Canadian 1 — Avalanche 2 | The importance of 60 minutes (and even more)

(Denver) There is often a theme that comes up these days in the world of CH: this inability to play an entire game, in full, for 60 minutes, maybe more, if necessary.

It’s still the same film we saw on that very cold Wednesday night in Denver, except that this time the film was shot at altitude, which in itself represents a huge challenge, as everyone knows.

Final score, in overtime: Avalanche 2, Canadian 1.

We are not going to contradict Martin St-Louis on the altitude challenges, although the Avalanche have still lost five times here this season, which proves that these challenges are not insurmountable. But to this problem of a meteorological order is added the other problem, that of the 60 minutes (sometimes more, like here), which comes up almost everywhere, not only in Denver; the Canadian also sometimes plays half matches at the Bell Centre, for example.

Here, Wednesday, after a first period of 12 shots, the CH continued with a second period of 4 shots, and a third of 3 shots.

How do we explain that?

“I really don’t know, began by responding Nick Suzuki. We had energy in the first half, and then it disappeared in the second. It’s as if we had our legs cut off at that moment, killed our rhythm…

“So we found ourselves a little outside of our comfort zone. We found ourselves exhausted, the lines struggled to make effective changes, and it had a downward domino effect. »

But all of this is undoubtedly part of the learning curve for a club which, as we recall, is still in a learning period, despite the surprising results at the start of the season.

Winning can be learned, but it can also be learned the hard way, with evenings like Wednesday evening, when the team was still able to leave the arena with one more point in the bank. “We stole a point… if we had been able to collect two points, it would have been downright a burglary”, summed up Martin St-Louis with his usual frankness.

Thus, this difficult journey, which began Monday in the Arizona desert, begins with a harvest of three points out of a possible four. With any luck, it could have been four out of four; just before the winning goal in overtime, that of Rantanen, Jonathan Drouin had pushed himself to goalkeeper Georgiev, whom he could not thwart.

And then, as so often happens at three-on-three, the puck ended up on the other side. With the result that we know.

“I was completely exhausted once in overtime,” admitted goaltender Jake Allen. I was able to touch the puck with my stick, but…”

But the puck went into the goal.

It happens. Especially to teams like this, who struggle to deliver consistent performance for an entire evening. That too can be learned.

Up: Jonathan Drouin

A match where the Quebec striker was visible, involved in the game and able to cause things

Down: Arber Xhekaj

Another minor penalty for him, and a gesture that contributed to favorable conditions for the Avalanche in the second period

The number of the match: 1975

The year of the last goal scored by a Richard in the formation of the Canadian, Henri… before the goal of Anthony Richard in Denver

In details

A first goal for Anthony Richard

Anthony Richard will probably remember that Wednesday night in Denver for the rest of his life. It was here, 1 min 48 s into the first period, that the young Canadian forward scored his first NHL goal, when he finished alone in front of goaltender Alexandar Georgiev. “The idea was to play with a lot of speed against the Avalanche, explained the Quebec forward. I saw the pass, and that’s the kind of play I’m good at in the American League. I must say that I returned to the bench after that with a lot of emotion! I’ve come a long way, though… It’s been almost three years since I played my last game in the National League. So yes, there was emotion…”

A first match for Lehkonen against CH

After spending six years with the Canadiens, after being traded here to Denver on March 21, 2022, Artturi Lehkonen was in his first game against his former team, Wednesday night at Arena Ball. And as in any good film, the Finnish striker pulled off a bang, scoring his club’s first goal in the third period. Earlier in the morning, Lehkonen had spoken without any bitterness of his seasons in Montreal, and about him, it is undoubtedly Martin St-Louis who had the best words. “I coached him long enough to know how important such a player can be in a team,” said the Montreal coach. He’s a guy who can play anywhere on the ice and anywhere in the lineup, on the power play, on the disadvantage… Those players are hard to find. Finally, when asked if the Canadiens are betting on such a player at the moment, the response was: “Um…I’m not sure. »

Weather cocktail in Denver too

These days, many cities in North America are hit with the extreme joys of winter, and Denver is no exception. We were forecasting a solid -21°C overnight Wednesday through Thursday around here, and heading into Ball Arena on Wednesday night, the fans in nothing but hockey shirts didn’t look like much enjoy. This powerful weather cocktail also had repercussions in the Canadian universe. Thus, at the end of the evening, the snow and the cold prompted the Montreal management to review its plans. Instead of leaving for Dallas immediately after the game, the club decided to spend the night in Denver. Practice scheduled for Thursday afternoon in Dallas has been cancelled.

They said