It’s probably not a coincidence. Last Wednesday, Josh Anderson received a big wave of love by jumping on the ice like 12e skater in the endless shootout session. He had not beaten Alex Nedeljkovic, the Penguins goaltender.
In the next game, Anderson scored twice. For the first time this season, he beat a goalkeeper. He did it twice against Semyon Varlamov in a 5-3 win against the New York Islanders on Saturday at the Bell Centre.
Yogi Berra, the former glory of the New York Yankees, had already said it in one of his legendary declarations: “baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.”
We will forgive Berra’s mathematical error, but we will remember that sport is often played between the two ears. In baseball, like in hockey.
For Nick Suzuki, there is no coincidence. The spontaneous reaction of fans to the last game against the Penguins gave his teammate momentum.
“It definitely helps,” Suzuki replied. When the crowd stays with you through tough times, you feel better. I liked the reaction of our fans during the shootout on Monday. Our fans are awesome. They wanted to help him get out of his hole.”
The best supporters
Anderson, who scored his first goal this season in the 25the game of the year in an empty net against the Seattle Kraken, hesitated when asked if it was a simple coincidence that he unlocked with a two-goal game in the first meeting after this famous ovation in shootout against the Penguins.
“I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe that’s the case.”
After a small pause, number 17 continued his response.
“I found it special in the last game against the Penguins. Sometimes, as a player, when you go through dark times, you don’t expect such a reaction from the crowd. But I’ve been saying it since my first day with the Canadiens, and even when I played in Columbus, I always considered the Bell Center crowd to be the best in the NHL. The Canadian counts on the most passionate supporters.”
Elected as first star against the Islanders, Anderson was treated to another ovation during his interview with colleague Renaud Lavoie on the ice.
“Just seeing their encouragement over the last few games, I find it simply wonderful,” said the Ontarian. I won’t forget this. I was emotional on the ice, I won’t lie. These were special moments. I know the fans have been going through difficult years over the past few seasons, but they remain patient and they continue to encourage us.
Five goals from the attackers
There are the two goals from Anderson, but also a salutary contribution from the attackers. They scored all five goals in this victory. Joel Armia, Cole Caufield and Christian Dvorak, in an abandoned cage, also blackened the scoresheet.
Photo Martin Chevalier
The CH needed the offensive awakening of its attackers. For one evening, that was the case. Nick Suzuki’s trio (with Caufield and Slafkovsky) had a strong game, spending the majority of the time in enemy territory during the first two periods.
The Habs also got off to a very good start in this match, dominating the Islanders for the first 40 minutes. It was 4 to 0 on the scoreboard, but also 36 to 16 in the shots column.
But the Islanders scared their rivals by scoring three goals in the third period. The Canadian bent without breaking.
“We didn’t want to give up a shorthanded goal early in the third and the Islanders scored another one quickly,” Suzuki noted. We haven’t played with a big lead in a long time. We came out flat for the third. We stopped working, we can’t get too confident.”
After Brock Nelson’s second goal and a score of 4 to 2, Martin St-Louis had the good idea to calm his troops by calling a timeout.