Coyotes – Canadian | Waiting for the “elephant” in the locker room

We do not change a winning formula, and even if the Canadian does not have a start to the season worthy of the years of Michel Therrien either, the team has just delivered a valiant effort to beat a quality opponent.

Guillaume Lefrancois
The Press

Martin St-Louis will therefore return with the same squad as Monday, for the visit of the Arizona Coyotes, Thursday evening, at the Bell Centre.

This means that Michael Pezzetta and Rem Pitlick will be the supernumerary attackers. Pitlick was at least able to play the first two games, but Pezzetta watched the first four games from the top of the stands.

But now, before the morning training, the injured Joel Edmundson and Joel Armia were again exercising on the ice with the therapists.

“He’s the elephant in our locker room. We have two extra strikers and we’ll have a third when Armia comes back, I don’t know when. It’s not easy and we deal with it every day, admitted St-Louis, after the morning exercise.

“You have to communicate and be transparent, tell the truth. It’s hard not to play, it’s not a job I like, but it’s an important job, ”added the coach.

Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky are the only two who do not need to go through waivers before returning to Laval. Knowing that the chances of Caufield returning to the outskirts of Cégep Montmorency are almost nil, the options will therefore be to send Slafkovsky to Laval, or to subject a player to waivers before demoting him.

A slow attack

Speaking of Caufield, St-Louis had good words for him. Recall that when St. Louis arrived in office, Caufield had only one goal in 30 games. He scored in the new coach’s first game, and has 25 in 41 games since the change of regime.

“When I arrived, he played on the fourth line the first two games, recalled St-Louis. I told him: have fun, we will find the solutions. He scored in his first game and slowly he got his chance. »

Caufield already has three goals in four games this season, and he leads his team with 16 shots. The sample is small, but its average of four shots per game is also higher than what it posted last season from the arrival of St. Louis (3.08 per game).

“He can score and plays with a lot of confidence,” continued St-Louis. We must therefore be careful not to coach him too much and take away his freedom. I mostly try to coach him without the puck. I can’t make him a better scorer, but I can help him have more chances by showing him how to play without the puck and where to position himself. »

If Caufield is productive, the fact remains that the attack in general is lagging behind. With an average of 2 goals per match, the team comes in 31^e NHL rank. At 5 against 5, the CH only generates 6.3 quality scoring chances per 60 minutes. According to NaturalStatTrick, this is the worst ratio in the NHL.

“We have our chances, we control the puck, it just doesn’t fit,” pleaded forward Kirby Dach. We also had good chances on the power play, but we only scored one goal. We will worry more when the chances are gone. But for now, the chances are there and we are playing well offensively. »

Allen back

Jake Allen will defend the Canadiens’ net against the Coyotes. The New Brunswicker has always had success against the team possibly named in honor of Richard Ciupka’s film. His record against them: 7-2-0, 1.41 average and 9.48 efficiency.

Allen will be playing his first game since his wife gave birth to their third child. What earned this comment from St-Louis, an expert in the matter as a father of three children.

“It’s their third, so they’re going from man-to-man defense to zone defense! »