Canadian 2 – Wild 8 | Still in the trash

Josh Anderson offered to throw this match out the window. Dominique Ducharme instead suggested “putting it in the trash”.

Simon Olivier Lorange
The Press

Let’s remember this last suggestion, because we are still not in the France of Émile Zola. Nevertheless, with this thaw of 8-2 suffered at the hands of the Minnesota Wild, the Canadian will have to consider renting a larger waste container than the one he had planned at the start of the season.

Because this defeat-rejection, it is added to that of the hands on the circle of the stove (in the words of Ducharme), to those where the CH was “bad” (ibid.), to those where we “did not deserve to win”, to those where we “shot ourselves in the foot” or to those where we defended ourselves as best we could with a decimated formation as possible.

It’s starting to make a lot of material for the same bin, as we concluded the first half of this season of misery on Monday evening. Because yes, there are still 41 games to play.

There is of course the argument of “mental and physical” fatigue, mentioned by Cédric Paquette. However, the Quebecer hastened to add that this long trip was “no excuse”, because the Wild “worked harder than us in all aspects”.

Invoking fatigue, however, has its share of legitimacy. Seven matches in 13 days on the road, including two combinations of two outings in two nights, in three different time zones and with long travels. We don’t envy them, let’s say. The phrase “we’re going home” uttered by the head coach certainly sounded liberating.

However, two observations are in order.

First, Josh Anderson explicitly mentioned it: attackers and defenders abandoned their goalkeepers. These haven’t been very good, okay. But even if they would have given two, three, four goals less, the Habs would still have been downgraded.

” [Les joueurs du Wild] circled around us in our zone, it looked like boot hockey for the majority of the game, lamented the forward. It’s our fault. We have to compete, be more physical, win battles. We got beaten all over the ice. »

The situation was all the more deplorable since the duo of goaltenders in uniform for the CH had a combined total of 11 games in the NHL – all played by Cayden Primeau, who had already been retired twice in five starts this season. There he is now at three in six. Better protecting them, Michael McNiven and him, would have been the least of courtesies.

Unequal weapons

Then, and this is an observation already worn out: the Wild had a better team. This sentence may seem conventional, but it is still important. On paper, the difference was already obvious. It was enough to look at the classification and the state of the two formations.

But it was also true in Colorado and Las Vegas. However, the Canadian had held his end there. In St. Paul, it was sometimes hard to watch. The Wild didn’t just have better players. He was doing everything better.

Ducharme on this subject: “In the conditions we have, everyone has to be at their best, play their best match, to give themselves a chance of winning. Tonight, we didn’t have that. »

It will be necessary to find this state of mind – “we will [s’en] sure,” promised the coach. Because the next 41 games will be played against teams that currently exceed the Canadian in the standings. Might as well say that we will never fight on equal terms. The solution will have to come from elsewhere.

Cédric Paquette pointed out that the games that preceded the one against the Wild had been much happier for him and his teammates. Thus, in the second half of the season, “if we show an effort like that and we follow the game plan, we will play well and have more points,” he said.

“We continue to move forward,” added Dominique Ducharme.

And we probably hope to leave the trash can alone for a while.

In details

McNiven’s hard baptism

Former glory of Canadian junior hockey, Michael McNiven had never tasted the NHL. He can now cross that achievement off his list. The 24-year-old goalkeeper, a member of the Canadiens organization since 2015, was sent into the fray to start the third period, when the game was out of reach. He was soon challenged, as Kiril Kaprizov escaped, but the skilful Russian fired off target. Left to himself by an amorphous defense, he finally yielded three times on seven shots. “I was less nervous than I expected, especially knowing me,” McNiven said after the game. I would have liked a better result. Despite the circumstances, he seemed happy to have broken the ice and paid tribute to his teammates, who have “welcomed” him and who have “taken care of” him since his arrival in the entourage of the club there is a few weeks. If it’s any consolation, 25 years ago, in February 1997, an obscure ninth-round pick allowed four goals in one period in his debut with the Canadiens. This Czech named Tomas Vokoun eventually played more than 700 games in the NHL.

Dvorak falls in battle

The accumulation of bad news ends up making people smile, but it’s not funny. Not at all, even. After Jake Allen, Jonathan Drouin and Samuel Montembeault, who were all injured during the team’s long trip, Christian Dvorak also fell in battle in the very first minutes of the game in Minnesota. The center player, who sailed on a happy four-point streak in his three previous games, never saw Jared Spurgeon arrive, who hit him in the head with a shoulder blow. After two shifts totaling 36 seconds, Dvorak’s night was over. It was the NHL observer on site who requested the removal of the American to submit to concussion protocol. He failed the usability tests and did not return to play. We will therefore know more about his case in the coming days. Dominique Ducharme, moreover, did not comment on Spurgeon’s shot.

Poehling on the ice of his idols

Ryan Poehling had indeed taken part in the warm-up period at the center of the fourth line, but it was rather flanked by Rem Pitlick and Josh Anderson that he started the game. His coach gave him responsibility for the opening face-off, a nice gesture for the Minnesota native, who was playing the first game of his career at the Xcel Energy Center. Earlier today, Poehling had opened up about what a fierce Wild supporter he was as a youngster. Dozens of times, during the season and in the playoffs, little Ryan found himself in the stands of this arena to witness the exploits of his favorite player Zach Parise. “I’m super excited! It’s a dream for me to play here. Growing up, the only thing I had in mind was getting picked by my high school team. I didn’t know what awaited me. Today I play against the team that I loved so much. I feel privileged. Poehling, like his teammates, didn’t have a great game, however.

They said