Flames 2 – Canadian 1 | The scarcity that hides the others

“Look at his reaction: he-can’t-believe!” » In the mid-2000s, at a time when YouTube videos were shared by email, a widely distributed montage of Mini-Putt Challenge allowed us to hear the famous describer Serge Vleminckx cut up his syllables to describe the non-verbal language of a regional athlete.

These sweet words could have resonated in the Bell Center twice rather than once on Tuesday. After Josh Anderson hit the horizontal bar in the second period, then after he shot directly into the glove of goalie Jacob Markström with seconds left in the game.

No, he couldn’t believe it, and neither did we. The poor striker saw his lethargy stretch to 16 games without a goal. He is obviously the first to be sorry, that’s quite normal. And he’s starting to run out of ideas to fix it, but we’ll come back to that. Spoiler: he’s thinking about changing sticks.

As painful as Anderson’s scoreless streak is, it’s not what explains the Habs’ 2-1 loss Tuesday against the Calgary Flames. And it’s not her who justifies the team’s stellar 2-5-1 record over the past eight games either.

The shortage of the big number 17 is of course the most spectacular of the moment for the Canadian. But she hides others.

Since he scored his team’s very first goal of the season in Toronto, Jake Evans has been shooting blanks for 15 games. Alex Newhook and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard: 13 each. Tanner Pearson: 11 games.

When we only look at goals scored at five-on-five, the list gets longer. Juraj Slafkovsky: 16 matches. Cole Caufield: 14 games. It’s starting to be a lot of people in a group of 13 attackers.

At five-on-five, again, only one forward has scored in the last four outings – Brendan Gallagher against the Boston Bruins last Saturday. This is little.

Martin St-Louis, unsurprisingly, takes note of the situation. He sees clearly that his attack is failing, with equal numbers, in any case, and that there are many unhappy customers.

“You have to take the time to touch the guys from time to time, to cheer them up a little,” he said at the end of the evening. We all want them out of this. »

“But not at the cost of forgetting the team game and the defensive game,” he warned.

Disappointed

The pill goes better for the coach, we understand, given the significant number of scoring chances his team gets. According to him, the sacrosanct “process” is easier to sell in the circumstances. His group will nevertheless have to improve its “finishing”, in particular by shooting shots more quickly, he explained.

Which brings us back to Josh Anderson. After 16 games, he is second on his team in expected goals and quality scoring chances at five on five, calculates the specialist site Natural Stat Trick, each time behind Brendan Gallagher. He does “good things”. This does not transform him into a fine hockey theorist. But the numbers say he should have scored a few times.

The real thing, however, was the long face he had in the locker room after the loss to the Flames.

“I’ll have to change something,” he said. Maybe a new stick? I don’t know. We will see tomorrow. »

His teammates, in any case, continue to believe in him. Many of them even went to see him to console him after his failed chances.

Nick Suzuki, on this subject: “He must continue to do what he is doing. He has such a good chance…”

Samuel Montembeault: “He must not let himself be disturbed. We know he is capable of scoring goals. Once he registers one, it will unlock, I’m sure. »

Kaiden Guhle: “He does all the right things: he works well, he finishes his checks, he makes good plays with the puck… I know he’s going to score one. »

Brendan Gallagher: “He’s scored all his life, and the chances are there… If he didn’t get chances, we’d be worried. »

Go for encouragement. The fact remains that Anderson, without deflating, no longer seems to know which way to turn. Every day, he watches videos of his game, “over and over again.” “I have never had this problem in my career. I have to continue working,” he whispered, his eyes dull.

It’s not entirely true that this never happened to him. In the fall of 2019, while wearing the Columbus Blue Jackets uniform, he went 21 games without scoring. That streak ended at the same time as his season in December after he seriously injured his shoulder during a planned fight with Mark Borowiecki.

He would have to remember that too. Especially since he admitted that the current situation was becoming “frustrating” for him.

Frustration is certainly inevitable for a fierce competitor like him. You still have to not give in to it.

Rising

Christian Dvorak

The Flames’ first goal didn’t make him look good, but he fed his wingers well, who however failed to find the back of the net.

Falling

Gustav Lindström

Bravo for his first (lucky) goal of the season. However, it is never a good idea, when you play so little, to find yourself on the ice for two goals from the opponent. Only three appearances in the third period.

The number of the match

5

After 16 games involving the Canadian this season, five goals were disallowed after the video replay revealed an offside. The CH was at fault four times, and the opponent once – in this case the Flames, in the third period, Tuesday evening.

In details

Gallagher empties his bag

Not to invite around a Swiss fondue: Brendan Gallagher and Pierre Lambert (the referee, not the former Quebec National). It was subtle on the ice, but Gallagher strongly disagreed with Lambert’s decision to give him a penalty for tripping Elias Lindholm with three minutes left in the game. What was special: the referee located very close to the game, Jake Brenk, did not flinch, while Lambert, stationed in the neutral zone, raised his arm. ” The guy [Lindholm] turns around and trips over the goal. His colleague is on the sidelines. Let him make the decision! The other raises his arm simply because it shouts at the Flames bench. He reacted. This can’t happen,” cursed Gallagher, in the press scrum. The fiery right winger recalled that in basketball and football, referees, when in doubt, do not hesitate to consult each other. “In hockey, it’s allowed, but it’s perhaps not in the culture,” he submitted.

Guhle was scared

In Las Vegas two weeks ago, in the wake of the death of Adam Johnson in England, the wearing of neck guards made the news. Kaiden Guhle was not exactly in the camp of fans of this piece, even if he had admitted to colleague Simon-Olivier Lorange that skate blades “are essentially weapons”. The young defender was able to see it a little too closely in the middle of the match when he was hit in the face by Lindholm’s skate, which Guhle had just knocked down. Guhle immediately returned to the locker room, but ultimately did not miss a single shift. A minute later, he was back on the ice. “It’s a fast sport, accidents happen. I’m glad there are no consequences. It was a scare,” commented Guhle, apparently reluctant to discuss the event. The evening was not easy for number 21, who was also the lucky recipient of a double-check in the back served by Blake Coleman. The latter was punished for the gesture, but Guhle’s suffering was evident. Where it hurts, as the advertising said.

An air current

This season in the NHL, 11 forwards have salaries worth $10 million or more under the salary cap. Among them, only one plays less than 18 minutes per game on average: Jonathan Huberdeau. Tuesday’s match will further lower his average since he only spent 15:57 on the surface. The Quebecer deprived himself of a presence by receiving a penalty in the second period. Apart from this sequence, Huberdeau was again very little visible. His record also illustrates his evening well: a single shot attempt, on which he missed the target, and a shot that he blocked in defense. That’s all. No shots on target, no hits, no turnovers. So-called advanced metrics don’t look good on him either, with the Flames having only controlled 34% of shot attempts when he was on the ice. After 15 games, the former Florida Panthers has 7 points. His contract, remember, expires in 2031.

Guillaume Lefrançois