(Montreal) Corey Perry’s visit was a good pretext to remember this 2021 edition of the Montreal Canadiens.
This team, which reached the final against all odds, played for its veterans, for the Perry, the Shea Weber and the Carey Price who populated the locker room. It is these experienced players who revived the Habs when they had their backs to the wall, 1-3 against Toronto in the first round.
This team was obviously a far cry from the one that fought valiantly on the ice on Tuesday but suffered a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
First, it makes you wonder if we can even say that it is the same team. Only seven players who made it to the final last summer were in uniform. One of them was Nick Suzuki.
“They beat us in the final last year and we wanted to give them that tonight. “Said the young center.
We can guess that Jake Evans, Artturi Lehkonen, Cole Caufield and Ben Chiarot had the same desire.
But Mathieu Perreault, for example, was in Winnipeg last year; he was swept away in four games by the Canadian in the 2e tower. David Savard had no loss to avenge, even as he went to get his Stanley Cup ring in the visitors’ locker room before the game!
“It’s really special to see everyone again, one last time, to come full circle in this chapter,” he described after the match. It’s fun to see it for real, to be able to put it on. It’s a pretty special feeling. ”
Also last year, Mike Hoffman played for the Blues. Cédric Paquette, for the Hurricanes. Newcomer Kale Clague? In Los Angeles. Not to mention Chris Wideman, who was literally playing on the other side of the world, in Nizhny Novgorod.
Presumably, for them, the loss to the Lightning in the final came a long way in the motivators.
Young people
Laurent Dauphin was playing his first NHL game in nearly three years. “It went well. The more it progressed, the better it was, ”he agreed.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Laurent Dauphin
Dauphin, Michael Pezzetta and Ryan Poehling played all of their 2021 campaign games with the Laval Rocket. The top two in particular played like guys who don’t want to go back on Tuesday. Poehling has been more erased, but is nonetheless one of the few CH elements showing progress so far this season.
They are so lucky because of the Habs medical check-up. Have we already seen, since Harry and Marvin landed at Kevin McAllister’s uncle in New York, a team that has suffered so much misfortune in such a short time?
They have a chance and want to take it. Add Clague, just claimed on waivers, and youngsters like Evans and Alexander Romanov, who are trying to show that they can give more. And that’s why the Habs went two minutes away from beating the mighty Lightning, until Corey Perry (who else?) Tied the game with 129 seconds left.
“A lot of the guys here are trying to prove things, to secure their position,” said Suzuki. We’ve been playing a lot better lately. We could easily have won a few games in a row. Little things hurt us. ”
“Several guys can either play a different role or have a chance with our team. Everyone pushed for success, added Ducharme. Individually, the players want to show us that they can hold their own in this league. Collectively, we were still solid. ”
We talked about the young people and the survivors of last year. We could add the contractual situations of some, those who do not necessarily have long-term stability.
Ducharme’s challenge is therefore there by the end of the season: to take all these divergent interests, and to try to unite the group. It’s one thing to get there in the playoffs or in a heated battle in the standings, but it’s quite another with a team that we know has been excluded from the race for a month already.
In details
It overflows in the infirmary
Dominique Ducharme will undoubtedly be criticized for this other defeat, the Canadian’s 21st in 27 games this season. But when you take a look at his training, or rather the training of the injured, we wonder if someone else could really do better. Before even starting the meeting, 64% of the club’s payroll was left out on Tuesday, including men Anderson, Armia, Byron, Edmundson, Gallagher, Niku, Petry, Price, Toffoli and Weber. And since bad news tends to never come alone, we must add another name to this list, that of Christian Dvorak, who had to leave Tuesday night’s game at the Bell Center due to injury. The Canadiens coach was unable to say whether the forward will have to be absent for an extended period of time. But this absence of Dvorak also reminds us that the Canadian had to cede a first round choice to the Arizona Coyotes, which will perhaps not be seen as the best decision of Marc Bergevin, in the end.
Here is Clague …
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Kale clague
Defenseman Kale Clague was called on waivers just a few days ago by the Canadian, and for the 23-year-old, it was the first opportunity to make a good impression … except that it didn’t exactly happen. like that. Like a waiter dropping a column of plates in a bad comedy, the old choice of 2e The Kings’ tour started off their new job with a solid blunder, handing the puck to Pat Maroon, who wasn’t asking for so much to score the first goal of the night for the Lightning. He finished the first with no points and a -1 on his record, clocking 17:29 of playing time, including a small turn on the power play. Dominique Ducharme seemed satisfied despite everything. “He went over the puck (on Maroon’s goal) but otherwise he’s skating well,” said the coach. He still keeps a good distance between the attackers and himself to defend his territory, he circulates the puck well. I liked his game in general. “
Still empty benches …
Not so long ago, a Canadian-Lightning match would have unleashed passions, especially if presented in July. Now ? Let’s say that passions are unleashed a little less. Many of you have undoubtedly noticed several empty seats on the screen, and then indeed, according to the official NHL scoresheet, it is an assistance of only 19,976 spectators that was recorded during this Tuesday evening. not so festive at the Bell Center. Despite this, according to statistics to this effect compiled by the ESPN network, it is still the Canadian who throne at the top of the assistances in the NHL this season, with an average of 19,852 fans per game at the Bell Center. The more cynical will say that this is arguably the only statistic in hockey where the Canadiens are number one this season, but we won’t go there given our legendary class.
They said
I was trying to keep the puck in their territory to continue the forecheck. There wasn’t much time left. He came and hit me and I got caught on the other side. We gave a 2 against 1. It’s boring, it costs us the game. If I had to do it again, I would make another decision.
David Savard on the Lightning winning goal
It is a club that has a lot of talent. They had their chances, but we created good chances too. I liked our effort. It’s really disappointing to come out of this game with zero points.
David Savard
We were 6 against 5 and I never hesitate to trust him. He has such a competitive spirit. It’s no surprise that he reached the final two years in a row with two different teams. It wasn’t our best game, but Perry had a good game.
Jon Cooper, on Corey Perry
We missed chances. Lehkonen had a breakaway, I think it hit the handle of the goalie’s stick. And Jo [Drouin] came within an inch of the puck, and they ended up scoring. It’s hard to digest.
Nick suzuki
We played well in general, we were good on the penalty kill, we generated several chances to score 5 against 5. The victory was within our grasp. But Perry scores with his knee, and then they scored on a surplus. It’s the kind of bad luck we have.
Nick suzuki
Rising
Jake allen
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Jake Allen in action
He’s only faced 27 shots, having been shelled 169 times in his last 4 outings. In the absence of quantity, there was quality in the Lightning’s shots.
Falling
Cole caufield
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Cole caufield
He got a chance to threaten the opposing net, and went completely over the edge while attempting his shot. Besides, it was a quiet evening for him.
The number of the match
15:09
It is the time of use of Laurent Dauphin. The injury to Christian Dvorak was a game-changer, but we still expected a lower figure for a player recently recalled from Laval.