Wild 3 – Canadian 1 | The importance of oil changes

David Savard chose not to cut corners when trying to explain what’s wrong with this club: “You just have to get a few draining goals…”

Richard Labbe
The Press

So this is it.

We can well try to elevate hockey, as a whole, to an art form, to a graceful game on thin ice, where only the most beautiful artists of the palette can paint the most beautiful portraits, it essentially comes back always to the same thing: the oil changes.

What that means, of course, has nothing to do with trash pick-up, rather everything to do with the importance of the most important thing in hockey: knowing how to put it in.

Something the Canadiens didn’t do often enough on Tuesday night in October against the Minnesota Wild, losing 3-1 at the Bell Centre.

The drains, therefore.

This is, in the opinion of many, including David Savard, what the Canadiens are sorely lacking this season. Phil Esposito had made a career out of it, moreover, and if we understood correctly, the guys from the Canadian should now all have a little Esposito in their noses, and they should go and put themselves where it hurts. Because that’s often how we score goals in this league.

“You just have to send guys in the face of the goalkeeper, added the veteran defender. It has to be intense. Nevertheless, I think we took a step in the right direction. »

Not far from there, just on the other side of the locker room, Sean Monahan was saying the same thing.

“We had our chances this time, added the striker. But we have to be able to create traffic in front of the opposing net. We have to find a way to provoke things, to harm the goalkeeper, to take away his ability to see the pucks. »

All of this was discussed during one of the intermissions, according to captain Nick Suzuki. “Yes, we talked about it… we had to try to harm [Marc-André] Fleury a little more. »

Apart from a Christmas present before time, which gave a fifth goal of the season to Cole Caufield, the Wild goalkeeper has also not been too threatened by the players of the Canadian. Fleury even stopped a penalty shot from Mike Hoffman, with a certain naivety.

That being said, when players start making garbage truck references like that, it’s often because the trust is gone. Martin St-Louis, however, does not see things that way.

“Obviously you can’t always have the perfect goal that comes after three or four assists,” noted the Montreal coach. Several goals are achieved from the enclave, in front of the goalkeeper. It is necessary that a player arrives first, that another arrives then at the good time.

“But we had a lot of chances to score, I would say a good twenty, and to be able to make plays like that, it takes confidence. I think in terms of trust, it’s fine. It’s just that we lack a bit of finishing. »

It’s funny, because this season, the attack was to be a positive aspect for this club, while it was in defense that all the question marks were going to be found. Well, the defense looked like that on Tuesday night: question marks in spades, especially on the younger side, the Kovacevics, Guhle (who had to leave before the end, after receiving a puck by ear), Xhekaj, all of whom struggled to keep up. But that’s the challenge that comes with such a green defense, and inevitably there will be ups and downs. Fortunately, Jake Allen has mounted guard admirably.

It remains to be seen if the rest of the club will be able to hold on too, especially on the eve of this four-game journey which begins, with a first stop which is scheduled for Thursday evening in Buffalo, a place where dreams are regularly shattered.

In the meantime, it’s not that complicated: the Canadian must put it in. Otherwise the season could look like a garbage truck catching fire.

In details

Fleury’s smile

As a general rule, it’s not difficult to make Marc-André Fleury smile. After a night of 26 saves, by far his best performance so far this season, it was even more evident. “When you win, it’s fun, and when there aren’t 30 goals scored, it’s fun too,” he said, laughing after the game. By allowing only one goal, the Quebecer saw his goals-against-average drop to 4.30 and his efficiency rate go up to .869, miles from the threshold of respectability. At such an early stage in the season, his individual stats still have plenty of time to change, but the ranking points amassed are precious. “The race is so tight for the playoffs, it’s important to have points at the start of the season so as not to find yourself in catch-up,” he recalled.

“Quebecers score a goal”

From Johnathan Kovacevic’s perspective, the Wild’s winning goal was a disaster. For the visitors, it is rather the consecration of the hard work of Ryan Hartman in forechecking as well as the connection between Frédérick Gaudreau and Brandon Duhaime. Gaudreau broke away from Kovacevic, left Kaiden Guhle to compromise and deftly handed the disc to Duhaime, who hit the mark with a deft move. “Dewi is currently successful, he also scored Saturday night in Boston, recalled Gaudreau. He works so hard, he’s good everywhere. Duhaime returned the flowers to his teammate for his “incredible play”. Above all, the one who was born in Florida to Quebec parents indicated that, in the hugs that followed the goal, Gaudreau would have thrown something like “Les Québécois mark a goal! – we haven’t validated the exact wording. Duhaime also pointed out that he and Gaudreau tried to converse together in the language of Richard Garneau.

Xhekaj’s hard apprenticeship

Arber Xhekaj has been receiving a lot of praise since the start of the season. However, he still has a long way to go on his road to excellence. Draft Tuesday evening and, let’s say, often exceeded, he deprived his club of a numerical advantage in the second period. The referee had already raised his arm to signal an infraction by Brandon Duhaime when Xhekaj, annoyed by Ryan Hartman, took revenge as the striped man looked on. Found guilty of rudeness, he got off with a visit to the dungeon. “When your team goes on the power play, you don’t give the referee a chance to award a penalty,” said head coach Martin St-Louis after the game. We had passed a few penalties, we were trying to reclaim the momentum. Was it a good or a bad decision [de l’arbitre] ? It does not matter. »

They said

Rising

Jake Allen

Without doubt his best game this season, and the reason why the Canadian was still in the game at the end.

Falling

Johnathan Kovacevic

A difficult game and a very juicy turnaround that led to the winning goal for the Wild.

The number of the game

25 min 9 sec

Jordan Harris’ playing time, a high among players on both teams.