Does Kent Hughes have magician skills hidden somewhere? We will know that very soon.
We will find out very soon, yes, because the trade deadline is on the horizon, and right now, the Canadiens players who are of interest to others must be counted on the fingers of one hand. And even.
By the way, scouts who watched Saturday night’s soporific game at the Bell Centre, a fine 60 minutes of broken plays, set-pieces and stoppage time, must have wondered what they were doing there.
Because it is not within the framework of this 5-2 defeat, suffered against the Ottawa Senators, that the price of Canadian players on the market has been able to skyrocket. It may even be the opposite.
Considering, for example, that earlier in the day the Winnipeg Jets paid the price for a 2024 second-round pick for Nino Neiderreiter, Kent Hughes will have to use David Copperfield-style subterfuge to pass on unwanted items to someone else.
In the meantime, Martin St-Louis swears that the rumors approaching March 3 will not disturb his sleep.
“It’s part of the game, replied the coach of the Canadian Saturday night. It’s not like I’m looking forward to the day after March 3; I can’t wait for the next game. We will take the plane (Sunday), we will adapt to the jet lag. Then we will prepare for Tuesday’s game (in San Jose). I can’t wait for that. »
At the end of the evening, and after the availability of Martin St-Louis, the Canadiens published an update on the situation of the injured, and among other wonders, we learned that Joel Edmundson was going to be on the trip and also, that he was going to be practice on Monday.
This obviously does not guarantee that he will play during this trip to California, and also, even if he does end up playing, who will want to take a chance on him at this point in the season? Sean Monahan won’t even be on the trip.
So this is it.
Those who hoped for fireworks in the camp of the Canadian before the date of March 3 will undoubtedly be disappointed, a disappointment which will perhaps be as sharp as listening to Chinese Democracy, perhaps the greatest of all the disappointments.
But that’s the reality of a club trying to rebuild without really knowing where to start.
“We are starting to see that we are playing better and better as a team, explained defender David Savard, while trying to see the glass half full. We manage to create chances to score, we move in the right direction, even if it is perhaps not the result we wanted this time. »
Also at the end of the evening, Kent Hughes was in the Canadiens locker room, first to congratulate colleague Pat Hickey on his retirement. The GM of the Canadian, however, was not wearing a top hat, nor did he have a cane that throws flames in his possession.
The magic tricks will no doubt have to wait.
Rising
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Mike Matheson
A goal, and in addition, we see this offensive talent which seems to sleep in him.
Falling
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
It’s getting harder and harder to think that another club will want to get this player by Friday.
The number of the match
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Samuel Montembeault, Corey Schueneman and Dylan Gambrell
.773
Samuel Montembeault’s save rate in Saturday night’s loss.
They said
We played well, especially five against five, we had our chances, but we didn’t know how to take advantage of our chances. If we had been able to take advantage of our chances, maybe the result could have been different.
David Savard
This is certainly not the result we wanted, but I remember that we fought well. We played well overall.
Michael Pezzetta
It’s really frustrating. They have our number this year. I know we were excited to see them tonight, because we were playing well, we were confident, we thought we could beat them.
Mike Matheson
They made a big push in the second period. We spoke to each other during the second intermission, we thought that the two points were important in the standings. It was good that the last two lines contributed to the attack.
Derick Brassard
He skates so fast, he’s a big guy who protects the puck well and he has a mean shot. He can bring a lot of attack if he has confidence.
Mathieu Joseph, about Julien Gauthier
Interview by Guillaume Lefrançois, The Press
In details
A comfortable goalkeeper
He may not have scored like Linus Ullmark for the Bruins, but Mads Søgaard has shown he’s not afraid to use his stick. At only his 6e starting in the NHL, the Senators goaltender multiplied outings to intercept the puck and attempt raises. On one of them, he also obtained an assist, since Brady Tkachuk grabbed his pass before sending the puck to Drake Batherson, who scored the fourth goal for the Ottawans.
Last season, the 6-foot-7 Dane had two assists in 35 AHL games. “We try to play well in front of him. The organization expects a lot from him and he is very young. For us, it’s one more motivation for him not to have 50 shots per game. He plays very well with the puck, and against these goaltenders, it’s hard to establish a forecheck,” said forward Derick Brassard.
Gauthier’s face
If there are two rivals who know each other well, it’s Julien Gauthier and Samuel Montembeault. The Senators forward and the Canadiens goaltender played in the QMJHL from 2013 to 2017, as division rivals, one in Val-d’Or, the other in Blainville-Boisbriand. In the American League, in Charlotte and Springfield respectively, they faced each other again in the same division, full-time from 2017 to 2019.
So when Gauthier went two-on-one in the third period, in possession of the puck, he had an idea of the tendencies of the goaltender in front of him. So he tried a shot, awfully precise, and that’s how he scored his first goal in a Senators uniform. “I still scored a couple against him in the juniors! joked Gauthier. He does a good job with the Canadian. But on that, I saw a nice angle and I wanted to shoot there. »
Guillaume Lefrancois, The Press