(Montreal) The loss of Kirby Dach hurt the Canadian, everyone agrees. “There’s rarely a night goes by that I don’t say to Kent or Martin or someone else on the team: It would have been nice to have Kirby tonight, or Alex Newhook,” Jeff said Gorton, Monday, on TSN Radio.
Tuesday was undoubtedly one of those evenings, and that partly explains why the Canadian offered such timid opposition to the Senators. After 60 minutes of not always intoxicating hockey, the siren sounded, 4-1 Senators. And the Ottawans “turned sword in insult” by celebrating in the center of the ice rink, greeting their mothers in ecstasy in a box, to the sound of loud boos.
Dach or Newhook, therefore, could have helped the Canadian. In fact, a center player would have helped the Habs, period, because the team was stuck with an unusual formation of three centers and nine wingers.
Let’s be clear from the outset: the Canadian was not one Mitchell Stephens away from winning this match. But the absence of Stephens, subjected to the Laval Rocket in the afternoon, led to a multitude of unusual situations.
First, a fourth center would have helped much more than poor Michael Pezzetta, who only made four appearances in the entire match, all four in the first period.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Mines were low at the end of the match on the Canadian bench.
After the match, Martin St-Louis recalled that his team had already played with 3 centers, on certain evenings where he deployed formations of 7 defenders and 11 attackers. “I might have done that, but I wanted to have Pezz on my bench,” he said, because “historically, it can stir up a little more” against the Senators.
Is St. Louis transforming into a modern-day Fred Shero, or did he simply want to elegantly defend Pezzetta, a teammate who accepts his thankless role? Who knows. That’s not the point.
It was actually a question of flexibility that brought the coach into this situation. St. Louis did not have this flexibility that so many employers value. None of his nine wingers in uniform have played center in recent years, in living memory. Ditto for its only reservist up front, Jesse Ylönen.
Result: the head coach had to juggle his combinations all evening. This sometimes led to incongruous situations, for example his second power play unit which was made up of four wingers and a defender. Such a formation can work very well once the play is established in the offensive zone, as wingers can do the work along the boards, in front of the goalie or at the top of the slot.
But it was special to see Brendan Gallagher come out for the initial faceoff of a five-man attack in the middle of the match, just as CH was trying to get back into the game. Gallagher lost the faceoff – his success rate for three years is 36% – it was the only faceoff on this power play and the Habs did not get a shot during the 120 seconds.
After the game, Nick Suzuki and Josh Anderson dismissed the three-center excuse. “It’s up to us to find ways to get through this,” Anderson replied. We have to work harder, smarter, know who is on the ice, things like that. »
PHOTO DAVID KIROUAC, USA TODAY SPORTS
Nick Suzuki
“I think the management is trying to send the best players,” added Suzuki. I like playing with three centers, because it gives me more minutes of play (he played 21 min 47, slightly more than his average of 21 min 6 s). It’s different playing without a center on the power play, but Anderson and Gallagher have a pretty good success percentage. »
“Is it easier to roll four trios? Yes, but playing with three centers can also bring something,” added St-Louis.
Suzuki, however, said he was surprised to have seen Stephens’ name on waivers on Monday (he was supposed to go there before being demoted to Laval). “It was a shock because we no longer had a fourth center, so I wondered what we were going to do. It’s not our decision, obviously. We must do our best. We have already played three centers. »
The reason there was no more room for Stephens was because Tanner Pearson was coming off the injured list and returning to the 23-man roster. With 23 players, a team can count on 3 extras. However, one of the surplus positions has been occupied, since the start of the season, by a goalkeeper, the result of a certain menage a trois that you may have heard about.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Tanner Pearson was back in the Canadiens lineup against the Senators.
Ménage a trois which served the Canadian rather well until very recently. But the three goalkeepers have just delivered ordinary performances in quick succession. That of Allen, Tuesday, came eight days after a brilliant outing against the Colorado Avalanche. Eight days to wait, rather than being able to build on its successes.
So that makes several accommodations, which we will describe as “reasonable” because it gives a punchy title, in order to manage the presence of the three goalkeepers.
Kent Hughes has historically been well served by his patience, in cases where he was “caught” in trading a player. But it will be interesting to see how far his patience goes, now that the situation is becoming more and more restrictive.
Rising
Jayden Struble
PHOTO DAVID KIROUAC, USA TODAY SPORTS
Jayden Struble was solid against the Senators.
After a very rare poor performance on Saturday in Boston, the rookie bounced back. Struble stopped many of the Senators’ attacks.
Falling
Jake Allen
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Jake Allen is foiled by Ridley Greig.
He started the match by allowing a bad goal to Ridly Greig. Controlling his returns was problematic all evening.
The number of the match
4-9-2
This is the Canadian’s record against its Atlantic Division rivals. “Who do we have in our division? It’s not an easy division,” replied Martin St-Louis when the statistic was presented to him.
In details
Nothing advantageous at five against four
The Senators did not play a particularly disciplined match, the Habs took advantage of 7 min 46 sec of numerical advantage. “Benefited” is a big word here. Simple illustration: while the locals were playing five against four, the shots on target were three for the Canadian and three for the visitors, who even scored their first goal with a man less. To be honest, these seven and three quarter minutes were not even the scene of a single scoring opportunity for Martin St-Louis’ men. “We had trouble winning battles,” the head coach said on this subject. We didn’t spend enough time controlling the puck, we didn’t execute when entering the zone… It’s hard to get shots when you don’t have the puck. » In Nick Suzuki’s eyes, it didn’t “click” for this unit. “When you get so many chances, you have to take advantage of them,” he said, clairvoyantly.
Giroux the quarterback
Claude Giroux might as well have put on crampons and a mesh helmet on Tuesday evening. First, in the second period, from the back of his territory, he served a long and skillful pass which hit the boards before landing on the stick of Shane Pinto. He had smelled the opportunity by running at full speed behind the Habs defenders before outwitting Jake Allen. You would have thought you were seeing a wide receiver who executes his route to perfection. “I would never be able to make that pass myself!” », exclaimed Pinto afterwards. Then, in the third period, on the power play, the same Giroux, while the puck was on his stick, tapped the top of his helmet, like a quarterback dictating a play at the line of scrimmage. Immediately, his teammates stepped up, and three passes later, the Senators had a chance to score. “Maybe it was a strategy, maybe not,” Pinto said when asked about the sequence. “It’s a little secret,” added Giroux, smiling.
Light-hearted Senators
Moribund since the start of the calendar, the Senators are finally experiencing happy times. Thanks in particular to two victories against the Habs, they have a 4-1-1 record in their most recent six games. Last week, in the Sens locker room, we highlighted the extent to which we struggled to play complete matches, to finish off our opponents. However, against CH on Tuesday, everyone kept calm in the third period after Johnathan Kovacevic reduced the gap to 3-1. “It’s a step in the right direction on the mental side,” analyzed head coach Jacques Martin. We were able to face some adversity and support moments when the opposing team dominated. We regrouped, we took charge, we took ownership of our skills and we controlled the match. » This meeting was also the second of the “moms’ trip” of the Senators players, who offered two victories as gifts to the first woman in their lives. The atmosphere is decidedly light-hearted around the team, Martin noted. “The guys are more cheerful, more expressive. This is very good, they must learn to appreciate life. » As if to prove him right, the veteran coach had to raise his voice to pronounce these words in order to cover as best he could the ABBA pieces which were playing at the top of their lungs near the locker room. Right next door, said moms were dancing together, as if their sons had just won the Stanley Cup. Our colleague Marc-André Perreault, from TVA Sports, immortalized the scene.
Simon-Olivier Lorange, The Press