The good news for the Canadian is that his record will be reset… The bad news is that real life will begin at that point. And that the last two columns could spin a lot faster than the first.
Posted at 12:18 a.m.
Updated at 0:29
The Habs lost 5-4 on Tuesday night to the Ottawa Senators. The number of defeats in preseason games now stands at six… in as many starts. With two final games, to be played Thursday and Saturday in Newfoundland and New Brunswick against these same Senators, the coaching staff will logically begin to tighten some bolts. The roster was already slimmed down by nine players on Tuesday, including forwards Owen Beck and Brandon Gignac late in the evening.
The experiments continue, of course, since it’s still a training camp and it’s not officially over. In defense, a hot topic of the last few days, the next cuts will be heavy with meaning, with several young skaters in the race for available positions.
Certain elements, however, are becoming clearer. Some hints of real life, the one after the camp.
In attack, duos solidify. The combination of Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki goes without saying. Christian Dvorak and Brendan Gallagher, who didn’t play Tuesday, should also be spending quality time together, head coach Martin St-Louis has warned. “Kirby Dach, I’m trying to figure out who we can put with him,” he added. “Monahan too. »
Two who seem to love each other are Jake Evans and Rem Pitlick. Along with Joel Armia, they were the Habs’ most effective unit on Tuesday, holding off the main Ottawa line and contributing very effectively up front.
To make matters worse, Armia couldn’t finish the game after being hit in the hand by an accidental stick from Josh Norris. Emil Heineman was also injured, and it’s unclear whether the two will be able to fly away with the team on Wednesday.
The complicity between Evans and Pitlick, however, speaks for itself. The two had already exploded last Saturday, against these same Senators. And they did it again on Tuesday.
“I think they complement each other well,” noted Martin St-Louis. Jake and Rem have always played well together. Armia has a good throw, he’s responsible and he brings weight. »
“I think it’s something that could stay,” he added, regardless of the Finn’s injury.
“We’re going to love playing together”
Pitlick, too, would see himself going a long way with these two. He’s known Evans since college and even back then recognized his passing skills, a quality he considered “highly valued” in a linemate. And Armia has what the other two don’t have, which is a heavy throw and toughness. “We’re going to love playing together,” predicted Pitlick.
The latter, moreover, is revealed as one of the first winners of this camp. Nothing is certain for him yet, but he was resolutely starting from afar. About ten days ago, we saw him fighting for the position of 14e attacker, an unenviable position when you know that only 12 of them are in uniform for a match.
“Things can change in so many ways! “, he himself abounded. Last season, he seemed to have fallen into the eye of Martin St-Louis. If he manages to carve out a position on the fourth line, he can say mission accomplished.
The thing is however not understood. Because, as we have already said, there are many, many attackers still with the big club. Including the injured Armia and Heineman, they are still 20. A center player will be transferred to the wing. St-Louis would not confirm it, but Sean Monahan seems the most likely candidate.
When determining its final formation, St-Louis will therefore have a serious puzzle to solve among its wingers. Pitlick might be the easy choice for a cut. Unless he manages to do what he hadn’t done so far in his career: make himself indispensable.
” Revision ”
In defense, the experiments will continue for a little longer. A combination, perhaps the only one, which however seems the most solid, is that of David Savard and Kaiden Guhle.
The latter still played a convincing match on Tuesday. A late night mishap – he was unable to control a bouncing puck – led to the Senators’ fifth goal. But it will take more to shake it, assured his partner. Savard went to see him to make sure the young man didn’t worry too much. He was reassured.
“There’s not much to do or say because he knows exactly what happened,” Savard said. A bad jump happens to everyone. It happened to me and it will happen to me again…”
“It’s just flat when it happens in front of 20,000 people at the end of the match! added the veteran with a smile.
The next matches, Savard sees them as the “review” before the final exam. “We still have a good week before game number 1 [de la saison], he pointed out. We learned something new every day, that’s a lot in a short time for the players. There, it is the revision, it is necessary to put everything together. »
Rising
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Joel Armia
Joel Armia
His goal, scored with a shot of rare violence, is the reason why supporters are enraged on evenings when the Finn is invisible. A good complement to Jake Evans and Rem Pitlick on a defensive trio capable of generating a few attacks.
