(Raleigh) The Carolina Hurricanes are third overall in the NHL, and the Canadiens are 32and rank. There’s a reason for that.
Updated yesterday at 11:13 p.m.
In fact, it’s not true: there are several reasons, and it’s good, we saw some of them very closely during this one-sided evening in Raleigh, which ended in victory easy 4-0 for the home team.
Sometimes players say there are no easy matches, but like the voices of Milli Vanilli, that’s not true. There are easy games, well, easier, and Thursday night was one for the Hurricanes, who finally eased off in the third period, throwing only twice… after throwing 42 times during the first two periods.
The players in red started the match by exerting constant pressure on the Canadiens’ defenders, who were often caught in their zone. Without the talent of Jake Allen, the score could have been 6-0 or 7-0 after two periods.
Anyway, it looked like the Tuesday night Sunrise movie.
“We knew they were going to start the game strong,” admitted defender David Savard. They surprised us a bit when they left… The punishments hurt us, it cut our legs. Their team is putting pucks on the net…it’s definitely been a challenging journey for us. »
And how. But there is in the Canadian this inability to get out of the territory, to restart the game. Is it worrying? Yes it is. Defense, though a force on this team as recently as last spring, does little to reassure even the most optimistic about next season.
Take the tour a little, you will see that the best hopes of the Canadian on the blue line, Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, Logan Mailloux and other Jayden Struble, are all very far from a leading role in this league. We can probably add Justin Barron to this list. Fortunately for the CH, Alexander Romanov will have taken the lead this season.
PHOTO JAMES GUILLORY, USA TODAY SPORTS
Justin Barron (52) and Andrei Svechnikov (37)
But Thursday night, obviously, it was going a little too fast.
“The Hurricanes have one of the best teams in the league, I have a lot of respect for them,” goaltender Jake Allen said. Their first two lines spent the whole evening in our territory… We are trying to build a similar culture here. They play fast, they have high-level players, players who are creative, and that’s what we’re trying to achieve too. It was a good test for the guys. We didn’t win this match, but that doesn’t mean anything, we’re gaining experience. We see what it takes to get to the other plateau. »
In his turn at the microphone, Martin St-Louis said the same thing: these matches are used to prepare the rest.
PHOTO KARL B DEBLAKER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis speaks with players during the game.
“Because we cannot reproduce these games during training, explained the coach. I know we don’t get the results, but it’s a very good experience for us, I feel that we are improving. We lost, but I’m happy with the way we fought. »
“I’m happy that we play these games against such teams, it shows us what these good clubs bring to every game, and we can learn something from it. It can help us in our game systems, in our development, our way of improving. I saw a lot of positives. »
All of this is very true, but there is also this very true: for the Canadiens, this week is a return to reality. We certainly cannot deny the contagious energy that Martin St-Louis has brought to his club since his arrival behind the bench. Except that we can have all the energy in the world, at some point, it also takes talent, and against the leading teams, like the Panthers and the Hurricanes, the Canadian has a hard time keeping up.
This trip also serves that purpose: reminding us that there is still work to be done at the Bell Centre.
Up: Jake Allen
PHOTO KARL B DEBLAKER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jake Allen (34) blocks a shot from Vincent Trocheck (16).
A 40 save game for him, and without him it could have been a lot worse.
Down: Nick Suzuki
PHOTO KARL B DEBLAKER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nick Suzuki
Only 28% in the face-off circle, and also, he spent this game in frustration mode.
The number
4
The zero is goaltender Frederik Andersen’s fourth shutout this season.
In details
Return for Evans and Pitlick, forced leave (again) for Perreault
PHOTO KARL B DEBLAKER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tyler Pitlick (24) and Derek Stepan (18)
Jake Evans’ fall on Tuesday night in Florida looked pretty painful, but eventually Evans was able to get back into the lineup Thursday night in Raleigh against the Hurricanes. Ahead of the game, the young striker admitted he did quite well. “I was still lucky, it was only a minor injury, he explained. It was an accident, I lost my breath. With him, another attacker, Tyler Pitlick, also made a comeback. Another attacker, Mathieu Perreault, had to bail, and let’s just say that Perreault is starting to get used to it. In all, he only played 5 of the Canadiens’ 15 games during the month of March. He had picked up an assist in the previous game, Tuesday night at Sunrise against the Panthers.
An equipment problem… and a punishment for Jake Allen
PHOTO KARL B DEBLAKER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jake Allen (34) after being awarded a penalty.
When a goalkeeper has technical problems, the referees usually stop play. But that’s not what happened for Jake Allen late in the second period. The Canadiens’ goalkeeper chose to throw his mask in the middle of play, after losing a strap, and the referees imposed a penalty on him for delaying the game. However, on replay (especially that of the camera above the game), we could see that the right side of his mask was partially undone. “If the goalkeeper takes off his mask, it’s a punishment,” replied Martin St-Louis. But I think it’s a bit of a gray area. Jake had done the same thing already this season, with the puck on the blue line, and there had been no penalty. I don’t really know those rules. We, on the bench, immediately saw that he had lost a strap. It’s dangerous for a goalkeeper. When the puck was no longer near the goal, we thought a referee was going to blow his whistle and give Jake a chance to put his mask back on. »
Two to three weeks without Kotkaniemi
PHOTO KARL B DEBLAKER, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Jesperi Kotkaniemi
The Hurricanes started this game without a certain Jesperi Kotkaniemi. The Hurricanes player was injured earlier this week after receiving a body check from another CH veteran, Lars Eller. Ahead of Thursday’s game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Kotkaniemi could miss two to three weeks of play. good, answered the coach of the Hurricanes. He was playing well before this injury. You never want to see something like this, but he was definitely having a good time. We will try to bring him back to this level of play when he returns. The ex-CHs also stood out on Thursday evening; Max Domi had an assist, and Sebastian Aho had a goal and an assist.
They said
There were some weird decisions from the referees, but that’s part of the game. We managed to have very good moments on the penalty kill, so you have to see the positive side of things. When a goalkeeper loses his mask, you have to go with common sense, because it’s dangerous.
David Savard
All over the league, there are goalkeepers who lose their masks, it happens at least once a month, and the shots are violent. I understand that they won’t want to whistle if the puck is around the net, but when the puck is at the blue line… I was told that if the puck is that far away, I can take off my mask. The first referee did not impose a penalty, he knew that my mask was undone, it was the other referee who did. I was angry after that, I rarely am, and I was not going to let them score during this punishment!
Jake Allen
The Hurricanes and Panthers play similarly, like Martin (St-Louis) wants us to…we can see what it takes. We spent a lot of time in our defensive zone and that’s what we want to force the other teams to do.
Nick Suzuki
I felt we did a better job on defense than against Florida (Tuesday night). The Hurricanes bring a high volume of shots from everywhere, looking to create chaos. I think we handled that well. It’s all part of the progression we’re trying to achieve.
Martin St Louis