A better club with Dach

(Montreal) Kirby Dach isn’t the most demonstrative in front of the microphones, but he can be with his teammates.

At the sound of the final siren, the Canadiens players were waiting in line to congratulate Samuel Montembeault after the 3-2 victory against the Lightning. It was there that Dach surrounded the guardian with his long arms and, like the Giant Ferré, gave him the hold of the bear. A loving bear hold, of course.

“Sam was phenomenal tonight, that’s why I gave him a big hug. He saved our ass a few times,” Dach summed up.

Dach could have been the target of his teammates’ affection himself, however, as in his first game in over a month he was reminded of the immense value he possesses within this team.

Let’s forget his goal, which was the result of a gift from defender Darren Raddysh, guilty of a perfect pass… to Nick Suzuki. Even the ever-reliable Andrei Vasilevskiy gave Dach a boost, only partially blocking the puck before laying it in his net.

During the match, Dach multiplied important actions to allow his team to recover pucks, or to keep them in the offensive zone. In his last appearance of the game, with three minutes to play, he and his linemates Suzuki and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard managed to keep the puck as far away from Habs territory as possible.

“He’s such a talented player, he works hard. At the end, he came from behind and lifted the player’s stick to get the puck out. In the offensive zone, he is very dynamic, ”described Montembeault.

The use made of it by Martin St-Louis on his return says a lot about his usefulness within the team. The head coach had a whole problem to solve with, on his side, a mortgaged center line, and on the opponent’s side, the presence of Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov within a line, and Steven Stamkos within of another. Rather than pitting Suzuki against one and Dach against the other, he employed Dach on the wing in order to “strengthen” that unit against Point’s.

“Our plan is for him to be a center,” recalled St-Louis. Dach’s employment on the wing for this kind of confrontation, however, revealed an additional option that will present itself in St. Louis when it has a healthy formation, with for example a Jake Evans to play against the other line. opponent’s offensive.

For what it’s worth, the Canadiens went 4-10-2 in Dach’s absence. In his last 12 games, the team is 7-4-1. Other factors account for this gap, including a series of strong opponents in the absence of the great number 77. But there is nevertheless an interesting trend to follow in the longer term.

The growth of Montembeault

For his part, Montembeault continued to earn points in this match. His stop while doing the splits of course caught the attention. “When I’m warmed up, it’s fine, but if you ask me to do that before the game, it might ‘pop’ somewhere! “, joked the Quebec goalkeeper.

Casually, he was on his fourth straight start, a first this season when Jake Allen is healthy. The latter, however, has allowed 12 goals on just 33 shots in his last two outings, which puts him on the siding for the moment.

“We can do everything well for him, but he’s the one in the net. He has made very good progress this year,” noted St-Louis.

It is important to remember, however, that in the month following the break from the All-Star Game, it was Allen who surpassed Montembeault by a good margin.

This is the reality of a team that does not currently have a number 1 goalkeeper, strictly speaking. Lately, however, St-Louis has shown that he is ready to adapt and opt for the goalkeeper “of the moment”.

Rising

Nick Suzuki

Big day at the office for a player who spent most of his evening against Kucherov and Point. Two assists and a +2 against them.

Falling

Rem Pitlick

History repeats itself for the winger, guilty of three turnovers despite minimal usage time.

The number of the game

16

Defenseman Mike Matheson now has 16 points (7 goals, 9 assists) in 20 games since the All-Star break.

In details

Season over for Guhle

Kaiden Guhle’s first season in the NHL is over. The defender officially suffers from a sprained upper ankle. The organization said his injury would not require surgery, but he would miss his team’s final 11 games. Guhle thus concludes on a sad note a campaign which will be limited to 44 meetings, but during which he has revealed himself as a safe bet. A knee injury initially deprived him of eight weeks of activity. Three games after his return, he was absent for an “upper body” injury. His final comeback lasted five games. Even having played considerably less than his opponents, Guhle finds himself in fifth place among rookie defensemen in the league with 18 points. Since we are talking about the medical department, note that Josh Anderson will not accompany his team to Boston, he who was injured in the last minute of Tuesday’s game by being knocked down in his own goal by Mikhail Sergachev.

The Drouin we didn’t expect

Jonathan Drouin invited himself where we least expected him on Tuesday. First, he scored a goal, which doesn’t happen often, as we know, and he did it with panache. Racing down the left flank, he accepted a pass from Denis Gurianov and surprised Andrei Vasilevskiy with a sharp shot. Then, at the very end of the third period, he was given the responsibility of running out part of the last minute of the game. Drouin himself remarked that it was the second time in a week that he found himself in action at the end of the course. ” I love that. It’s times like these that you want to be on the ice. You want to have the confidence of your coach. He’s starting to give me more, and it’s up to me to prove that I can stay there, ”commented the striker at the end of the evening. Goalkeeper Samuel Montembeault, for his part, underlined the “beautiful play” of his teammate who, “instead of panicking” in the defensive zone, “raised his head and sent the puck” towards Josh Anderson, who had rushed into the zone. neutral.

Generous Vasilevskiy

Lightning head coach Jon Cooper rightly pointed out that Samuel Montembeault was “the best player” for the Canadiens. “We saw that on our side often with Vasi,” he added. Vasi is obviously Andrei Vasilevskiy, member of the short list of the best goalies in the NHL. The Russian obviously excels against all teams, but he is particularly intractable against the Habs. His last defeat in Montreal – and against the Canadiens in general – dates back to January 4, 2018. However, the one who has often been the best player on his team made an exception on Tuesday. On the first goal of the match, that of Kirby Dach, he was unable to control the disc, which gently rolled behind him. On the next one, that of Drouin, the shot was certainly precise, but if it had to be done again, this colossus of 6 ft 4 in would no doubt have preferred not to give him so generous access to the upper part of the net. To be classified under the heading “can do better”.

Simon-Olivier Lorange, The Press

They said

Nobody wants to let these matches go down the drain. We have things to prove for next year.

Jonathan Drouin

When you have players from top 6 who come back, it puts everyone in a better position. [Kirby Dach] is an important player for us, for our future.

Nick Suzuki

We had Sunday off, I was able to rest. And even in the warm-up, it went well. It was maybe my best warm-up of the year.

Samuel Montembeault

It’s pretty flexible. It was quite a stop and we needed it at that time.

Kirby Dach on Samuel Montembeault’s spectacular save on Nick Perbix

My lungs and legs were okay because I tried to stick to short shifts. I was really careful not to get caught on the rink.

Brendan Gallagher

It was fun to play again against the same team, you can show things to improve, the way we wanted to present ourselves against them. We were ready.

Martin St Louis

[Avec Rafaël Harvey-Pinard], you know what you’re going to have every night. He is attentive to details, he follows instructions. You know he’s gonna be at the net when the other two [joueurs de son trio] create attack. He’s very responsible, too, and he can keep the offense alive.

Martin St Louis

I think we’re finding our rhythm. We have to correct some things, and everything will be fine. This team has played a lot for three years, and we have seen several new faces appear. In the last 10 games, we have to raise our game.

Pat Maroon on his team’s inconsistency heading into the playoffs

We had the same conversation on the same date last year and we made it to the final. The important thing for me is to get to the playoffs. Obviously, like all coaches, I would prefer that we go full throttle, but our level of competition is there.

Jon Cooper, Lightning head coach

We did everything except score. I liked a lot of things about this game, but we come out with zero points. I like it less.

Jon Cooper

Interview by Guillaume Lefrançois and Simon-Olivier Lorange, The Press