(Tampa) For many Quebecers, Florida is pleasant in winter, but for Canadians, Florida is not pleasant at all.
After a defeat the day before at Sunrise, the Canadian went to end the year in Tampa, with the same result as the day before: a defeat. This time, the final score was 4-3 in favor of the home team, the Lightning.
With this other defeat, the Canadian has only one victory in his last 11 games in Tampa. It’s not good for morale, to quote an old popular hit where there are palm trees.
“It’s hard to explain,” admitted Nick Suzuki. Both teams here are very good, they have talent. Since I’ve been a member of the Canadiens, we haven’t really played well against them, we won once here. So I don’t know if there is a reason or not, but it must be said that the Lightning have won cups and that the Panthers are coming back from a final… they are good clubs. »
PHOTO CHRIS O’MEARA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Steven Stamkos (91) and Nick Suzuki (14)
All this is very true, but what is also true is that the Canadian does not have the eye of the tiger; this time, a 2-0 lead was squandered, following a 150-foot shot from Johnathan Kovacevic. All this in a net left empty by a goalkeeper, Jonas Johansson, who thought the game was stopped following a save by Samuel Montembeault.
But the CH goalie put the puck back in play, and the house DJ, wrongly believing that the referee had whistled, started his tune, while the Lightning guys had stopped playing.
“It’s funny to say but that goal probably whipped them,” added Suzuki. After that, we felt that their supporters were more vocal. They started shouting and they got on the referees’ backs, and that created a spark… We deserved better, I think, but the Lightning players took advantage of that madness. »
We can also add the name of Martin St-Louis to those who believe that the Canadian deserved better.
We dominated for a large majority of that match. It is most encouraging. Of course, it’s demoralizing not to have the results we want, but we will return to work and we will continue to seek better results.
Martin St-Louis
At the end of the evening, while the Canadiens and Lightning fans here were exchanging New Year’s greetings, often in a very sarcastic way, Suzuki gave his team hope with a superb goal at 17:55 of the third.
PHOTO CHRIS O’MEARA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nick Suzuki celebrates after scoring his goal in the third period.
But once again, the hero who would push everyone to a tie and into overtime never stood up. This has often been a problem for this team this season.
“I think we played well, enough to win anyway,” insisted Josh Anderson. But we couldn’t get the favorable leaps while they got them. »
Is it just a question of favorable leaps? Is it a question of talent? Will this Bye Bye have been better than the last one or the other one before? As 2024 approaches, we do not yet know the answers to all these crucial questions.
But we presume that the Canadian was eager to get out of here, unlike the thousands of Quebecers who do not want to leave.
Rising
Nick Suzuki
A goal, yes, but above all an evening where the captain was very involved in the game.
Falling
Samuel Montembeault
PHOTO CHRIS O’MEARA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Samuel Montembeault would surely like to see the second goal he conceded again.
The goalie made several good saves, but he would certainly like to see that second puck that passed between his pads again.
The number
2
A goal and an assist for Nikita Kucherov, invisible for most of the evening, but explosive at the right moments.
In details
A very special goal for Kovacevic…
PHOTO CHRIS O’MEARA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jonathan Kovacevic took advantage of an unusual situation to score a goal.
Left out of the previous two matches, Johnathan Kovacevic celebrated his return to the lineup by scoring a legendary goal during the second period. This shot from distance when everyone thought the game was stopped will undoubtedly be seen and re-watched very often. “It’s the first time I’ve scored in an abandoned net like that, it’s the strangest goal of my life,” he admitted. There was so much noise in here that no one heard anything, and all the Lightning players seemed to change at once. So I chose to launch…”
Anderson takes out Cernak
PHOTO CHRIS O’MEARA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Josh Anderson had to throw down his gloves after checking Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak.
Erik Cernak’s evening at work was rather brief. The Lightning defender was hit very hard by Josh Anderson at the start of the second period, and he was not seen again afterward. Anderson was penalized two minutes on the play, then he got five minutes for his fight with Luke Glendening. The Lightning, already without injured Mikhail Sergachev, had to finish this meeting with only four defenders, since Haydn Fleury was also injured. Anderson did not understand why he had been punished on the play. “I thought Cernak had touched the puck,” he explained. I was surprised to get a penalty on that. The other day during our game in Carolina, the referees were asked to review the hit taken by Slafkovsky, and they decided not to review the sequence, but they chose to review this shot…”
Dvorak injured, CH with seven defenders
Christian Dvorak is injured, apparently, and that’s why he was not in the lineup on December 31, 2023 in Tampa. The Canadian suggested that the duration of his absence would be to be determined, and the striker spent December 31 in the press gallery with Jake Allen. This absence pushed coach Martin St-Louis to opt for a formation with eleven attackers and seven defenders for the first time this season.