There is nothing normal about this season of the Canadiens. The journalists present at Monday’s training in Brossard had further proof.
• Read also: Cole Caufield: “It’s none of your business!”
• Read also: Edmundson and Allen on the ice in training
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In a shootout competition, where each player had to take turns performing until he scored, we were treated to a final between Jonathan Drouin and Michael Pezzetta.
Who of the two returned to the locker room without having managed to outsmart Samuel Montembeault? If you answered Pezzetta, you win a permed Longueuil cup, courtesy of Ménick.
All that to say that the atmosphere was light at the team’s training complex the day after a day off and two days after the victory against the Predators. This did not prevent Dominique Ducharme’s men from working hard for 45 big minutes. Three-quarter of an hour of one-on-one battles, fights in the corners of the rinks and scrambling in front of the net.
The level of intensity was there.
“We want to build on what we did on Saturday. We don’t want to take a step back, ”said the Canadiens coach at the end of training.
“There is frustration not to have the results, but the group remains united. It was a way to bring pleasure. When it’s time to work, it’s time to work. They did this for 45 minutes. Once the job is done, you can take the time for things like this. It’s good to do it, ”he continued.
Finally two in a row?
This morning, the Habs players will jump on the ice again before flying to Washington to face the Capitals there tomorrow night. Although they lowered the flag against the Kraken on their last outing, the representatives of the American capital are having a great season.
Carried by Alexander Ovechkin’s record race, already scoring 15 goals in 19 games, the Capitals flirt with the top of the Eastern Conference. This first stop on a three-game trip is therefore not timely for the Habs.
In addition to being always looking for a second win in a row for the first time this season (0-3-1), he only won one in nine games (1-7-1) over opposing rinks.
“The season is not over after 20 games. You have to start a winning streak and go one day at a time, ”submitted Christian Dvorak.
True, except that the Canadian is seven points behind the eighth and last place giving access to the playoffs. Since 2013-2014, only two teams behind by seven points or more at the American Thanksgiving have managed to reach the top 8 of their association at the end of the season: the St-Louis Blues, in 2018. -2019, and the Dallas Stars, in 2013-2014.
Either way, the team had at least two games in hand over the ones they were chasing. The Canadian is in a completely opposite situation with four more games played than his rivals.
Caufield’s lessons
Back in the bosom of the Canadian after a stay with the Laval Rocket, Cole Caufield had also found a smile yesterday at noon. He admitted that those six games in the American League, in which he scored two goals and had three assists, gave him pause for thought.
“I had to clear my mind and find my bearings to rebuild my confidence. It did me good. I was able to find myself as a hockey player, relax and forget about the surrounding noise, ”he said.
Not sure that it is really in this state of mind that he was when Marc Bergevin handed him his OPUS card. But OK.
In our edition yesterday, the general manager of the Canadiens told colleague Jean-François Chaumont that the youngster “too often lost the puck”. That sending him to the American League had become “the easy choice.”
What did the main interested party get out of these few matches and training sessions under the orders of Jean-François Houle?
“I always have to be on the move, in order to generate more scoring chances. I always have to be close to the puck and close to the opposing net, ”he said.
Allen waits for the green light
Absent since the end of the first period of the match played in Detroit on November 13, Jake Allen, victim of a concussion, could find his net tomorrow night. Cayden Primeau was sent back to Laval on Sunday night and Allen trained with his teammates yesterday.
However, Ducharme said he was waiting for the approval of the medical team before confirming the return of the New Brunswicker in action.
The news is also encouraging in the case of Joel Edmundson. The defender will accompany the team for these three matches. He will not wear his uniform for these, but will continue his rehabilitation by jumping on the ice with the rest of the team.