Dominique Ducharme will tell you: what he is looking for is consistency. But that is not that easy to obtain for anyone… and it is not easy for Jonathan Drouin either.
The Quebec player is certainly not having a bad season, quite the contrary; his 14 points in 23 games allow him to secure third place in scoring for his team.
In his case, it is rather this much sought-after consistency that remains a problem. Recent example: in his last five games, Drouin has collected 2 points. But in his previous installment of five games, he had collected … 5 points.
“Ups and downs, like everyone else, summarized Dominique Ducharme about it, Monday in Pittsburgh. We need more consistency. That’s what we’re looking for with all of our players, including Jonathan. ”
This reputation of the player who works in sequences, it follows Jonathan Drouin since he skates on the ice of the NHL. So it’s nothing new, but this habit sometimes annoys his most ardent supporters, who see him as a player with unlimited offensive potential.
“I can’t go out of my style of play and overdo it either,” he said Monday in Pittsburgh. I can control what I can control […] I make an effort, I skate, I have chances to score. If everyone is looking at themselves in the mirror doing their job (that’s okay), but when you try to do someone else’s job, that’s where it gets worse. Everyone has to do their job. ”
Drouin admits that the accumulating defeats don’t help with the office vibe these days.
“You have to try to maintain a good atmosphere; the past is the past, and there is nothing we can do about it. It’s okay to look at the wins and losses column, but we have to focus on the next game, (Tuesday) against Pittsburgh. ”
In the immediate future, Dominique Ducharme tries to do what he can with what he has at hand, and everything indicates that he will ask Drouin to start this next meeting in the company of Jake Evans and Joel Armia.
“We have to find a way to win a match, to get out of this mess, and move on … at least that’s what we hope,” added the one who wears the jersey at number 92 .
In order to change things too, Ducharme will ask Mathieu Perreault to go skating on the club’s first line, along with Mike Hoffman and Nick Suzuki.
This promotion may seem surprising for Perreault, who has collected 4 points in 13 games this season. But he is also the only striker of this club to post a positive differential (+2), which is not nothing in this season where the positive sides are quite difficult to find.
Dominique Ducharme see other reasons there.
“We try to have a net presence on each line, and Mathieu likes to go to the net,” explained the coach. It does not help to have three players who will stand on the outside. We also need that presence inside and near the net… we don’t have a lot of offensive production at the moment, it takes more pucks at the net, and it takes more people at the net too. It’s kind of what we try to do with our trios. ”
A comeback for Evans?
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, PRESS ARCHIVES
Jake evans
Injured in the December 9 game at the Bell Center against the Chicago Blackhawks, everything indicates that Jake Evans will be able to make a comeback Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, during the clash against the Penguins In Monday training in Pittsburgh, the forward skated in a trio completed by Jonathan Drouin and Joel Armia. Remember that Evans has collected 6 points in 24 games this season. The other two absent who could return shortly are defenseman Sami Niku and forward Brendan Gallagher, both on COVID-19 protocol. But Dominique Ducharme does not expect to see them again before Saturday’s game at the Bell Center, when the Boston Bruins visit.