Canadian 2 – Maple Leafs 3 | Another moral victory

(Toronto) There are probably two ways to analyze this loss to the Canadiens on Saturday night in Toronto.

First, there is the way with rose-colored glasses: the club fought well, no one gave up, and it took little for the Canadian to come out of there with the victory.

Then there is the other way, less rosy than the previous one: the club has lost again, it loses more than it wins, and despite this beautiful wind of optimism, it remains a club of 32^and or 31^and place in the general classification. Nothing more.

The end result, of course, matters little in the grand scheme of things. The Maple Leafs won that one by a score of 3-2, but they could have won 5-2 or 6-2 if Samuel Montembeault had not been so solid in relief of Jake Allen, injured at the start of the evening.

You will have understood that Martin St-Louis preferred to retain the good side of things, as is his habit.

“Auston Matthews was good, and he was good early on,” explained the Montreal coach. But I’m happy with the way we fought, the way we stayed in the match… We didn’t get the result we wanted, but we held on to the game. »

Martin St-Louis is a guy filled with optimism and enthusiasm, and how can you be against a guy like that? We can’t, and if it happens, we would all need a Martin St-Louis in our kitchens every morning, just to receive a pep talk thunder before starting another day.

Meanwhile, the club have only 3 wins in their last 10 games. We insist: the season is lost, and at the limit, defeats may help with the abacus of the league in a few weeks. But when should we return to the inevitable? When should we remember that this league is a league of results, and that moral victories are worth exactly the same number of points as defeats?

We will have to end up asking these questions, because 2022-2023 will arrive quite quickly.

“I think we played well overall,” added forward Josh Anderson. We showed up a little slow, we played a little clumsy, and they were able to take advantage of a few turnovers. But I also remember that we killed some big penalties, including a 5 against 3 (for 1 min 44 s), and that allowed us to stay in the game. Plus, Sam gave us a chance to win. »

Saturday was also a return night for Jeff Petry. This seasoned defenseman hadn’t played since March 24 at the Bell Centre, and he ended his evening at the office by collecting an assist in 21 min 5 s of playing time.

Petry is among those who will be auditioning by the end of the season.

“I want to be better than I have been since the start of the season, he replied after the meeting. We still have 10 games left, and we want to continue to grow as a team. We don’t just want to go to the end of the season and stop everything. I think we still have some goals left, and that will help us get to the next step for next season.

“From the way we are playing at the moment, defensively but also everywhere on the ice, we see that it is a game that is more structured than before. It’s a style of play that suits us better. »

So here is a bit of what we know about the Canadian under Martin St-Louis, at the beginning of April: this club is better structured, this club has more fun, this club never gives up and, above all, this club is able to compete with anyone.

But we also know that this club remains a bottom ranking club. That’s the harsh reality that hasn’t changed.

In details

Season over for Drouin

The Canadian announced at the end of the evening that Jonathan Drouin’s season is over. The Quebec forward, who hasn’t played since March 21 due to a right wrist injury, underwent surgery on Friday. The good news is that according to the club, Drouin should be sufficiently recovered from this other misfortune to be back when training camp opens in September. This therefore means that he will end his 2021-22 season with 6 goals and 14 assists for a total of 20 points in 34 games.

50 in 50 for Matthews

Auston Matthews wasted no time finding the back of the net on a simply magical Saturday night. He scored his 57^and of the season at 13:32 of the first period, and 27 seconds later, he managed his 58^and of the season by surprising Samuel Montembeault, who had just taken the place of injured Jake Allen, with a sharp shot. With this 50^and goal, the star Leafs player has scored 50 goals in his last 50 games, and he became the first player to score 50 goals in 50 games since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96, who did it from October 26 to March 7 of that season. “He’s on a roll, and he’s breaking records,” Josh Anderson said of the Leafs forward. We saw what he can do during his 2^and goal: on the turnover, the puck went on his blade, and he was given a chance to shoot… he has a very good shot, no doubt. »

Short evening for Jake Allen

Jake Allen will not have been super lucky this season. After recovering from an injury this winter, the goaltender was injured again on Saturday night, when he made the splits on Matthews’ first goal. He took a long time to get up, and had trouble getting out of the rink. Groin injury ? It hasn’t been confirmed, but regardless, that was the end of his night. Note that if the Canadiens had needed an emergency goalkeeper, it would have been a certain Alex Bishop, a 24-year-old goalkeeper who spent the last season with the University of Toronto, who would have been the lucky one. . “It’s not easy to see a teammate go down like that,” said Josh Anderson. Jake has had to go through a lot this season, and it’s another blow for him. He had been excellent before that. »

They said

Rising

Samuel Montembeault

He received 25 shots and allowed two goals in relief to Jake Allen, and most importantly, he gave his club a chance to win.

Falling

Mike Hoffman

A player who is used to bad decisions… and who had the equalizing goal at the end of the game. Except that he threw straight into the chest of goalkeeper Erik Kallgren.

The number

4

Number of consecutive games with at least one goal for Cole Caufield.