TAMPA | Sanctioned by his coach Friday noon for missing a team meeting, Jonathan Drouin will be at his post tonight against the Lightning.
“He’s going to be dressed,” Martin St-Louis said after morning practice at Amalie Arena.
Now, it will be interesting to see how much presence the forward will perform. Because, as a colleague specified, being dressed does not necessarily mean playing. Drouin could very well put on his uniform and warm up the bench for a large portion of the game.
Moreover, one wonders if the absence of Kaiden Guhle, injured during the third period of the game in Florida, has not forced the hand of St. Louis a little. If he did not want to answer the question in the French portion of his press briefing, he answered “probably, yes” on the English side.
Leaving Drouin on the bridge, St-Louis should have made do with a formation of 11 forwards and six defensemen. It’s a bit thin.
We don’t yet know what really happened in Drouin’s case, which led to his absence. However, it was not just his trainer who met him. The other veterans of the team also held a discussion with him.
“He is our teammate and our friend. We don’t let him go see the coaches thinking we’ll see what he’s going to do, said Mike Matheson. We talk to each other as a team, as a group. It’s not something intentional, but it happened. And that’s something we don’t accept in the locker room.”
After practice, Drouin did long minutes of overtime with Jake Allen and a few coaches.
Guhlé injured
Guhle, we said, will miss tonight’s game. He was injured falling heavily against the railing, feet first, when checked by Colin White. Before getting up, he held his left knee. It was an injury to the same knee, also suffered in Florida, which caused him to miss 23 games in January and February.
What is curious in this last soap opera on the Canadian’s infirmary is that Guhle made four other appearances after being retired to the locker room for a few moments.
“I don’t know if it was his decision to continue playing the other night. He looked okay. I coach a game. I don’t have time to find out who made the decision,” insisted St-Louis.
A performance to redeem
In short, against the Lightning, the Canadian will try to redeem his pitiful performance on Thursday.
“It was a frustrating game. In several facets of the game, we were not at the level where we want to be, “said Matheson, author of the first goal of the match against the Panthers.
“We show that we are capable of scoring goals. We have to tighten things up defensively. We got lost on this side,” analyzed St-Louis.
“The good thing about this league is that there are 82 games. So you always have an opportunity to replace yourself. Tonight, that’s what we’re going to try to do,” he continued.
Samuel Montembeault will get a third straight start.
“It doesn’t often happen that a coach takes his goalkeeper away and brings him back afterwards (later in the match). I think he managed that task very well,” explained St-Louis.
Probable formation of the Canadian
RHP-Suzuki-Ylonen
Gurianov-Tierney-Anderson
Pitlick-Belzile-Hoffman
Drouin-Richard-Pezzetta
Matheson Savard
Edmundson Barron
Kovacevic-Wideman
Montembeault
Allen