The Canadian lost the battle of the special units and two other soldiers Thursday night at the PNC Arena.
Jonathan Drouin and Brendan Gallagher fell in battle and the Montreal team suffered a 4-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
A few minutes before the start of the meeting, the Habs announced that Drouin was weakened by a virus unrelated to COVID-19 and that he would therefore miss the match. Badass Brandon Baddock replaced him and made his career debut in the NHL.
For his part, Gallagher did not return to the game in the third period.
“Jonathan was not feeling well before the game. He did a quick test for COVID and the result was negative, explained Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme. He participated in the warm-up, but he had no energy. We hope it will be correct for the next game.
“In Brendan’s case, he’s injured his lower body. We believe it is not too serious. His condition will be reassessed on a daily basis. “
The Canadian was already deprived of 13 players for reasons related to COVID-19 and six others by virtue of injuries. The meeting took place despite everything.
“I hope our guys come back healthy. The rest, what the league is going to do, I have no control over, ”Ducharme recalled.
Unlike Tuesday, when the Habs had shown great things in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Canadian was never in the game against the Hurricanes.
Teuvo Teravainen scored two goals, while Nino Niederreiter and Seth Jarvis also hit the target for the Hurricanes (22-7-1). Jaccob Slavin had three assists and Sebastian Aho two, while Antti Raanta turned back 26 shots to be credited with a 14th career shutout.
Samuel Montembeault made 32 saves in net for the Canadiens (7-22-4), who was shut out for the fourth time this season.
The Hurricanes won the special teams war, scoring three power play goals on five occasions. They also hit the nail on the head.
For its part, the Habs were 0-for-5 in numerical superiority.
“Five against five, I think we did some good things. Unfortunately, we did not manage to score on our chances, analyzed Ducharme. Five against five, it ended 0-0. It was really the special teams that made the difference in the game. “
The Canadian will play his next game on Saturday afternoon, when he visits the Florida Panthers.
No size
The Canadian had a good time early in the game, but was unlucky as Jake Evans reached the post after 1:07 of play.
The Hurricanes finally opened the scoring on the power play after 10:46 of play. Niederreiter took advantage of a comeback to beat Montembeault.
The local players seemed to take off after that first goal and they quickly widened the gap, this time outnumbered, at 13:29. Teravainen took advantage of a pass from Aho in a two-on-one attack.
The Canadian got an opportunity to close the gap before the end of the first period, but Cédric Paquette in turn reached the post.
The Habs shot in the foot in the second period being punished three times.
Montembeault kept the fort until Teravainen beat him with a receiving shot with 2:59 left on the throw-off on a power play.
The Canadiens’ only good chance in the second period belonged to Lukas Vejdemo, but he was unable to beat Raanta on a comeback halfway through the line-up.
Jarvis nailed the Habs’ coffin with 9:08 left in the third period, again on the power play. He completed a passing game started by Slavin and Andrei Svechnikov.
Cloakroom echoes
Nick Suzuki insisted that the level of motivation was the same for the Canadiens despite the circumstances.
“I am motivated every time I go on the ice. We all want to show that we deserve our place here. We play in the NHL, it’s not a bad lifestyle. We want to do the best we can. We all worked hard, but we were up against a good team and we were unable to put the puck in the net. “
Cédric Paquette for his part admitted that the situation was becoming more and more difficult to accept.
“It’s not ideal. Before the game, I looked around the bedroom and we talked about it. It doesn’t make sense. Everyone is working hard, we played well five on five and we try not to complain, but it gets hard to watch the guys fall down every day.
“We don’t want to complain, but of course we all have questions. We do not know how many injuries or cases of COVID it will stop. We come to the arena to do our job. We control what we control, but it’s really not easy. “
26-year-old Brandon Baddock was happy to make his debut in the NHL no matter what.
“It’s a dream come true. I have worked hard to get here and have waited a long time for this opportunity.
“You have to get your chance one way or another. There are so many good players in this league. When the opportunity arises, you should be grateful and try to take advantage of it. “