Canadian 2 – Red Wings 3 | The earth shook

(Detroit) In the absence of Carey Price, and with all the injuries that plague the infirmary, the worst thing that could happen to the Canadiens was probably an injury to Jake Allen.

(Re) read our live coverage Check out the match summary

Saturday night in Detroit, the earth shook. And the shock was so strong that little was made of the 3-2 loss suffered by CH in overtime.

With less than a minute to go in the first half, swift Dylan Larkin rushed to the right wing, chased by Jeff Petry, responsible for a turnaround deep in Red Wings territory seconds earlier. The defender attempted a maneuver to slow down his opponent, which instead had the effect of destabilizing him. Result: Larkin, at full speed, slammed into Allen, who hit the post head-on and lost his mask on impact.

Ryan Poehling, who saw the bench scene, referred to “one of the worst goalie obstructions” he has seen.

Allen stayed in the game initially – “he told me he was correct,” head coach Dominique Ducharme later explained. But 10 seconds later, NHL observers tasked with monitoring possible concussions called for the goalie to be removed from the game.

We then proceeded to tests and announced that Allen could no longer play. Ducharme did not confirm the concussion diagnosis, saying further evaluations from the club’s medical staff were needed. However, as the goalkeeper submitted to examinations, his condition deteriorated, said the coach. The decision to keep him out of the game was made by itself.

While the Canadian plays his next game this Sunday in Boston, Cayden Primeau was recalled. The young man, who played for the Laval Rocket on Saturday, will join CH in Massachusetts later today.

Inexperience

On social networks, the less optimistic supporters of the Habs immediately wanted Primeau to be sent into the fray on Sunday evening. This scenario would be surprising knowing that he will have covered the distance between Montreal and Boston on the same day.

But these considerations do not matter. Because the mere mention of this possibility betrays a brutal reality that the Canadian will have to face if Allen were to be absent in the medium or long term: the relief in front of the net is, let’s put it politely, precarious.

It is true that after giving in on the first two shots of the second period, Samuel Montembault, who replaced Allen at short notice, seriously recovered. ” He fought [et] showed character, ”said Ducharme.

“It’s never easy to come home cold like that when you’ve been sitting on the bench for a long time,” the goalkeeper confirmed after the match. [Après les deux buts], I made a good save on a two against one; it was good for my confidence. […] Afterwards, it was fine. ”

The Quebecer also noted that it had been “years” since he had played two games in two days.

Check it out, it’s been over two and a half years since that happened to him in the NHL. On March 25, 2019, while wearing the Florida Panthers uniform, he was kicked out of the game after allowing two goals on four shots – his night only lasted 4:21. The next day, it was he who took over from James Reimer, after the latter had allowed the Canadian three goals in less than 15 minutes. His last “two in two” dates back to January 2020, in the American League.

In any case, Montembault, at 25, has only 29 games of experience in the NHL. Which is only 23 more than Cayden Primeau, 22.

The avid reader of mental arithmetic will have deduced that between them, they have totaled 35 career games.

When you know how generous the CH can be on defense at times, and their shorthanded unit is still one of the worst on the tour, it’s hard to smile sincerely.

“This is another situation that we had not experienced,” noted Dominique Ducharme, as amazed by this umpteenth tile that falls on the head of his team.

By losing in overtime against an opponent in his division, the Canadian obviously lost a famous “big point” in his already modest harvest of the season. But if he should also have lost the services of Jake Allen, it is to wonder how he will survive only the four games in seven days that await him this week.

It is definitely getting better and better.

In details

671 days later

By scoring in the fifth minute of play, Ryan Poehling entered a score in an NHL game for the first time in 671 days. You have to go back to January 13, 2020 to find your last success. In his defense, it should be noted that he spent the entire 2020-2021 season in the American League. Saturday, in his second game since his recall from the Laval Rocket, we felt the American in full possession of his means from the start of the game. With all the injuries that the Habs have, Poehling is even employed on the second power-play wave. “It’s been a while! “, Recognized the center player after the meeting. Not to mention a transformed player, he was nevertheless pointed out that he seemed frankly more sure of himself than in training camp, which was only one month old. Again, Poehling nodded. “At camp, I was hesitant, I didn’t trust myself. I understood things in Laval, and now I feel that I am playing as I am capable of. I think I’ve done a good job so far. ”

In the shadow of the first trio

With the fiery start to the season that Tyler Bertuzzi and Lucas Raymond are experiencing, the Red Wings’ second line goes a little unnoticed. However, Robby Fabbri, Pius Suter and Filip Zadina had quite a game against CH. After two periods, the meeting of the three had generated a 12-0 dominance of five-on-five shooting attempts in their favor – they ended the game 14-3. It was their efforts that led to their club’s second goal. Zadina didn’t get a point on the streak, but it was still him who, without touching the puck, pulled Alex Belzile and David Savard towards him, giving Suter plenty of room to land a shot. who got the better of Samuel Montembault. Silently, this first-round pick in 2018 (6^e in total) has just crossed the plateau of 100 career games. His 43-point output isn’t delusional, but seeing him play against CH one can expect him to get a bit more attention in the near future.

A decision soon about Norlinder

Mattias Norlinder trained with the Canadiens again on Saturday morning but watched the game again from the press gallery. The 21-year-old Swedish defenseman, who has recovered from his training camp injury, is still waiting to play his first NHL meeting. Asked about him, head coach Dominique Ducharme indicated that “eventually, we will have to make a decision to see what we do with him”. “He’s still a young player, it’s important that he plays,” he added, specifying, however, that the conditions were “not optimal” in a context where the CH plays three to four games. per week, which makes Norlinder unlikely to train and tame his team’s play system. Under his contract, the young man cannot be ceded in the long term to the Rocket de Laval. Two unique choices are therefore presented to the Canadian: keep him in the entourage of the club or send him back to Frölunda, training where he plays in the Swedish championship.

They said

Rising

Chris wideman

Good action on his part in the middle of the ice led to Poehling’s goal. And he scored an important goal in the third period. A good match for this defender who rarely finds himself on the honor roll.

Falling

Michael pezzetta

The long-haired character scored his first point in the NHL, but his sixth minor penalty in three games earns him the blame of the day. That’s way too much, especially for a support worker like him.

The number of the match

20

On Saturday, the Canadian gave his 19^e and 20^e goals of the season in the second period. In the entire NHL, only the Arizona Coyotes have given more.