Senators 4 – Canadian 3 | The art of (badly) getting noticed

Preparatory matches exist to prepare and also to get noticed in the right way, but some Canadian players may not be aware of it.

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Thus, this fifth preparatory game for the Canadian, Tuesday evening at the Bell Center against the Ottawa Senators, turned into very little, except perhaps a big scene where Hercules took over the entire floor.

It started with a questionable hit from Ridly Greig on Kirby Dach, and it didn’t really get any better after that.

“It’s boring to see preparatory matches like that these days,” noted defender David Savard. These are supposed to be preparatory games, not games where there are injuries. That’s not what it’s for. Dach had carried the puck, he was in a vulnerable position. Fortunately he came back into the match. These are shots that are not necessary, especially at this time of year. »

This shot from Greig was not the only one, obviously, and Arber Xhekaj then added to it by trying in turn to unscrew the head of a rival, Tim Stutzle. Xhekaj, expelled from the match, left the ice rink applauding who knows what or who.

This gesture by the Canadian defender – which could earn him a suspension – led to a five-minute penalty, which put his club in trouble, since the Senators ended up scoring three goals during this punishment, which led to a 4-3 victory. In fact, all four goals of the visit were scored on the power play.

Three goals in the same penalty, when it doesn’t count, it’s not so serious, but is Martin St-Louis comfortable with a defender who could do the same thing later, in a real match this time?

“These are conversations that we are going to have,” replied the Montreal coach. I saw his action as a hockey play, but we need to be more disciplined as a team. »

In the Canadian locker room, the few players present perhaps had not seen the same thing.

“You can never criticize a teammate for that,” Jayden Struble said. He has a part to play, it was a dirty move by Greig on one of our best players, so he did the same thing. He does his job, he tries to protect his teammates. I’m not going to criticize him for that. »

Very good, but this decision by Xhekaj comes at a time in the calendar where the evaluations are not completed. Moreover, assuming the return to health of Kaiden Guhle very soon, we can think that the management of the Canadian already knows its seven defenders, a list which surely includes Lane Hutson and also Struble himself, the strongest defender of his gang on this Tuesday evening.

With a better team, Arber

With all that, there is (fortunately!) only one preparatory match left on the Canadian’s schedule, that of next Saturday in Ottawa, a match that the two clubs spent Tuesday evening preparing. What remains to be decided for the Canadian’s thinkers? Not much, except perhaps the identity of the one who will take Patrik Laine’s place on the right of the second trio.

In fact, this two to three months of absence for Laine is “good” news, because it looked worse than that, but the bad news, all the same: the Canadian must now find a replacement.

It was therefore Joel Armia who received this first audition to the right of Dach on Tuesday evening, and the 31-year-old Finn finished his evening with two assists.

Martin St-Louis likes to repeat that “anything is possible” and that there is never anything certain, but Armia seems to be the answer, for the moment anyway. “It’s a place that he is capable of taking,” summed up the coach about him.

We will see if it will be possible to obtain other answers next Saturday. If, of course, both teams decide to play hockey this time.