(Brossard) Is the tea towel burning between Jeff Petry and Dominique Ducharme?
The veteran defenseman said after Tuesday night’s 5-2 loss in Pittsburgh that his team repeatedly made the same mistakes. “It looks like there is no structure,” he also launched, in what was interpreted as a point addressed to his head coach.
A dozen hours later, Ducharme did not seem to have any desire to talk about this story. “There is no mess in our playing system,” he said dryly. Everything is clear, I make sure of this every day. There is no problem there. ”
Perhaps it was not a question of structure or of system, but it is clear that a problem, there was one, following Petry’s statement. Because Ducharme saw fit to broach the subject with the rest of the team during a meeting before training on Wednesday morning.
“Whenever we need to talk, we do it as a family,” said the Quebecer. We took care of that. ”
Ducharme did not want to “go into details” in relation to the team meeting. “We managed this file. It is closed. ”
More nuanced, he conceded that “everyone wants to win” and that “nobody is happy with the situation”. The situation is obviously the catastrophic season experienced by the team, which languishes at the 31e and second to last place in the league’s general standings after 30 games.
“Whether it’s me, the players, the staff, everyone wants to be successful,” he continued. There is just one way [d’y arriver] ; you roll up your sleeves and start over. ”
” Nothing in particular ”
Jeff Petry has not made it available to clarify his thinking to the media regarding the playing system or the team structure on the ice.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, PRESS ARCHIVES
Jeff petry
Defender Ben Chiarot, who said he knew nothing of his teammate’s words, flatly declared that “we have a system that Dominique has put in place” and that “we try to follow it every night”.
David Savard, another defenseman, needed to be more attentive during the team meeting, as he seemed well aware of the situation. Calmly, however, he explained that the Canadiens’ playing system was “nothing special” compared to what he experienced earlier in his career in Columbus and Tampa.
“You just have to execute it and stay focused on the plan,” he added. Too often, one player finds himself out of position trying to “recover” from another’s mistake.
“It creates a domino effect and the situation looks bigger than if everyone had kept their position and given time for the guy to take his place,” he analyzed. It would be easier that way. It’s up to us to keep our eyes on what we have to do, to win our one-on-one battles. Each player must do better individually. ”
“We have to come back to our style of play,” said Savard. When we do, we are an effective team, we are able to create failure before. ”
The veteran, however, did not hide that, “at times, we are a little more fragile group”. Thus, “when things start to fall, it tumbles quickly”.
“It’s up to us, the older ones, to keep the guard, to stay focused and to play the right way. ”
This remark on the “older ones” is interesting when we know to what extent the formation of the CH, ravaged by injuries, relies on a large number of replacements. Forwards Laurent Dauphin, Michael Pezzetta, Ryan Poehling and Jesse Ylönen all started the season in the American League. Cole Caufield also spent a few weeks there. We can doubt that Cédric Paquette, in a healthy team, would play every game. And defenseman Kale Clague, recently acquired from the Los Angeles Kings via waiver, is yet to be considered an established NHL player.
“It’s a challenge that all the teams face,” warned Ben Chiarot. The latter nevertheless admitted that with a formation that changes “in two games”, the chemistry on the ice is far from optimal.
“When you have new players coming in like this, […] it is certain that there are adjustments to be made and that it takes a certain time, abounded Dominique Ducharme.
The “funny situation”, like the Pittsburgh Penguins’ opening goal on Tuesday, are therefore more likely to happen.
“We just have to come back to the arena and make sure we are going to be better,” concluded Ducharme. This is what we control. ”
The Habs will play their next home game on Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers.
In short
Long-term absences for Dvorak and Anderson
Treating a “lower body” injury, Christian Dvorak will be absent indefinitely, the Canadian said in a statement, while Josh Anderson will miss more time than expected in his case. Dvorak has already missed his team’s last three games. He was injured on December 7 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. As for Anderson, who injured his “upper body” on December 2, the club announced that his recovery, initially estimated at 2 to 4 weeks, would ultimately be 8 weeks. If this deadline is respected, we could review it at the end of January. The two attackers add to an already expanded list of long-term injuries. Tyler Toffoli will have to wait about eight weeks before returning to the game. And no return date has yet been set in Joel Edmundson’s case. The team announced, however, that the names of Brendan Gallagher and Sami Niku have been removed from the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol. After missing the last six games, they are now undergoing “progressive fitness” before hitting the ice again. They won’t face the Flyers on Thursday.
Armia left out?
Training in training suggested Wednesday morning that Joel Armia would be left out on Thursday. Not only was the winger the excess striker on the fourth line of Michael Pezzetta, Cédric Paquette and Mathieu Perreault, but he was even transferred to defense to the right of Corey Schueneman during a drill. Dominique Ducharme did not want to confirm whether the Finn would play or not on Thursday. He simply recalled that he loved “Armia as a player” and that he “believed in[yait] in him “. “He wants to do more for the team, I’m sure,” the coach continued. We want to work with him as with everyone else. Armia has been limited to just 1 goal and 5 points in 28 games this season. He is currently the first of four years provided for in his contract, with an average salary of $ 3.4 million.