Canadian 6 — Canucks 7 (P) | A crazy match that escapes the CH

(Vancouver) During the first intermission, the Rogers Arena crowd announcer was interviewing a visibly shy minor hockey player. The Canucks then lost 4-0 and the host asked him for advice for his team.

Youngster’s response: “Score more goals!” He didn’t quite believe that.

The Canucks scored five unanswered goals before restoring the lead to CH. It was all settled in overtime, 7-6 in favor of the Canucks.

Elias Pettersson scored the winner, taking advantage of a fall from Mike Matheson to recover the puck and beat Samuel Montembeault.

It’s obviously a tough defeat for the pride of the Montrealers, who first lost a 4-0 lead in the space of nine minutes of play, before finding themselves behind 5-4, then regaining the lead, 6-5, with three minutes left in the third period.

“Losing when you’re 4-0 up sucks, let’s be honest,” said Josh Anderson.

“It sucks. ” In English, ” It sucks “, a formulation also used by Christian Dvorak. “It sucks, we were leading 4-0, we lost our bearings for 10 or 15 minutes, we lose our lead, then we come back, and we lose the lead again. It was a weird game. Jake Evans called the loss “frustrating”.

This attitude of the players contrasted with that of Martin St-Louis. The Canadiens head coach had kind of announced his colors during the timeout he called for after the Canucks scored their fifth goal and took the lead for the first time. The calm with which he addressed his players was obvious. The words came out of his mouth at a rate that could be described as educational.

He displayed the same calm when he arrived in front of the microphones. “When I took the timeout, we lost 5-4 after 50 minutes. That was the reality. What do we do from then on? I think we managed it as a team, ”said the coach, very relaxed despite the roller coaster evening he had just experienced.

“I liked how the boys fought. It was quite an emotionally demanding game. In overtime, we win the bet, but Matheson falls. It’s boring. But I think there are so many more positives than negatives in this game. I am happy with our management of emotions. We continued to play. »

Heavy trend

That said, no matter how this group deals with their emotions, the defensive indicators are looking more and more like a team employing three, sometimes four rookies on defense.

In the very short term, the Habs have just allowed 12 goals in two games. And the 2-1 victory recorded during the first stop of the trip, in Calgary, was mainly the business of Jake Allen, who stopped 45 shots. Natural Stat Trick even gave the Flames a 14-4 advantage in scoring odds at 5-5 that night.

“We played pretty well on this trip apart from the 15-minute end. [mardi], objected Christian Dvorak. We have to correct some things, there is no doubt. You have to learn not to waste in advance like that. »

But the problems go beyond this trip. In the last 10 games, the Canadian presents the 31^e defense of the NHL, with an average of 4.20 goals against. We can certainly highlight the bad goals granted here and there by Jake Allen, or the discount attempted by Samuel Montembeault which was intercepted by Jack Studnicka. But the trend far exceeds a few specific technical errors.

And goalkeepers have their good times despite everything. “We could have lost 2-0 when we started. Monty was pretty good and kept us in the game,” observed St-Louis. Recall that after barely five minutes, it was 8-0 Canucks on penalties.

It won’t get any easier for St-Louis and his assistants. David Savard had to sit out on Monday, and it’s unclear if he’s lost long-term or if a quick comeback is possible. But his stabilizing effect is undeniable, especially since in his absence, Johnathan Kovacevic played 22 minutes, a high figure for a player who is still trying to establish himself in the NHL.

The absence of Sean Monahan, if it were to continue, could also hurt the Canadian, when you think of the amount of defensive plays he makes in his zone to get his club out of trouble.

And now Tuesday, the Habs have an appointment with the Kraken,5^e NHL attack this season, as we all expected. The task looks daunting.

Up: Mike Matheson

An inspired outing for the fast defender. It was he who calmed things down at the start of the match when the Canadian was overwhelmed. However, it ended badly for him, since Elias Pettersson scored the winning goal following his fall.

Down: Arber Xhekaj

A difficult evening for the strong man of CH. His duet with Jordan Harris was often caught in his territory.

The number of the match: 51

It’s the 51^e times in its history that the Canadiens have scored and allowed at least six goals in a game, but only the third time in the last 20 years. The last game of its kind: March 2, 2013, a 7-6 loss against the Penguins.

In details

Monahan injured, complicated logistics

Sean Monahan did not finish the game. The forward played the entire first period and even scored a power play goal. But after three appearances in the second engagement, he abdicated. The nature of his injury is unknown, but last Thursday in Calgary he was spotted wearing a protective boot. “It’s not pleasant to see that, because he wants to play so much, commented on another center of the team, Jake Evans. We saw him at his last appearances, it seemed that he was playing despite the pain. I hope we will see him again soon. Martin St-Louis will hope it will be as early as Tuesday in Seattle, because with the two-week absence announced Monday morning for Brendan Gallagher, the Habs only had the minimum of 12 healthy attackers left. There will therefore only be 11 for the game against the Kraken if Monahan is unavailable, and a recall seems rather complicated since the Rocket is in Laval. To be continued early Tuesday evening, when St-Louis meets the media.

Bang! Ding! Oh!

Why these onomatopoeia? To illustrate what an evening playing against Luke Schenn can look like. The Canucks defender has indeed reminded the players in white that he is capable of hitting hard. His check on Juraj Slafkovsky earned him a visit to the penalty box, as well as a fight with Arber Xhekaj. The one on Rem Pitlick, on the other hand, was legal, and quite powerful. His shouldering grabbed attention around here this week as he became the all-time leader in hits among defensemen on Saturday (note: the NHL has only been tracking this stat since 2005-06). Schenn certainly didn’t have the typical career of a 5^e picks overall, with 177 points in 888 games. “Looking back, when you’re drafted early, people expect you to be productive offensively,” Schenn observed Monday morning. The game has changed. There were a lot more tough defensemen when I got drafted and then teams were looking for smaller, faster guys. I try to be the best in my identity. »

A name to watch

He’s not eligible for the Calder Trophy because he was 26 when the season started, but Andrei Kuzmenko has made it into the NHL so far. After 25 games, this former KHL player has 23 points, including 12 goals. Never drafted, Kuzmenko signed a contract with the Canucks after a 53-point season in 45 games with St. Petersburg. The winger scored the goal that forced overtime at the end of the third period, a goal he scored for the simple reason that he was in front of the net. But his best play of the night was arguably the pass he served to Conor Garland, pivoting on himself while Jordan Harris fell, before sending the puck to Garland. Sunday, after Sunday’s optional practice, Canucks goaltender Spencer Martin was bragging about the unpredictability of his shot. “I don’t know what his ceiling is, but who knows, he could be a 50-goal scorer,” Martin dropped. If he maintains his current tempo, Kuzmenko will score 39 this season.

They said