Golden Knights — Canadian | Deserving young defenders

From game to game, one fact remains: the young defenders of the Canadiens have the complete confidence of Martin St-Louis.

Katherine Harvey Pinard
The Press

Since the return to play of Joel Edmundson in the last game, St. Louis finds itself with an extra defender. In Winnipeg, Chris Wideman watched the game from the stands. Tonight, for the visit of the Vegas Golden Knights, it will be Johnathan Kovacevic’s turn to pass. A decision which, assures St-Louis, was not taken according to its performance.

“He comes out because we have seven defenders and we need one who comes out, explained the head coach. Johnathan gave good hockey, he has a good hockey mind, he defends very well. I didn’t know him as a player, but he supports the attack quite well. »

“It is sure that it is part of a season, he continued. At that age, sometimes you have to watch it from above and you can always work on your game when you watch a game further away. »

With this decision, St-Louis once again demonstrates its confidence in youngsters Jordan Harris, Kaiden Guhle and Arber Xhekaj. Tonight they will have the task of slowing down the team that sits at the top of the general classification. The coach highlighted the performance of the three young men since the start of the season.

It is Jake Allen who will keep the goals, despite the excellent performance of Samuel Montembeault in Winnipeg.

Healthy Jack Eichel

After a disappointing injury-plagued season last year, the Vegas Golden Knights are finally getting the results they want. After 12 games, they have 10 wins and 2 losses. They haven’t lost in their last six games.

Part of the team’s success can be attributed to a healthy Jack Eichel, who has 5 goals and 8 assists so far. Almost a year to the day after being traded from the Sabers to the Knights, the centerman is showing his new team why they were right to trust him when he was suffering from a major neck injury that required surgery. An unprecedented situation for a hockey player.

“I feel really lucky to have been traded here and to be part of this organization, to be with these players every day, mentioned the main interested party after training his team. It was a good decision for my career. »

Surrounded by veterans, Eichel is no longer the only center of attention as was the case in Buffalo. As his new coach, Bruce Cassidy, aptly put it, “He’s got talent around him and doesn’t have to be the player. [à traîner l’équipe] nightly. »

“Mentally, he’s in a great place right now,” he added.

Quebecer Jonathan Marchessault has also greatly praised his teammate’s off-ice work. “The world doesn’t know how hard he works. He’s always one of the last to come out of the ice. He wants to be better. »

Surprising Guardians

It is in front of goal that we see the biggest surprise for the Golden Knights. In the absence of Robin Lehner for the entire season, it was Logan Thompson and Adin Hill, two goaltenders aged 25 and 26 respectively who between them had played 94 games in the NHL before the start of the season, who find themselves sharing the net.

And it’s going pretty well, not to say very, very well. In eight starts, Thompson has a .934 save percentage, while Adin Hill’s is .940 in four games. The two goalkeepers obviously have a great deal of responsibility for their team’s success so far.

“I don’t see why they couldn’t continue in this direction,” Cassidy said. There are several young players who grow every year in this league. »