There are sometimes images that sum it all up, and from this rather ordinary little Tuesday evening at the Bell Centre, we will remember this one: Jake Allen, not super happy with his evening, who smashes his stick in a burst of rage.
That happened after… the seventh goal of the visit. A gesture that summed it all up, really, perhaps even more than the final score, glaringly true: Sabers 7, Canadian 2.
A few minutes later, Martin St-Louis, all the same smiling in the circumstances, went there with a quote that was also glaringly true: “It was not our evening…”
He could have got up and left right there, we would have understood.
So yes, we could put that one down to a bad evening, the ferocity of the opponents, who had just lost eight in a row, we could also put that down to fate, because we can’t win them all, as we know.
But casually, the Canadian finds himself with a record of three defeats in his last four games.
In fact, if we go back a little further to 1er November, it gives a record of four wins in ten games for the Canadian, a pace that is in line with most predictions made in September.
No one should fall out of their chair.
“We knew the Sabers were going to start the game strong,” admitted defender David Savard. The game started, and we weren’t ready. It got off to a bad start for us and it started to tumble afterwards…”
By the way, it’s not the first time we’ve seen this, such a bad start from this team. Is it worrying? “It’s starting to be a trend, we’re going to talk about it,” noted Martin St-Louis.
There is perhaps, also and more simply, that this Canadian is what it should be, that is to say an average club, capable of bordering on the sublime on occasion, but an average club all the same . This season’s wins tend to come when everything, absolutely everything, works. From Vezina-shaped goaltenders to Norris-shaped defensemen. That’s what it takes, nothing less.
This time, the night opened with three goals from the visit on five shots, which ended up leading to this broken stick. Jake Allen, usually a very friendly guy, chose not to come and answer questions after this very long evening, probably because he was going to be a little less friendly.
“He’s a solid goalkeeper and we didn’t help him,” summed up David Savard. We tried to help her… it was a night to forget for everyone. »
Reality had to end up showing up at the Bell Center, and that’s exactly what it did. Jake Allen, of course, but this defense is too often overwhelmed, and with any luck, the Sabers could have finished the game with more than 10 goals.
What should surprise us in this? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The Connor Bedard lottery was the only valid talking point in September, and no one was talking about a playoff spot. A club that wins four games out of ten does not make the playoffs.
What changes a bit, however, is the manner; such a slap, the Canadian this season had not accustomed us to that. It was by far his worst performance of 2022-2023, and it’s a result that evokes the previous season, the end under Dominique Ducharme, when the Canadian was rarely competitive. Maybe things haven’t changed that much after all.
It also serves as a reminder: go from 32e place in the elite, it can be at PlayStation, but in real life, it’s a lot more complicated.
Rising
Cole Caufield
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Cole Caufield
Very difficult to find a candidate here, but his goal was his fourth in his last five games.
Falling
Jake Allen
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Alex Tuch rounds the net of Jake Allen.
After a strong start to the season, it’s getting harder and harder for the keeper, who looked bad on almost every goal on Tuesday night. Especially the seventh.
The number of the match
70
After 19 games, the Canadian allowed 70 goals; last season, after 19 games under Dominique Ducharme, the club allowed 67 goals.
They said
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield
There are mistakes that are made and we have to make sure that those mistakes are corrected. We have to stick to the game plan a little more than that. And we also have to help Jake [Allen] more than that.
Cole Caufield
The Sabres, they played with a sense of urgency, they had just lost eight in a row. The most dangerous person is the one who is desperate. That’s what the Sabers were. It was a match of the same, we will go over it and we will correct the mistakes. The only good deal is that we’re going to play on Wednesday…
Martin St Louis
It was a difficult start to the game for us. It’s been two games in a row that we haven’t had a good start to the game… In this league, it puts you in a bad position, because it’s not easy to come back from behind afterwards.
Kaiden Guhlé
Ten minutes before hitting the ice, we were talking about the importance of a good start…and then it was 3-1 for them after the first period.
Juraj Slafkovsky
In details
The happiness of some…
By scoring three goals in the first 2 min 13 s of the game, the Buffalo Sabers had, on Tuesday, neither more nor less than the seventh best start to a game in NHL history. This achievement, however, left a bitter taste for the Habs, who had recently become an expert in false starts. In the last two games, five goals have been conceded before the three-minute mark. “We have to get back on the right track, these are things that we must not let slip,” David Savard told reporters in the locker room after the game. If we start adopting this trend, it will be difficult to win games. Note also that after 16 games, the CH was the best team in the NHL in the first period, with only 7 goals allowed. Since then, he has conceded 7 other goals, but in 3 small games.
Skinner in ecstasy
If he could, Jeff Skinner would probably play 82 games a year against the Canadiens. Tuesday night, he became the first player in NHL history, excluding those of the CH, to achieve two performances of five points in Montreal. Since the start of the 2017-2018 season, he has now collected 24 points against the Flanelle, second only to this chapter by Mitch Marner (25) and Auston Matthews (31). Notable detail: the latter two needed, respectively, 26 and 24 games to reach these totals. Skinner did it in 15 duels. On Tuesday, his line with Alex Tuch (3 points) and Tage Thompson (4) was simply dominant. When together on the ice five-on-five, this unit had the 16-5 advantage in shot attempts, the Natural Stat Trick site calculated. She also generated six quality scoring chances to just two.
Generous, Allen
Jake Allen is far from being solely responsible for the Habs’ defeat. But it is clear that he is not having a good season. After allowing five goals at five against five on Tuesday, he saw his save percentage in this phase of play drop to .889. Of all the NHL’s No. 1 goaltenders, only Elvis Merzlikins and Jack Campbell do worse. Since the beginning of his career, excluding his rookie season, Allen has every year posted a rate equal to or greater than .912. There are still many games to do better, but he is resolutely starting from afar. After the loss to the Sabers, his teammates came to his defense. “He remains an excellent goalkeeper, he was the victim of bad leaps,” said Juraj Slafkovsky. Martin St-Louis, for his part, said he left him in the game at 3-0 to “give him a fighting chance”. Moreover, as Samuel Montembeault will get the start Wednesday night in Columbus, the coach preferred to keep his auxiliary on the bench so that he remains well rested.
Simon-Olivier Lorange, The Press