Sharks 3-Canadian 2 | Fishtail

Do you have a friend who attended Thursday’s Sharks-Canadian game? He came back broke after investing $150 for this anthology piece? Remind him that he complains on a full stomach.

Think about it: in one evening, he saw a goalkeeper at number 29 stop almost everything in front of him with Olympian calm, without giving feedback. It was definitely Ken Dryden who found himself a time machine.

He also saw this defender who scored after mystifying the Montreal defense. We noted that he wore the number 83, but undoubtedly our eyes deceived us: it was Al Iafrate’s number 33.

And the sniper at number 20 who slipped into the crease to beat Samuel Montembeault, before heroically throwing himself in front of a shot from Mike Matheson at the end of the match? Hats off to Dino Ciccarelli, who doesn’t look his 63 years old.

Frankly, did the Canadian even have a chance against this team of stars from all eras which arrived at the Bell Centre?

The informed reader will have noted here that we are kidding, that it was rather the combined efforts of Mackenzie Blackwood, Nikita Okhotiuk and Fabian Zetterlund which allowed the San José Sharks to end their 12-game losing streak. The Habs lost 3-2, in a match where the most patient spectators were rewarded, because the first 55 minutes of this duel resembled a long moment of silence for the late Ed Broadbent.

The players were walking on eggshells after the match. The Sharks may form, statistically, the worst team in the NHL in the last 20 years, but there is nevertheless respect for the opposing clan, for players who, overall, have their place in the NHL.

“Sometimes people ask me if I look at the rankings. I do not do it. I never come into a match saying that I can have a B quality match tonight,” said defender Mike Matheson, one of the most valiant of the Habs in this duel.

The contrast was striking with the first weeks of the season, when the CH took advantage of the duels against the lower ranking teams to collect points and were corrected by the Kings, the Canucks and the Panthers.

“There are no easy matches in the league, no one is going to give us two points,” recalled Martin St-Louis.

The sacrosanct constancy

Like last year, the Habs conclude their first half of the season on a false note. On January 9, 2023, the team lost 4-0 at home to Seattle, posting a record of 16-22-3.

In this regard, this first half of the season certainly marks an improvement, although timid, with a record of 17-18-6.

However, it is with any two performances in 24 hours, and three in its last four matches, that CH concludes this half of the calendar. And even if the team had created the tie in the final moments, St-Louis is not deluded. “Even if we had found a way to win, it wouldn’t have been progress. We are a very honest group,” assured a slightly disappointed St-Louis.

The brake on progress was not only collective; several elements which showed progress also experienced sluggish periods. Nick Suzuki’s trio, which carried the team during part of the month of December, was even less incisive. Casually, since Dallas’ return, this unit has been beaten 0-3 in goals scored at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Jayden Struble, THE surprise of the year in Montreal so far, started the match with an unusual blunder at home, which allowed the Sharks to open the scoring. Struble then almost gave the visitors an escape by advancing a little too far into the opposing zone when his partner, Jordan Harris, was also compromised. He had some defensive successes afterwards, but overall his play was not as assured as usual.

If the Canadian needs big names to put out his best performances, it shouldn’t be too complicated in the next two games, against the Oilers and the Avalanche. But weaker opponents will follow, and in any case, consistency is the unit that will measure the real progress of this group. Not the rankings, not a playoff appearance – Jeff Gorton’s famous “P” word at the start of the season. The constancy.

This is the watchword for the second half of the season. A challenge that promises to be tough, especially if information from TSN regarding the very real possibility that Sean Monahan will be traded in the coming weeks materializes.

“You have to grow up,” insisted Brendan Gallagher. We’ve been around .500 since the start of the season. If you want to play matches that count at the end of the season, you have to start putting together some victories, stopping the ups and downs. You have to make this constant effort. When it starts, it’s hard to stop. We have it in us, we just have to do it consistently. »

Down: Jesse Ylönen

Even though he wasn’t generating much, he received a penalty in the third period, in the offensive zone, when the Canadian was trying to get back into the game. He did not play again after his offense.

The number of the match: 2

In 37 of their 42 games, the Sharks have had fewer shots than the opponent. Fortunately the Canadian is there, because two of the five “exceptions” took place against him.

In details

The Sharks can finally smile

We didn’t give much credit to the Sharks for this clash: they arrived in Montreal having suffered 12 defeats in a row, including a very clear 7-1 thrashing in Toronto on Tuesday. But a dinner with a group of around fifteen players in a Montreal restaurant on Wednesday essentially allowed them to rediscover the pleasure of practicing their sport. “What happened on the ice was a reflection of how we felt before the game,” explained defenseman Mario Ferraro. We were more positive, we loved our sport a little more. When you go through such a losing streak, you kind of forget why you’re playing. But we brought it back to our locker room. It started outside the rink. » “You don’t go through the things we went through and suddenly feel good about yourself,” agreed head coach David Quinn. You have to earn it, and that’s what we did gradually in this match. This is how we’re going to get out of our hole. »

“No second chance” for Marc-Édouard Vlasic

Marc-Édouard Vlasic was one of the players most used by his coach on Thursday. He played more than 20 minutes for a rare time this season, having been left out a few times recently. “He did a good job tonight,” assured Quinn. We talked a lot about him, he had to handle difficult situations and he did it with class and professionalism. He earned the chance to play tonight and he took advantage of it. » “It always feels good to win in Montreal,” commented the native of the island. We play good hockey in Montreal every time we are here. » “I can only play here once a season, so I don’t get a second chance,” he said. It makes the victory even more special. »

Harvey-Pinard returns, Heineman in Laval

Rafaël Harvey-Pinard (RHP) offered the performance of a player who had not played since November 14. That is to say that without being decisive in the match, it did not harm either. Harvey-Pinard made a marking error which led to a breakaway in the first period, but Martin St-Louis still trusted him on the numerical disadvantage a few minutes later. In the second, he forced William Eklund to commit a holding penalty when his team had just entered the penalty kill. As we said: honest work, nothing more. And since RHP is back from his lower body injury which caused him to miss 24 consecutive games, forward Emil Heineman was transferred to the Laval Rocket after Thursday’s game.