Many times this season, the Canadian has received blows. Fans often left the Bell Center disappointed or in high spirits.
It took 53 games, but we finally had the first perfect night of the season: a one-sided 5-0 victory.
There’s nothing to get upset about, some will say. It was just the Ducks. A poor team occupying 30e rank of the Bettman circuit.
It’s true. But it was still not a foregone conclusion, considering that the last four times the Canadian had faced a team in a worse situation than his own, he had suffered defeat.
Even Brandon Gignac joined in the fun by scoring his first NHL goal.
The duo of the hour?
Tuesday night, Nick Suzuki and his linemates made sure an embarrassing scenario didn’t happen again.
Named third star of the last week in the NHL, the Canadian captain continued his momentum.
He added two goals and an assist to his record, which allowed him to extend his streak of games with at least one point to eight.
Juraj Slafkovsky also finished the night with three points. Slovak is now less predictable. The fact that he now takes more shots forces the opponent to be on alert when he grabs the puck.
The goalkeeper can no longer cheat, for fear that Slafkovsky will choose to shoot, making his cross-field passes even more effective. This is how he fed Suzuki during the last three goals that he prepared for him.
Slafkovsky has now collected at least one point in his last six outings. It runs on a medium-term basis. Moreover, the 19-year-old forward has collected 19 points in his last 22 games. This is one more than the total of his first 70 games in the NHL.
Complete domination
The Canadian’s first unit completely dominated this match. Between them, Slafkovsky (7), Suzuki (9) and Cole Caufield (15) made 31 shot attempts.
It makes you wonder if they put their skates on defensive territory even once.
It must be said that in addition to their regular turn at even strength, they were mandated, along with Alex Newhook, to play practically every second of the massive Montreal attack.
The second unit was limited to crumbs (around fifty seconds over 10 minutes). Let’s say that with Josh Anderson, Jesse Ylönen and Tanner Pearson, we go down in quality.
It’s fun to watch, but, at the risk of repeating myself, it demonstrates a blatant lack of depth in attack for the Habs. Casually, Slafkovsky and Suzuki have scored 11 of the Habs’ last 15 goals.
Michael Pezzetta, Joel Armia, Jake Evans and Gignac are the only exceptions.
Relief for Primeau
Yes, the Ducks were easy prey. The best proof of this is the 13 shots they directed at Cayden Primeau. The Canadian had not allowed less than 20 shots to the opponent since the start of the campaign. Nor had he cleared the opponent.
It’s an evening that will undoubtedly do Primeau the greatest good. Until then, the American goaltender had suffered defeat in each of his three games at the Bell Centre, with a goals against average of 5.09 and a save percentage of .856.
On Tuesday, he signed the first shutout of his career.