Coyotes 2 — Canadian 6 | A year later, the team stands

“It’s special when it happens here and I’ll remember it all my life. It’s one of the best feelings I’ve had. »

Guillaume Lefrancois
The Press

Juraj Slafkovsky still has no filter when speaking to the media and it was certainly not after scoring his first National League goal, in a resounding 6-2 victory, that he was going to stick his tongue out. Of wood.

What “happened” is his goal, but also a crowd that was much more jubilant than what we could expect from a little Thursday against the Coyotes.

The Canadian had the first draft pick for the first time since 1980, when the team was in the midst of rebuilding. Slafkovsky embodies this reconstruction, this hope for better days. In an organization that has long been conservative, 18-year-old players are rare; only three (Mario Tremblay, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Claude Lemieux, for the curious) have scored at a younger age in 11 decades of history.

“It’s probably the best crowd. I can’t think of a better scenario for a first National League goal,” Slafkovsky said.

“I watched Harry [Jordan Harris] and I was like, ‘It’s so cool that the crowd is screaming for him like that.’ It shows the kind of supporters we have,” added Arber Xhekaj.

The time of a goal, the time of an ovation, the time of an interview on the ice as a first star, everyone could forget the other side of the coin of the life of an 18-year-old player in Montreal : the pressure, the “Montreal or Laval” debates, the overanalysis of the gummed tape on his stick… Overanalysis which was ultimately not an exaggeration of the media.

“It prevented him from scoring, ruled Brendan Gallagher. Did he score before adding more? No. Did he score afterwards? Yes. »

The role of Xhekaj

But beyond the goal, the standing ovation and the stats, what led up to that goal is perhaps the most interesting aspect for anyone who wants to see this team rise from the ashes.

What led to the goal was a bold check from new strongman Arber Xhekaj, another of those faces of renewal. Watch him on the footage.

Basically, defender Josh Brown hits Slafkovsky near the header from the entrance. Xhekaj then does neither one nor two, and rushes on Brown, even if the latter is at the bottom of his territory, where an opposing defender does not advance, in general.

“He passed by me and I said to myself: “Ch, this is going to end badly!” “, described Slafkovsky.

Xhekaj’s explanation: “Usually I don’t start like that. I remember the number and try to hit it later. But I had to decide quickly. I’m a defender, I rarely hit another defender, especially him, who doesn’t attack much. So I read the game, I’ve been in it, I had a chance to hit it well. »

Coach’s assessment: “I like it when our defenders ‘pinch’, but I thought it was a bit hollow for the ‘pinch’! He had an idea in mind. He surprised the defender, he didn’t expect that. Sometimes, as a coach, you turn your head. »

“You turn your head. That’s St-Louis’ diplomatic way of saying that Xhekaj basically did everything a defender can’t, which was to leave his position to shoulder the ball. Nine times out of 10, the opposing team will draw a surplus. And we will say that the defender in question lacked judgment, discipline.

But St-Louis and the new management are also trying to build a team, a culture. Earlier in the match, Xhekaj had settled the account of the robust Zack Kassian in a fight. Without glorifying violence and fights, it is important to remember last January 29, when this same Kassian firmly tackled goalkeeper Samuel Montembeault behind his net.

Dominique Ducharme had said that he would have liked to see “five red jerseys” come to the defense of their goalkeeper. All we saw was a red sweater, Jeff Petry, approaching Kassian, maybe asking him, if possible, not to do it again. Another red jersey, Ryan Poehling, was helplessly surveying the damage.

This time, in a similar situation, Xhekaj came to the defense of his attacked teammate, Slafkovsky, who then scored. The two giants added to it by inveighing against poor Brown as they celebrated Slafkovsky’s goal.

Later in the match, Slafkovsky was back in front of Brown. Rather than worry about getting knocked out, he attempted a feint by spinning. The game didn’t work out, but the mere fact that he took a chance spoke volumes. “I knew Arber was on the ice, so if [Brown] tried to do something to me, I knew he was going to defend me. He told me. »

“We have the mentality of a pack of wolves,” said Martin St-Louis. We try to defend ourselves. I like this. “Beyond a victory against an adversary deprived in terms of talent, this is perhaps the most promising conclusion of this evening.

Up: Brendan Gallagher

After a good camp, it took some time to break the ice, but it’s now done. He also caused a penalty.

Down: Nick Ritchie

Let’s go with a breach of protocol and choose a player from the Canadiens’ opponents. Ritchie played sluggishly in the neutral zone on the first goal of the match and ended his evening with a well-deserved -4.

The number of the match: 5.99

That’s the price of a pound of Compliments brand butter at IGA. Jonathan Drouin fell exactly on the right amount during a game presented during a commercial break and it deserves to be highlighted in our pages.

In details

Tourigny had said it

After Derek Lalonde of the Red Wings on Friday, it was André Tourigny’s turn to underline, before the game, the successes of the Canadian in recovery and in excess. The head coach of the Coyotes affirmed that according to the data that the firm Sportlogiq provides them, the CH is 1^er in the NHL with eight overs per game. “They go for the free spaces, they flip pucks to sprint into the free spaces. It’s important not to be too focused on the puck, because they’ll try to put it behind the defenders,” Tourigny predicted before the game. However, Brendan Gallagher’s goal was scored exactly that way, thanks to a lobe from David Savard.

Jake Allen, in the shadows

Statistically, Jake Allen did not have a night out of the ordinary with 25 saves on 27 shots. But he made his share of important and not easy saves, especially against Clayton Keller, one of the few Coyotes to have been threatening. Little busy early in the evening – the Coyotes took 12 minutes to get a first shot – Allen was more and more called upon as the game progressed, and really had to win after the visitors made it 5 -2, with eight minutes left. Discreetly, the Habs goalies are having an unexpected start to the season. Allen is posting a .938 save percentage after three games, an obviously unsustainable pace, but better than his .885 last year after three starts.

Vejmelka will be busy

Brother Simon-Olivier Lorange told us on Wednesday that Karel Vejmelka was “the most abused goalkeeper in the NHL”. Judging by the performance of his assistant, Connor Ingram, Vejmelka could also be the busiest this season. Ingram was only making his fourth NHL start and didn’t deliver the kind of performance that will inspire confidence in his coaches. Nobody will blame him for biting in front of Nick Suzuki’s majestic feint, but goals like Cole Caufield’s, where the puck goes “through” his body, will not help his cause. This is without forgetting his many failed or too weak passes to his teammates. The 25-year-old goalkeeper, pick of 3^e Lightning’s turn in 2016, still has work to do.