(Nashville) Martin St-Louis will certainly never say it like that. But his team’s defeats, he can probably live with. It’s all in the “process”, he constantly repeats.
What he does not endure, however, is to see his men offer victory as a gift to the opponent. As they have done three times in the last week alone.
It would probably be an exaggeration to speak of “punishment” to describe the treatment he reserved for his players when they returned to work for the start of the new year. But what we saw on the ice of an anonymous Nashville sports center on Monday afternoon was light years away from the good-natured atmosphere that generally reigns at Habs training.
To tell the truth, it was not laughing much, if at all. High intensity exercises. Plenty of one-on-one battles. Restricted area work. Exercises dictated in a categorical tone, sometimes curt, by St-Louis himself or by Adam Nicholas, the skills specialist.
“We have to play with a little more sandpaper,” commented the head coach of the Canadiens. Today is a day of work, not a punishment. »
St-Louis talked about the notion of “accountability”. The one he wants to see his players demonstrate to each other. In order to avoid the “domino effect” that he has witnessed so often in the recent past; an error, a lost battle, which triggers a succession of events which ends in a goal.
“We are too easy to face, he summed up. We don’t win enough battles. »
The most recent, humiliating 9-2 defeat suffered in Washington on December 31, perfectly illustrates this assertion. On the seventh goal of the Capitals, that of Marcus Johansson, it seemed that the CH was evolving in numerical disadvantage so much the locals had the free field. Yet there were indeed five skaters on each side. Highlights of the game invariably show a Montreal defender either poorly positioned or downright overwhelmed.
What the eye has seen, the numbers confirm. In the last three games, the Canadian has been outscored 20-5 in goals, including 13-2 at five against five. At even strength, he got just 40.5% of shots on net and 32% of expected goals, according to Natural Stat Trick. This is certainly what St-Louis had in mind when speaking of an “easy to play” team.
Fixes
Asked about the concrete corrective measures that his team could immediately bring, the coach was categorical. The problem “is not even on the side of the game system”. “It’s winning battles, working harder. I start with that. »
“You can have the whole plan, all the systems you want,” he continued. But if a guy doesn’t do his job, the success percentage drops drastically. And that triggers the domino effect. »
Whatever their boss says, the players themselves have targeted certain flaws in their practices.
Goalkeeper Samuel Montembeault insisted on the importance of “better communication in the defensive zone”. “Let the guys talk to each other and know who is covering who,” he explained, “so that we don’t end up with someone alone behind us”.
The Quebecer did not target a particular sequence. But hearing him speak like that, we instinctively remember the very first goal of last Saturday’s game. After a turnover, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Erik Gustafsson (number 56, in the photo) exchange the puck in the middle of five white jerseys, without anyone really bothering them.
IMAGE FROM NHL SITE
Erik Gustafsson (56) scored the first goal of the game.
We will also think of the Caps’ fourth goal, when a confusion between Cole Caufield, Joel Edmundson and Jordan Harris left Alexander Ovechkin, the most dangerous scorer in NHL history, completely free.
IMAGE FROM NHL SITE
Alexander Ovechkin (top of the screen) is about to give his team a 4-1 lead.
“You have to kill games faster” along the strips, confirmed Nick Suzuki. “We have to be faster on the pucks in the corners, display a higher tempo in defense. We are working on that. »
These improvements, he believes, will have the effect of restoring luster to the attack, which is also far from stellar. The 20 goals conceded in the last three games mark the imagination so much that we almost forget that the Canadian is struggling to score two goals per game.
“Our transition game has lost some feathers, admitted the captain. By killing games in our area, we can turn the tide and launch the counter-attack in a clean way. »
That said, Suzuki didn’t take a dim view of the grueling training he and his teammates had just been through. “After a day off, you had to come back and have a good sweat. We must transpose this intensity into Tuesday’s game” against the Nashville Predators.
There is, indeed, much to be forgiven. The Holidays are coming to an end, and with them the distribution of gifts, we hope at the Canadian.
Savard soon in reinforcement
David Savard took part in the full training of his team, without any constraint, which suggests that he could return to the game on Tuesday evening. We will know in the morning if he will be inserted into training. On Monday, he skated to the right of Jordan Harris, while Chris Wideman, right-handed like Savard, acted as reserve. The Quebecer has missed the last 13 games for his club, which posted a 3-8-2 record in his absence.