Canadian 2 — Senators 6 | Fragile team, predictable defeat

(Kanata) We would have liked to say that we did not see this poor performance coming. But that would go against our incessant quest for truth.

Before this duel against the Ottawa Senators, the Canadian had only won once, in eight attempts, the second game of a series of two in two evenings. And never before had he managed, despite five attempts, to win three times in a row.

The Habs, moreover, have recently made a specialty of offering the best of themselves against superior opponents, and vice versa. This 6-2 defeat on Thursday therefore had something in common with the failure of the series Adam and Eve : we saw her coming from afar.

As Mike Matheson noted after the meeting, the elements were not favorable to his troop. The team had returned from New Jersey in the early morning, and the Senators had not played since the day before the day before, at home no less.

Martin St-Louis spoke of another meeting during which his men were “flat” [flat, en anglais]. Bad decisions in possession of the puck also drained their strength.

“We weren’t able to spend time in the offensive zone because we lacked execution or committed turnovers,” he analyzed. Usually it comes together. We tried to make plays when there wasn’t much going on, instead of sending pucks deep into the territory and forechecking, which is a strength of our team. game. So we definitely lacked energy. And when you’re tired, you’re more mentally fragile. You are less alert. »

This fragility manifested itself in at least two ways this week. During his mid-season review last Monday, general manager Kent Hughes noted that a team lacking depth, like the Canadiens, will suffer a greater impact if the injury list grows. The quality of a team is necessarily proportional to that of its players, both those at the forefront and those of replacements.

The success of the teams in a second match in two evenings is also eloquent. Seven of the eight most successful organizations under these circumstances would be in the playoffs if they started this weekend. Conversely, seven of the worst eight would miss the playoffs.

Developer

CH’s inability to win three games in a row is also revealing. The best clubs being those which earn more, they necessarily achieve this with more regularity. The opposite, again, is also true.

“We have to find a way to combine our good performances,” said Michael Pezzetta, author of the Habs’ second goal. To go from a good team to a very good one, and to become a team that aspires to the playoffs, we have to line up the victories and seize the chances that come our way. »

Finally, there is this curious paradox which sees the Flannel hold its own against high-quality opponents and escape matches against theoretically accessible clubs.

Since the start of 2024, the Canadian has maintained a 4-0-1 record against the Dallas Stars, New York Rangers, Edmonton Oilers, Colorado Avalanche and New Jersey Devils . Between them, since the start of the season, these teams have collected 63.3% of the ranking points within their reach. On the other hand, the CH could not do better than 0-3-1 against the Buffalo Sabres, the Philadelphia Flyers, the San Jose Sharks and the Ottawa Senators. Their combined yield: 44.6%.

The sample size is not huge, but the trend is striking.

“We are always ready,” assured Martin St-Louis. The other teams are too, for example. Sometimes it’s a play here or there that makes the difference. But I think we are a team that is ready. »

The pre-match discussions on Thursday mainly focused on the Senators, who should not be taken lightly, despite their miserable season. “We never thought it would be a walk in the park,” mused Mike Matheson.

We still know the rest. A predictable sequel.

The worst is that, according to the same trends, the Canadian could well beat the Bruins in Boston on Saturday. Would that make sense? Not really. But consistent with this curious season? Certainly.

On the rise: Jordan Harris

He hasn’t accomplished anything extraordinary, but in such discomfiture, it’s already good. He looked good defensively and served an impeccable pass to Sean Monahan at the very start of the game which almost gave his club the lead.

Down: David Savard

He was on the ice for three Senators goals at five-on-five. The feint used by Tim Stützle on goal number 5 will haunt him for a long time.

In details

Primeau struggled

The Canadiens goalies haven’t had many bad games this season. Cayden Primeau can, however, add one to his record. The young man did not look good on at least two goals for the locals, that of Brady Tkachuk, who opened the scoring, and that of Vladimir Tarasenko, who gave his club a 4-1 lead at the end of the second period. “He was a bit like our team,” said Martin St-Louis. But we didn’t make it easy for him. We haven’t played as tight as we have recently. » Regardless of how much of the blame belongs to him (or not), Primeau has now suffered defeat in his last three starts. It was also the seventh time in ten starts that he was sent in front of the net for a road game.

All or nothing in Ottawa

There is a simple statistic that we pay little attention to, but which is nevertheless often a good indicator of the health of a team: goal differential. After manhandling the Canadian, the Senators posted a differential of -12, despite their record of 16-24-0, in the 29th^e rank in the league standings. What this shows is that for this team, it’s usually all or nothing. On Thursday, the Senators signed a 10^e victory by a margin of at least 3 goals — the vast majority of their 16 victories so far have been obtained by such a margin. Conversely, 10 of their 24 defeats were also suffered by this appreciable margin. The duel against CH was classified in the first category. It wasn’t perfect, but the big guns thundered and goalkeeper Joonas Korpisalo, even if he looked crazy on Cole Caufield’s goal, relatively saved the furniture. Winning conditions, in short.

All that for this

The crowd came alive at the end of the first period when Michael Pezzetta and Zack MacEwen engaged in a fight at center ice. Both opponents made it big, throwing their gloves and sticks on the ice and parading away from each other. They studied each other for a long time, before finally grabbing each other for… five seconds. The CH pugilist, as is his habit, did not “choose” his opponent, a colossus of 6 ft 4 in and 240 lbs. Pezzetta nevertheless had the advantage. He explained after the match that he had wanted to inject a dose of energy into his team, which was trailing 2-1 at the time. However, since the fight took place barely a minute before the end of the engagement, its effect was essentially zero. Beautiful moments.