(Dallas) The good news is that the Canadian’s plane finally landed in Dallas late Thursday afternoon, after a very long departure from Denver, delayed by the weather cocktail that we know.
The bad ? The Canadian must now prepare to face the Stars on Friday night in Dallas.
Bad news, yes, because in the Western Conference, the Stars have the best record at home, with a record of 9-4-3 in front of their fans, the fewest losses in regulation time in this chapter (the Arizona Coyotes have 3 losses at home, but in only 9 games). Also, heading into Thursday night’s games, the Stars had the second-best record of any club in the West.
This is the challenge that stands before the Canadian, coming back from a 2-1 defeat, suffered in overtime, in Denver, against the Avalanche.
Everyone vaguely familiar with the concept of a score that does not indicate the pace of the game? We can probably apply it to this meeting with the Avalanche, where a completely overwhelmed Canadian could only get four shots in the second period, then three shots in the third period.
“We stole a point… if we had been able to collect two points, it would have been downright a burglary,” summed up coach Martin St-Louis very well at the end of the evening, not going there by four paths, as it is often his habit.
There’s been plenty of talk about this team’s bad starts recently, also about this propensity to only play half games, sometimes third games or quarter games, but we can drop the complicated math and bring it all back to just one number, a little less complicated: two.
Because during his last seven games, the Canadian scores an average of 1.85 goals per game, which very often gives games of only two goals scored. In fact, we have to go back to December 6 in Seattle to find the last game of more than two goals by the Canadian in regulation time, while the Montreal club had been able to obtain four against the Kraken.
PHOTO ISAIAH J. DOWNING, USA TODAY SPORTS
Anthony Richard (90)
But there is still some hope.
Anthony Richard has only four NHL games behind the tie, but he showed excellent skating in Wednesday’s game in Denver, in addition to scoring the first goal of his career. Jonathan Drouin is still looking for a first goal this season, but if he continues to play with this mixture of aggressiveness and intensity that we saw in Denver, the points will eventually come, and the goals too .
Josh Anderson hasn’t scored in his last five games, but he had two shots in Denver, and at least this time we got it. seen. It should lead to his ninth goal of the season, sooner or later. And then, if we really want to pour in a kind of optimism with Hallmark sauce, we can simply point out that one day, between now and Friday and the end of the season, Joel Armia will end up scoring too .
While waiting for this miracle – Christmas is coming and everything is possible, after all – the Canadian will try to continue this difficult journey in good spirits… and victory. Other good news: after the Christmas break, the club is heading for Florida, where the team’s plane will probably have a little more ease to take off.