NEWARK | Among the places where we don’t necessarily dream of finding ourselves on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon, Newark, with its bums, its boarded-up businesses and its hotel overlooking the Prudential Center parking lot, certainly comes to the top of the list.
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Especially when the Canadian and the Devils engage in a duel worse than during the good years of Martin Brodeur, Scott Stevens and Steve Brûlé. The match, at least the first period, was so deadly boring that a lunatic from Mauritius said that he had the impression of watching a Red versus White duel, from a camp of Canadian training.
This shows that the Mauritians’ sense of humor extends beyond the limits of Shawinigan and Trois-Rivières.
To make matters worse, the Habs lost. Again. A fifth consecutive loss, this time by a score of 4 to 3, his longest drought of the season.
Getty Images via AFP
Too bad, because Martin St-Louis’ squad played a good match. Dominant at even strength, the Montreal team forced the Devils to make several errors by entering the opposing zone in possession of the puck and allowing the attack to continue thanks to aggressive play.
This is precisely how Brendan Gallagher, left alone near the faceoff circle, and Nick Suzuki, completely abandoned on the right flank, gave the visitors the lead on two occasions.
“At equal strength, we dominated that match. Curiously, we did not obtain any numerical superiority, noted St-Louis after the meeting. It’s rare that you dominate a team without them receiving any punishment.”
Tighter in defense
But the Canadian was unable to protect his two leads. The Habs once again allowed their rivals to score two goals during the middle period. But, in general, the Montrealers managed this period much better than during their previous confrontations.
“There are some aspects that still need to be cleaned up, but I think the first two periods were excellent,” analyzed Jake Allen.
The goals scored by Timo Meier and Ondrej Palat were rather the result of failed defensive assignments. Joel Armia and/or Alex Newhook on the first, Gallagher on the second.
“We are there defensively. This was the same case in Pittsburgh where we only gave 12 chances, mentioned the Canadian coach. You will never play a perfect game defensively. There are always puck jumps, small errors here and there.
This time, it was rather the third period which was costly. The Habs even offered a goal to the massive attack of the Devils, author of only two goals in their last 47 occasions. A goal from Nico Hischier who managed to slip the puck under Allen’s pads.
Target 30 goals
If the defense tightens up, we still hope for an awakening among certain attackers. Once again, it was the first trio that stood out the most.
While we wait for Josh Anderson to find the back of the net – the poor guy missed two more golden chances – Suzuki doesn’t shy away. The Habs captain scored his 21e and 22e goals of the season.
With 24 games remaining, not only should he have no trouble beating his personal mark of 26, but he should be able to reach the 30-goal mark.
This is good news in this difficult season. The other is that we were able to leave Newark early.