Falling
Juraj Slafkovsky
Was the step too high? His promotion to the first line, in a second game in two nights, did not go as hoped. A few awkward falls and passes made him look bad.
The number of the match
22 min 15 sec
In his first exhibition game, Nick Suzuki was busy. By spending more than 22 minutes on the ice, he was the Habs’ most used player, just behind… Juraj Slafkovsky!
In details
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Owen Beck’s beautiful story at this 2022 camp is over.
Beck and Gignac entrenched
Owen Beck’s great story at this 2022 camp is over, but he will not leave empty-handed. After the match, the Canadiens announced that they had cut him. Earlier in the day, however, the team confirmed that Beck had signed his NHL entry contract. The 18-year-old center will now report to his junior club in Mississauga, OHL. A second-round pick, Beck stood out at the rookie tournament in Buffalo, and continued to deliver strong performances in camp. He was more discreet in Tuesday’s loss, however. Author of a beautiful sequence with Emil Heineman at the start of the match, we then saw him less, although his greetings to the intimidating Brady Tkachuk, at the end of the second period, are worthy of mention. Another forward, Brandon Gignac, was also cut. He will report to the Laval Rocket, with whom he has a contract.
The numerical disadvantage, the priority
Unusual scene in training Tuesday morning: Martin St-Louis gathered his men for a good half-dozen minutes, in order to give them a long explanation. The head coach had drawn lines on the ice to divide the defensive territory, and added circles to teach a notion of positioning. The idea was to correct irritants on the penalty kill, where his team had an atrocious 60% success rate in preseason games. Except that once the evening came, the CH had to defend themselves short of a man only once, at the very start of the match. Thirty seconds later, the shorthandedness was already over, because Alex DeBrincat had beaten Samuel Montembeault with a one-timer, the result of a cross pass from Claude Giroux.
A combination to watch out for?
Speaking of this duo… During Giroux’s 12 full seasons in Philadelphia, no player scored 40 goals. Here in Ottawa, he is paired so far with DeBrincat, who has already reached this number twice, and who is only 24 years old. However, the current already seems to pass between the two small attackers. After DeBrincat’s winning goal in overtime on Saturday, on a pass from Giroux, the duo came back on Tuesday, each scoring a goal on a pass from the other. The Tkachuk-Norris-Batherson unit was already dangerous last year, but the arrival of DeBrincat and Giroux means that the Senators will have an equally threatening second unit. Good news for the Ottawans, because with a suspicious defensive squad and injured goaltender Cam Talbot, 2-1 wins could be rare at the start of the season…
Guillaume Lefrancois, The Press
They said
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Cole Caufield and Brady Tkachuk
It went well. The first games in the NHL are never easy. I’m proud of him. He does not give up, he tries simple games. He is strong. He will find solutions.
Cole Caufield, on his association with Juraj Slafkovsky
With a guy like him, you have to be ready, the puck can happen at any time. That’s why it’s the National League, it was a national pass! He hasn’t lost anything. He succeeds in games like that with each presence.
Caufield on Nick Suzuki’s pass on his goal
We played well in the third period, we made a push. Even if we don’t win, we improve collectively.
Kaiden Guhlé
If he had asked me to fight, instead of jumping on me, I would have thought it was just a fight. But when he jumped on me, I understood that it was in connection with [le tournoi des recrues à Buffalo].
Arber Xhekaj, on his fight with Mark Kastelic
We see at all the presences what he can do. He was dominant, he gives us momentum. He’s creative with the puck, he’s responsible, he rarely makes costly mistakes.
David Savard, about Nick Suzuki
He is a competitor, he fights good battles, he has a lot of courage. You know what you’re going to get in every game with him. He is fun to watch.
Martin St-Louis, about Rafaël Harvey-Pinard
Interview by Guillaume Lefrançois and Simon-Olivier Lorange, The Press