Canadian 4 — Rangers 3 | A balm before departure

(New York) Martin St-Louis was in high spirits on Wednesday morning for his return to Madison Square Garden, where he made a short but noticeable passage.

His metaphors were particularly on point. “Is it always good like this? was asked in the press room after the conference.

What’s worse is that the colleague in question couldn’t understand her best line of the morning. “Sometimes victories are band-aids, but deep down, you might need an operation. »

St-Louis was trying to explain that the repeated defeats had the advantage of exposing too many shortcomings in the organization. After all, the 2021-2022 CH season is:

• the 32^and and last place assured, since the Coyotes are now out of reach in 31^and place by virtue of their Wednesday win;
• with now 315 goals allowed, the Canadian has delivered the worst collective defensive performance since the 2004-2005 lockout, even beating the 2005-2006 Penguins, the team that caused Michel Therrien’s verbal diarrhea;
• only two players reached the 20-goal mark. Josh Anderson (19) will get one last chance on Friday.

“But it’s fun to win one from time to time for morale,” added St-Louis. Because yes, sometimes a band-aid does no harm.

On Wednesday, the Habs had one. A goal from Jeff Petry scored with 30 seconds left in the third period allowed the CH to snatch a 4-3 victory at the Rangers.

Not a perfect victory, far from it. St-Louis himself admitted that “it was not a good game on our part”. If Alexandar Georgiev, the Rangers’ No. 2 goaltender, hadn’t allowed two goals that went through his body, if Gerard Gallant hadn’t given his top five scorers off, the result might have been different.

The paradox of a coach

The other good morning metaphor was that of the pitcher in baseball. St. Louis was talking about players diversifying their game, in direct reference to Chris Kreider, his former teammate who became a 50-goal scorer this season. He said that Kreider used to be a player who only had “one fastball”.

St. Louis is now trying to get Josh Anderson, a player with similar qualities to Kreider, to also diversify his arsenal. “If you only throw a rapid, the hitters adjust and eventually they hit home runs,” explained the Laval resident.

But then, in the evening, Petry gave the victory to the Montrealers with a performance of two goals. The great defender has 10 points in his last 10 games.

“It was not my goal, this year, to play as I played at the start of the season, recalled the hero of the evening, after the match. I’m trying to push to find my level of the last three years and I’m happy to have found it. »

And how did he do it? Rather than diversifying his arsenal, it was more about going back to basics. In his case, it’s skating, by far his first quality.

“When I skate, that’s when the games open up in front of me. It’s when I try to find a pass line and the pressure builds on me that I get into trouble. If you move your feet, the players move around you. It’s much easier to play games than standing still. »

It is unknown if Petry will return to Montreal next season. He remains a valued teammate – Poehling said they went to the Yankees game together on Tuesday and that they “had a blast” – and above all, Petry is a right-handed defender, where the CH is weak.

But due to her complicated family situation, the chances of a deal are much better. If anything, every good game he plays only helps Kent Hughes heading into the summer.

Up: Ryan Poehling

His goal was well deserved, as he obtained and generated his share of scoring chances. Casually, he has scored four goals in his last seven games.

Down: Brendan Gallagher

Some good plays at the start of the match, but too quiet despite everything, especially against an opposition deprived of its best elements. He hasn’t scored in his last 11 games.

The number of the match: 7

That’s the number of turnovers on Nick Suzuki’s record. The statistician seems harsh to us, especially since the puck losses of his wingers Mike Hoffman and Cole Caufield have been much more noticeable.

In details

Short, concise and concise

Apart from perhaps Bruno Blanchet in his segment on the hypersensitive to The end of the world is at 7 o’clock, we doubt that many tears were shed during the tribute to Guy Lafleur at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers limited it to a short text, two photos on the giant screen and a moment of silence which was marked by a few “Guy, Guy, Guy”. Knowing that the Rangers are one of the three teams for which he played, and that they postponed the tribute of a day to wait for the visit of the Canadian, many remained on their appetite. On the other hand, there was a lot more love for the presentation of the very first Rod Gilbert Mr. Ranger trophy, which rewards the player who has shown leadership on the ice and off it. Chris Kreider was the lucky winner and picked him up in city clothes. His exchange with Judy, the widow of Rodrigue Gilbert, was a beautiful moment.

Gauthier walks the talk

It’s one thing to complain about its use, but it’s another thing to respond in the right way. Wednesday morning, in a press briefing, Julien Gauthier admitted to feeling a little excluded. He had just been sidelined for 18 of the previous 20 games and said he was “a bit in the dark” due to the lack of communication from the team leaders. So Gauthier responded with an inspired effort, adequately using his 6’4, 227 lb frame to come near the goalie’s blue paint. His main sins will have been a turnover in the neutral zone at the start of the game and a penalty in the second period, which ended his power play. But the referees were tough; it was much more a player fighting for his position in front of the net than an actual obstruction.

Discreet Lafrenière

The absences of the big names from Rangers were also a great opportunity for some players to obtain more responsibility. In the morning, Gerard Gallant recalled that Alexis Lafrenière was in a thankless situation because of the many talented wingers ahead of him in the hierarchy. Except that in the end, despite the absence of all the big offensive guns, the Quebecer did not have many additional chances, playing 15 min 31 s. And he didn’t particularly stand out, at least less than his friends from the Ryan Strome trio, who were terrific.

They said