a Rangers defender to negate an icing call in the third period, it typified the workmanlike approach he brought to the whole game.
His work ethic is what led to the Canadiens opening goal, as it was Pouliot's strong net drive that forced Brian Boyle to tackle him from behind right into Henrik Lundqvist, giving the puck the final little push it needed to trickle across the line. In fact, it would appear it did more than that, with Pouliot telling NHL.com's Dave Lozo after the game that he actually pushed the puck in with his glove, which is just a bit illegal.
But it's only illegal if you get caught, and it was Pouliot's hard work that put him in a position to cheat.
Then Pouliot's talent got the Canadiens the third period winner, because even though Lundqvist should have had that sharp angle shot, there aren't too many players who can put the puck where he put it from where he was on the ice. It was a great shot. A stoppable one, but great nonetheless.
Fool me once, shame on you...
So where does this leave the Canadiens?
Pouliot has strung together two straight games where he was excellent, stepping into a void left by Michael Cammalleri's illness to provide the team with a much-needed spark, because even though Pouliot didn't get on the scoresheet against Boston I thought he had a great game.
After nearly hitting the 17-minute mark Tuesday and topping 18 minutes on Saturday, Pouliot has registered two of his top three ice time games of the season, so clearly Jacques Martin has also noticed what's happening with the stringbean talent.
Pouliot remains the team's leader in points per 60 minutes this season, but he still hasn't won enough of Martin's trust to warrant more games like he's had Saturday and Tuesday. In fact, he's failed to hit the 12-minute mark in ice time 25 times in his 42 games played this season.
But that might be because Martin, and all of us, have seen this act before, unfortunately, and that's why what looks as though it is a very encouraging turning point may in fact be nothing more than a blip on the radar.
After looking like the superstar talent he was projected to be when he made his debut with the Canadiens last season, Pouliot was never nearly as dangerous again.
In the playoffs, he played fewer than 10 minutes eight times in his 18 games played, was a healthy scratch once, and twice didn't even reach three minutes of ice time.
Darche a positive influence
But in all honestly, I feel like something different is going on with Pouliot this time around, and it might very well have something to do with his extended exposure to Mathieu Darche.
Darche has been Pouliot's most consistent linemate, and they've gone through successful stretches together with Jeff Halpern, Lars Eller, David Desharnais and even Tomas Plekanec centring them, as he did over the second half of Tuesday night's game.
Every time Pouliot comes back to the bench, he has Darche telling him what he needs to do from a work ethic standpoint, and Darche is not one to be shy when it comes to speaking his mind.
Here's what he told me a while back for a piece I did for NHL.com on Montreal's commitment to their defensive system.
"The forwards have to hold each other accountable to that," Darche said last month, referring to the key role back pressure plays in Martin's defensive system. "If you start deviating, you don't want to come to the bench and have players telling you to wake up. Our coaches prepare us well, but the biggest pressure for a player is the other players. You know that if you play selfishly, someone will be right in your face."
Darche must look at Pouliot sometimes and be enraged. He must think to himself that if he had a tenth of Pouliot's talent to go with his own tremendous work ethic, he'd be a perennial All-Star.
That's what makes me believe that Darche must be in Pouliot's every time he dogs it on a shift, and with the number of shifts they've played together and the number of shifts when Pouliot has dogged it, that makes for frequent sermons on the bench.
If I were Pouliot, I would do everything in my power to avoid those sermons. And the past two or three games, I'm sure he hasn't heard too many of them.
