Rangers – Canadian | Gallagher absent, Hoffman left out

After Evgenii Dadonov and Joel Armia, it’s another veteran’s turn to jump up front.

Mike Hoffman will indeed be left out, Thursday evening, during the visit of the New York Rangers to the Bell Center, in the first game of the CH at home after a series of seven duels abroad.

Since his last goal on Dec. 19 in Arizona, Hoffman has two assists in six games and is down -5. He was guilty of softness in his territory on a few occasions and this is in particular what earned him a visit to the bridge on this snowy Thursday.

What Martin St-Louis wants to see from Hoffman? “Consistency, be more physically engaged,” replied the Habs head coach.

Brendan Gallagher will be the other forward out, but in his case it’s due to a lower-body injury, the same one that forced him to miss 13 games in December.

Speaking of injuries, Sean Monahan and Mike Matheson practiced before the rest of the squad on Thursday morning. No trace of Kaiden Guhle, however.

The Habs plan to provide a medical update after Thursday’s game once the four cripples have been assessed.

In defense, Johnathan Kovacevic will return to the game, while Justin Barron, who has had his share of troubles in his territory since his recall after Christmas, will skip his turn.

In search of solutions

The Habs are going through one of their worst streaks since the arrival of Martin St-Louis in February 2022. Montreal is 1-8-1 in its last 10 games, with 19 goals scored against 47 goals against during this sequence.

“I don’t know why we were doing well and why we are now where we are,” admitted St-Louis after Thursday’s morning practice. It’s easy to watch the video and find all the errors. But as a coach, you have to see the most important things. The “staff”, we took the day yesterday to see where we are, to have a little perspective on where we are. The problem is not where we are. This is how we bring it back. Does being at home help us? Yes. We have the latest change, we manage confrontations and sleeping in your bed is always “fun”.

“Since I’ve been here, in 11 months, this is the first time that the team has really fallen,” added the head coach. Not on the results side, but on the performance side. This is where you must find the answers. I spent a good part of yesterday looking for this. »

Last season, the team suffered a series of nine straight losses from April 9 to 24, showing a differential not much better than that of the current sequence (19 goals scored, 42 goals allowed). The Montrealers had ended this streak by beating the Rangers, precisely, but it was three days from the end of the calendar and the New Yorkers had deployed a team worthy of the preparatory calendar since they were assured of the 2^e place in their division.

This time, however, the Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin and Adam Fox will be there.