Canadian 2 – Panthers 5 | It was too much to ask them

(Sunrise) At the start of the third period, David Savard returned to the penalty box with a vexed air, after hitting the window well with his stick.

Richard Labbé
Press

Savard looked at one of the referees with the discouraged look of the one at the end of the line. At the end of answers, at the end of resources, at the end of everything. Right at the end.

We can understand it. About two hours before the start of the match, we learned that two other club members, Jake Evans and Alexander Romanov, were added to the group of COVID-19 cripples. Was the match going to take place?

In a serious league, probably not, no. But this is the National Hockey League, so we still had a game Saturday afternoon in Sunrise that ended with a predictable 5-2 victory for the Florida Panthers.

Under the circumstances, and with a formation cut off by two players – only 16 skaters were in uniform – the Canadian fought admirably, to the point of grabbing a 2-1 lead in the second period.

But what had to happen happened, and the club in white ended up running out of gas.

“We fought, commented Dominique Ducharme. These are a few games that made the difference. We could have widened the gap when we had a 2-1 lead, or went back and made it 3-3 later in the game. We had to be competitive every time we were there, and I think we managed to do that. Our players have shown courage. ”

Yes, we must underline the courage and the effort of the Canadiens players, who did all they could. But it remains, to say the least, quite astonishing that this match could have taken place.

Lower circuit

Now the big question: how long are we going to continue like this? Can the best hockey league in the world continue to sell tickets and broadcast rights in a context where players from a lower circuit play on a regular basis?

The funny thing, if it’s possible to see something funny right now, is that this Canadian team at Sunrise probably fought better, and with more energy, than several other teams of the Canadian. earlier this season, especially the ones where there were a lot of veterans in uniform.

Maybe that tells us something about some veterans of this team, absent at the moment, who perhaps have a more difficult relationship with the coach. For the youngest, in any case, there does not seem to be any problem with Dominique Ducharme.

And since this is Florida here and there is just beautiful everywhere, let’s get our rose-colored glasses out for a bit, and send some flowers to Nick Suzuki. There isn’t much good to say right now, but about him? Let’s say he is making his place and becoming the leader of tomorrow. We could also settle a case and give it the captain’s C right away, that would save us time.

Not to mention that on Saturday afternoon, Suzuki played for 24 minutes and 41 seconds!

“I liked our game, and several players had to play big minutes of play, he commented. I am proud of the guys. Playing time, I take that as a challenge. I like being on the ice to help the team. ”

It’s a good idea to be on the ice. But currently there is hardly anyone who is able to be there on this team. The break forced by all these postponed matches comes at the right time …

In details

It keeps going well

Before even hitting the ice on that fabulous Saturday afternoon at Sunrise, the Canadian had to contend with two more bad news: two other players, Jake Evans and Alexander Romanov, who were added to the COVID-19 list of the club. This brought the number of players on this list to 14, and the number of players who had to be added during the last four days to 7. In addition, the Canadian also had to do without another player, Brendan Gallagher, injured in Thursday’s game in Carolina. Faced with this state of affairs, the Canadian therefore had to face the Panthers with a formation of 16 players and two goalies, or 11 forwards and five defenders. Before the match, coach Dominique Ducharme explained that discussions had taken place between the league and the Canadian, on the possibility of postponing the match. “There have been discussions between the organization and the league. The league has the last word and we have a game to play at 1 pm, ”said the head coach dryly.

Keep going, take two

On top of all that, the Canadian started the game in the worst possible way: by allowing a goal … and losing another player. Thus, Cédric Paquette must have missed this first period almost entirely after being the victim of a blow to the head from Sam Bennett. This was followed by a bad decision from Michael Pezzetta moments later, who chose to enter the fight with Radko Gudas. This means that during the five minutes that Pezzetta had to spend in the penalty box, the Canadian had to make do with a formation of nine forwards, while Paquette was in the locker room. Fortunately for the Canadian, Paquette was able to return to the game at the start of the second period. “He was not diagnosed with a concussion, but he had an impact on the neck,” explained Dominique Ducharme. It affected him, and we had to take him out of the game. ”

Less crowded than usual

When we arrived at the Panthers arena at around 12:30 p.m. on Saturday noon, there was hardly anyone in the stands. No doubt because of a small problem called COVID-19, Quebec fans, usually very numerous when the Canadian passes by here at the Holidays, were not badly less this time. According to the official match sheet, only 13,584 spectators attended this match, and again, this is a number which is very generous in our eyes. What was lacking, too, was the usual atmosphere, often created by Quebecers who are used to being very noisy in the stands. At the same time, Canadiens fans don’t have much reason to make noise these days …

They said

Rising

Nick suzuki

A rare player to stand out for the right reasons this season. He scored his seventh goal of the season.

Falling

Brett Kulak

Another difficult evening for him.

The number

27:34

The playing time of defenseman Kale Clague, the Canadiens’ most used player at Sunrise… and the most used player of both teams.