Canadian 3 – Devils 4 | Deserving better is no longer enough

(Newark) In a league where participation prizes do not exist, five defeats in a row, even if the team “deserves better”, is still five defeats.

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It is this cold reality that the Canadian has had to face for two weeks. The 4-3 setback in New Jersey on Saturday was similar to the previous ones: a laudable effort, but also an appreciable quantity of errors, individual or collective, which slimmed down or even annihilated any chance of winning.

Take this contest played Saturday afternoon in New Jersey. The first period made us want to never watch a hockey game again in our lives because it was so boring. After around fifteen minutes, there were barely more shots (7) than clearances refused (5). Now, for the Canadian, it was good news. At the end of the engagement, it was he who had the best chances to score (albeit rare) and who had kept a more talented opponent silent.

In the second period, the trend was essentially the same, but the CH let down their guard. Twice, confusion set in in the defensive zone and poor coverage left a shooter free in the slot. Timo Meier and Ondrej Palat, for whom this was not the first barbecue, did not ask for that much.

In the third period, the visitors also held their own, but for the umpteenth time, the train was derailed. Two Devils goals, scored three minutes apart, sealed the outcome of this match.

” Not yet !?! », We certainly exclaimed in the cottages of the province, when Nico Hischier gave the Devils a 3-2 lead. What was happening on the Montreal bench?

“There was a lot of time left on the clock,” recalled Brendan Gallagher. We tried to stay positive and optimistic. The situation wasn’t ideal, but our mindset was: OK, we’re going to score the next one. That didn’t happen. But we closed the gap and we pushed in the end. »

Next step

In the Canadian camp, we released the refrain of the club which deserved a better fate.

“During the last few matches, we were in the game, but we couldn’t find a way to finish the job,” analyzed goalkeeper Jake Allen. This is the next step. We have a few days to regroup, and we have the chance to get back together on Tuesday. »

All this is undoubtedly true. But at the risk of repeating myself, it is also representative of the quality of the squad that is deployed on the ice. To win, everything will have to be perfect from now on. It’s a lot to ask of a team of 26^e place.

Because if Martin St-Louis often notes that his men “lack finishing” and struggle to “separate” themselves from their opponents during a match, there is one place where CH distances itself: in the general classification. Indeed, the loser of Tuesday’s duel against the Arizona Coyotes could find themselves at 28^e rank. Lottery and draft enthusiasts must be salivating.

What we noticed, however, after the meeting in New Jersey was a change in tone.

This shade is brand new. The challenge from now on is “mental”, he added.

He could not provide an explanation to justify the fact that despite his satisfaction with the defensive play of his men, they still allowed four goals. We were, however, very far from the smell of complacency which began to hover around the team, as highlighted by columnist François Gagnon, from RDS¹in a text published Friday.

Brendan Gallagher also spoke of a mental and physical “test” for him and his teammates. “It’s a good opportunity to progress and gain experience as a group,” he said of the current ugly losing streak.

However, “we are human beings,” he added.

“We’re conditioned to think a certain way, it’s hard, to block that out completely. We need to know how to deal with our emotions. It’s something everyone goes through at some point in their career. »

“We want to win,” he said again. [Sur le plan individuel], I will watch my match and find where to improve. As a team, we focus on getting a result and building on that. »

The tone is not the only thing to have changed: the vocabulary too. The word “result” has almost never been uttered by the Canadian for two years. However, we feel a weariness, even annoyance, setting in in this locker room, in the face of the accumulating defeats. When Jake Allen talks about the “next step,” it suddenly seems less abstract, less distant.

Which reminds us that the players, even if they have all the patience in the world with the objectives of the organization, still chose this profession to win matches.

Not just to participate.

1. https://www.rds.ca/hockey/canadiens/la-complaisance-s-install-1.18258840

In details

The best of remedies

The Devils’ numerical advantage, before this meeting, was going absolutely nowhere. In their last 46 attempts, they had only scored two goals. We understood a little why in the second period, when Michael Matheson was punished for obstruction: you can have all the talent in the world, but when the cohesion is not there, it will not work. The locals had a second chance in the third period, and it was a good one. From the start, the puck moved better, and Jake Allen had to report on Nico Hischier, Luke Hughes and Jesper Bratt. The Habs then reminded us that it remained the best remedy for a club in lethargy. Poor positioning from Mike Matheson and a soft drop from Joel Armia allowed Hischier to advance alone to Allen to thwart him between the pads. “We killed her, that punishment. It was almost over,” lamented Martin St-Louis. Checked, there were 29 seconds left. It wasn’t so over after all.

Good for Nick, less for Nico

Nick Suzuki increased his lead as the Canadian’s top scorer by scoring his 21^e and 22^e goals of the season. A well-deserved performance for number 14, who remains a rare locomotive in a lame attack. Now, we will agree that without the generosity of Nico Daws, the captain would perhaps not have two more goals on his record. In the second period, the goalkeeper had successfully moved laterally before facing Suzuki’s shot. However, he was foiled on the near side without any form of obstacle in the way. Not exactly a goalie’s dream. At the end of the match, on the goal which allowed CH to reduce the gap to 4-3, the odiousness certainly falls to Jesper Bratt, who completely missed his clearance, but it was still Daws who “laid » the puck towards his net. If the Devils aspire to the playoffs, it is not with the personnel in place that their chances will solidify. After the meeting, the organization announced that it had recalled Akira Schmid from the American League.

Poor Josh…

There are these games, as happened so often at the start of the season, where you can’t help but feel bad for Josh Anderson. In the first period, taking advantage of a surplus, Jake Evans served a perfect pass to the big winger, who shot far, far from a completely open net. Then, in the final third, when the Devils had just taken the lead, the entire arena heard the cry of Anderson who was calling for the puck to escape. He received it, rushed to the net, and shot directly onto the horizontal bar. Anderson thus stretched his streak without a goal to 13 games, having only scored one in his last 20 games. “He’s a guy who shows up to work every day; we all want him to succeed in getting out of this drought, underlined Brendan Gallagher. He deserves to be rewarded. He’s scored goals all his life, he’s going to do it again. He has to continue to do the right things. »

Simon-Olivier Lorange, The Press