Canadian 5 – Stars 3 | The life ahead of them

We can not say too much if it is good or bad news that Kent Hughes did not see live the meeting of his new team, Tuesday evening.

Simon Olivier Lorange
The Press

The new GM of the Habs was indeed in Vermont to attend a university game while his flock signed a rare 5-3 victory in Dallas.

We suspect that he will know how to get his hands on the part and that he will watch it shortly – has he even devoured it in a bed and breakfast in Burlington?

What will this match reveal to him? All sorts of things.

What he already knows, and no doubt too well, is that his team is in trouble up to its neck. That his season is already far off. That the breaches to be filled are multiple.

In many ways, Tuesday night’s tape will remind him of that.

Easy example: before the game, the Dallas Stars were 21^are of the NHL in shots on goal per game and 23^are for the number of goals scored. Despite several talented players, we are not talking about an offensive machine.

To see Samuel Montembeault receive 51 shots, a career high, therefore betrays some (!) flaws in the defensive wall of CH, while the only back worthy of mention who was missing was Joel Edmundson.

A little side note on said Montembeault: he has now had four of his eight busiest games in the NHL in the last month alone. That’s a lot of pucks. The native of Mauricie, however, answered the call on Tuesday by delivering an inspired performance, and as Nick Suzuki said, had it not been for his “acrobatic saves”, the outcome would have been different. End of parenthesis.

But what Kent Hughes will also see in this game are certainly encouraging signs. Christian Dvorak who is getting out of hand. Josh Anderson finding his rhythm. The instant complicity between Tyler Toffoli and Nick Suzuki, unheard of (or almost) since the start of the season. Alexander Romanov who continues to assert himself in defense, especially on the penalty kill. A five-man attack that can work.

Solution

All these elements, despite the limited sample, constitute a beginning of data collection for the new DG.

Because, and this time it’s true, the Canadian has just begun the start of the rest of his season. The 45 games played under the eyes of Hughes and his boss Jeff Gorton will invariably serve to evaluate each of the players under contract with the team. Of course, those contested under the old administration and even those contested, sometimes under appalling conditions, in the period before Hughes was hired, still matter. But the next ones will be even more important.

They will reveal the true nature of the club’s players, when, like never before, the spotlight will be on them, and them alone.

No one will escape it. Neither those most at risk of leaving, nor those who are virtually guaranteed to stay.

Two attackers showed on Tuesday that they were ready for this period of examination.

If the word “reconstruction” were to be uttered by Kent Hughes during his presentation to the Montreal media on Wednesday, you can be assured that Tyler Toffoli’s name will be mentioned daily in trade rumors by the trade deadline. His contract is one of the most attractive for other teams in the league, and his profile is to match: he has scored 20 goals, or produced at an equal or greater annualized rate, in five of the last seven seasons. , including this one.

At almost 30 years old, and after more than 600 games, he understands the situation. He may say that changes in direction are “no [ses] business” and that his job is to “play hockey”, he nevertheless delivered his vision of the sequence of events.

“I want to be part of the solution,” he said. I think I’m a good player for the guys here; I want to be a leader, a guy that others look up to and who leads by example. […] I want to work, I want to earn. »

Lucid, he nevertheless added that “if this is not what happens, [il va] move on “. At work, then!

Do better

Nick Suzuki is not in the same situation. With an eight-year contract extension in his pocket, which will take effect in the summer of 2022, and given his status as the first (and only) stable center of this team, it is not to be wondered whether the management will want to him, but he still wants to make a good impression.

Both his coach and him were aware that he had to – and could – give more than the single point he had collected in his last 10 games.

“Dom challenged me to do better, to do everything I could to help my team win,” he said after the game in which he collected two points.

His coach reminded him that he had to play harder, be in all the battles, attack the net. And that’s what happened.

“Now he has to do that again in Vegas, Colorado, Minnesota,” listed Dominique Ducharme, in reference to the next three destinations for his club.

“He’s still a young player, but he’s starting to have a lot of baggage behind him. He has to take it to that level. The level that we have already seen and which we know is within reach.

It is therefore through these few observations that the new life of Habs players begins.

A life certainly tinted by the indelible setbacks of the last few months. But who, and this is the good news, is mostly in front of them.

That doesn’t mean it will be fun. But at least they can aspire to better.

In details

Dvorak in style

It’s not an easy task: for the first time this season, and this, at his 38^and game, the Habs have scored a power play goal in three consecutive games. Unaccustomed to celebrations this season, Christian Dvorak made this feat possible, and in a very good way. The perky character, first placed in front of the net, took advantage of the fact that Tyler Toffoli drew the cover towards him deep in the territory to let himself slide towards the middle of the slot. Now at the post of pivot (“bumper”, in English), he became an obvious passing option for Toffoli after a nice exchange with Nick Suzuki. Tic-tac-toe, as they said in 1996. A flawless execution, perhaps the most successful of the season for the Habs at five against four.

Almost controversy

At the end of the second period, the puck slipped slowly, slowly past Samuel Montembeault. The goalkeeper, however, lay down on the disc in time, and on the video replay, it was not possible to determine that the object had completely crossed the red line: no goal. Then, in the third, Josh Anderson scored as the net moved. Verdict: the goal is good. On television, analyst Marc Denis had fun evoking the “0 in 12” that Dominique Ducharme might have denounced if things had gone otherwise. He was thus referring to the obscure calculation of the head coach, who complained in recent days that his team was losing disputed decisions. After the defeat the day before in Arizona, he had indeed advanced to be “0 in 11”, because he had lost the dispute of the Coyotes’ fourth goal. In reality, the CH have only been involved in five disputes with a coach this season, and have been favored once. For your files, therefore: one in five.

Drouin in Troubled Waters

Jonathan Drouin had never received a major penalty before or a game misconduct. He can now sew those two crests on his jacket following a curious streak in the third period. Opposed to Tyler Seguin at the face-off, he saw the Stars player cross-check him on the head as soon as the puck left the referee’s hand. Furious, the Quebecer responded, also with his stick, except that Seguin was on the ground and Drouin hit him directly in the throat. The meeting then ended for the number 92 of the Canadian, and it should not be surprising if the NHL imposes an additional sentence on him. Usually very supportive of his players, Ducharme did not defend his attacker with much vigor after the game, only emphasizing that, “clearly, Seguin is not trying to win the face-off”. “We’ll see what the league decides,” he added.

Rising

Christian Dvorak

His best game of the season. Two goals (two good ones!), domination in the face-off circle and a penalty caused at a key moment in the third period.

Falling

Jonathan Drouin

His major penalty in the third period was completely unnecessary and could have weakened his team’s lead. A suspension would be just as inappropriate, as Drouin and Josh Anderson appeared to be on the ice again.

The number of the match

51

The Canadiens had gone 51 days, or 14 games, without giving themselves a two-goal lead. The last time ? November 27 in Pittsburgh, the day before the dismissal of Marc Bergevin. So it never happened in the with-no-DG era.