Canadian 3 – Golden Knights 4 (P) | The brilliance of Montembeault was not enough

It was Kent Hughes’ first game as GM of the Canadiens, Thursday night in Las Vegas, and one wonders what he thought when he saw all this.

Richard Labbe
The Press

The 51-year-old man, who once dreamed of playing for CH, will probably not dream better like Daniel Bélanger in the coming weeks. Dream worse, then? It is very likely.

Let’s be serious: after watching, in person and more, his Canadian suffer a 4-3 overtime loss to the Golden Knights on Thursday night in Vegas, the new GM should not radiate confidence. We wouldn’t shine in his place either.

Maybe Kent Hughes also understands what he inherits from his predecessor? He inherits a club of 32^and square. If there were 36 teams, he would probably inherit a club of 36^and square.

As James Joyce once wrote: good luck with that.

“We always said we never gave up,” explained coach Dominique Ducharme. We said we want to be competitive in every game…. I never felt that the players wanted to give up. We tried to be competitive, of course…. And Samuel was very solid, he was very good. »

Samuel is of course Samuel Montembeault. The keeper has been solid, indeed and without a doubt; he faced 53 shots this time around, after facing 51 shots the previous time in Dallas.

With the club’s first two goalkeepers on the sidelines, Montembeault will have every opportunity to prove his true worth.

“It’s frustrating, I would have liked to win, he explained. We had a great chance in overtime. Yes, I faced a lot of shots, but the guys were good at making sure those shots came from the periphery. We must avoid penalties in the third period, it could hurt us. »

This is all very true, and the new CEO is surely aware of it.

When he entered the Bell Center on Wednesday, Kent Hughes expressed the wish to be able to build a team capable of winning “for several years”. It would be fabulous if the GM of the Canadian was named Doctor Strange, and that he could have access to another dimension, to bring back a healthy Carey Price, a healthy Shea Weber, and to bring back Phillip Danault, period.

But the universe of the Canadian promises to be much more complicated than that of Marvel.

Notice, that falls pretty well; what we were allowed to see on screen Thursday night leads us to believe that Kent Hughes will have to find magician skills, like the good Doctor.

Sure, the trade deadline is right around the corner (it’s March 21 this time around), but we’re dreaming in 4K if we imagine the new GM will be able to stack first-round picks in the top pocket. of his jacket by dropping to others some of his own veterans who are dragging their slippers.

Is an upgrade possible? Yes.

Could it be long? Yes too.

“Good times, and not so good times,” summed up the new GM about the game of his new team during the first intermission on TV Thursday evening.

We don’t know if Kent Hughes, in his young days as a supporter in the west of the city, has already heard the wise words of Dédé Traké, but we will remind him of them, just for the form: you have to aim for the top .

And that starts now.

Rising

Samuel Montembeault

The Quebec goalkeeper was once again the best of his team; this time he faced a barrage of 53 shots.

Falling

Josh Anderson

Of course he has just returned from a long absence, but the Canadian must be able to bet on him… and Thursday evening, he did not throw a single shot.

The number

7

The number of shots by William Karlsson.

In details

Eight weeks without Allen

Health news is rarely good in the Canadiens’ camp, and here is further proof: at the end of Thursday evening, the club confirmed that goalkeeper Jake Allen would have to be absent for at least eight weeks of play, due to of an injury. Recall that the veteran goaltender was injured during the January 12 game in Boston, against the Bruins.

Montembeault on fire

The Quebec goalkeeper was the victim of a backfire for a second game in a row, this time in defeat. With all that, Montembeault has faced 104 shots in his last two games. He made 49 saves in Thursday’s game, and that puts him fifth among goalkeepers in CH history for the most saves in a single game, behind Wayne Thomas (53, in 1974), Carey Price (53 in 2009), Jacques Plante (52 in 1955) and Antti Niemi (52 in 2019).

Enthusiastic Ducharme

Like Quebec as a whole, Dominique Ducharme did indeed witness the arrival of the new DG on his screen on Wednesday. Kent Hughes, the new GM in question, explained that he wants to see a Canadian with an offensive identity, and the coach is fine with that. “I like that we can play with speed, replied Ducharme live from Las Vegas Thursday afternoon, before the game against the Golden Knights. But you also have to play the right way. Playing quickly also means being able to put pressure on the other team. It’s not just one thing. As for the possibility of discussing transactions—the deadline is March 21—Ducharme prefers not to get too involved. “It’s not my job (the transactions), he added. Jeff (Gorton) is with us, and Kent will get to know our players. I think they will ask me my impressions of the training and then they will be the ones who will make the decisions. »

They said