Hurricanes 4 – Canadian 1 | And five

A fifth loss in five games, a goal from Jesperi Kotkaniemi and the Hurricanes who dominate the Canadian. If we had written a scary scenario for the Habs start to the season, we could hardly have found better.

This is exactly what happened Thursday night at the Bell Center. The result: a 4-1 loss for CH to the Carolina Hurricanes.

With this setback, the Canadian had his worst start to the season since 1995-1996. The team record of seven straight losses of 1938-1939 is not yet in jeopardy, but just mentioning it shows where we are.

(Re) read our live coverage View the meeting summary

Question to add a layer, the Hurricanes have – more or less discreetly – tweeted a link after the game. The address: didthehabslose.com (one could translate as: leCanadienatilperdu.com). When arriving there, sweaters from Kotkaniemi and Sebastien Aho, and as the icing on the cake, the promotional code: yes.

All of this is frivolous, however, and has no effect other than fueling the rivalry between the two organizations.

But if we come back to our horror scenarios, here is one from October 1995, in the wake of five consecutive defeats: a big cleaning at the Forum, the coach and the DG degummed. A few weeks later, Réjean Houle will look for a goalkeeper in a transaction that we will not soon forget: Jean-Jacques Daigneault against Pat Jablonski.

This year, the theme of cleaning is not so trendy. Dominique Ducharme has just received a new contract, after leading his team to the final. This is without forgetting Claude Julien, who is theoretically still paid since the last year of his contract has elapsed. It’s starting to make a lot of money on a job.

All eyes are on Marc Bergevin, also in the last year of his contract, but still in office. And under the circumstances, this scenario of a defeat and a goal from Kotkaniemi, he needed it as we need to hit the famous nerve in the elbow that hurts so much.

Errors paid “cash”

Let’s be clear: no, the Canadian did not lose because of Kotkaniemi’s outfit, but much more because of the prowess of his Finnish compatriots Aho and Teuvo Teravainen, and another northern European, Frederik Andersen.

He lost because one team took advantage of their chances, and the other did not.

“I think the score doesn’t reflect the pace of the game, it was competitive and we fought hard,” said Ducharme. But once again, we made mistakes and we paid. We didn’t take advantage of theirs. We had two escapes. We had games close to the blue paint, but we missed the goal. ”

We often come back to the lack of attack, the four goals scored in five games, but defensively, it remains imperfect. “Two turnovers on the third base,” “a clearance we could have had,” on the visitors’ first goal, said the head coach.

The players all looked just as downcast as each other, each in their own way. Suzuki, without his usual gaze always on the right side of the line between confidence and arrogance.

“It’s hard right now. Confidence in the group is low, admitted the young striker, in a press briefing. Games that we play all the time, we do not play them. It’s a tough segment. But we had some difficult segments last year. Good teams find a way out. ”

Josh Anderson, with his voice a little hoarse and his words less analytical than usual. Tyler Toffoli, by the emotion he showed when speaking, him who is generally quite predictable in his answers.

Take this one, when he was asked to describe the state of mind of his group. “How do you think it is? I imagine it’s exactly like that in the locker room. It’s frustrating. We have to find a way and play 60 minutes, ”replied the author of the Canadiens’ only goal of the game.

So that’s where this team is. In crisis on the ice, in crisis also on the seventh floor, where the future of Bergevin feeds so much discussion. All this just four months after the euphoria of the goal of Artturi Lehkonen in overtime against Las Vegas, the accolades of Bergevin to his players and the pizza of Phillip Danault.

Another world.

In details

A golden goal

Until then, the most anticipated guest of the evening had been rather low-key. Copiously booed at each of his appearances on the ice, Jesperi Kotkaniemi was not at all on the way to punishing his former club. However, in the middle of the third period, he first received as a gift a lot, a lot of room to maneuver in the enclave. Then he offered his first goal in the Hurricanes uniform by redirecting a shot from Brady Skjei. He never stopped smiling, including when he met his old friends from the Montreal press after the game. He wasn’t sure how the audience would greet him, but the boos ultimately made him laugh more than anything else, he said. Nevertheless, this goal was for him a “relief” after two more sober first games. Andrei Svechnikov, meanwhile, revealed that his young teammate had put a nice sum at stake in case of victory against his former team. To a journalist who asked him how much this gain would cost him, Kotkaniemi simply replied “a little bit” before laughing (again) heartily.

Crazy finnish

Since the start of the season, Kotkaniemi has completed a fiery line with fellow Finns Sebastian Aho, center, and Teuvo Teravainen on the right wing. However, on Thursday, the three partners were looking for each other seriously, in the first period. In fact, Kotkaniemi could have scored from the start if Aho’s pass, after a turnaround from Tyler Toffoli, had been more precise. Soberly, Aho said after the match that he “liked” the performance of his trio, who “had their chances”. Checked, this unit has obtained four quality scoring chances without conceding a single to the opponent, according to the compilation of the site Natural Stat Trick. Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said his entire team played “lethargically” in the first twenty, “especially this line.” However, “they got better as the game progressed.” This is not good news for the next opponents of the Canes.

Finally a goal five against four, but …

First the good news: the Canadian FINALLY scored on the power play, courtesy of Tyler Toffoli. Then the worse: the Habs no longer took advantage of the multiple opportunities that were provided to them. The Hurricanes have indeed received six penalties. Dominique Ducharme stressed that the goal denied to Brendan Gallagher was on the power play and that if it had been granted, his team would have ended the evening with an efficiency of 33% (2 in 6). Very good. But beyond the score sheet, there is the manner. Entering the opponent’s zone once again looked like a test at Fort Boyard. Even going out of its own territory was an adventure for the CH. Ducharme argued that the Hurricanes were one of the best shorthanded teams on the circuit, and he is quite right: since the 2018-2019 season, they are outright the best (83.6%), helped in particular by their ” aggressiveness ”to his blue line and moving pucks, says Ducharme. So it was up to his men to “beat the first guy [plus] quickly ”at the exit of the zone. And there is still this ugly “execution” that is lacking. It’s starting to have a lot of fixes to be made. Soon, if possible.

They said

On the rise: Brendan Gallagher

Four shots and one goal denied for the small winger, who played the best of his five games. Coincidence or not, he was with an attacking center (Nick Suzuki) for the first time this season.

Down: Jeff Petry

It’s not going at all for him at the start of the season. Questionable power-play decisions nipped attacks in the bud. It wasn’t easy for his partner, Brett Kulak, either.

The number of the match: 108:33

That’s the length of the Canadiens’ scoreless streak, which ended when Tyler Toffoli scored. There are streaks like this every year, but rarely this early in the calendar.