Canadian head coach Dominique Ducharme said on Wednesday that examinations of striker Jonathan Drouin did not reveal symptoms of concussion and his state of health will be reassessed on a daily basis.
Drouin fell in battle in the first period against the Red Wings, when he was hit in the left side of the face by a throw from teammate Brett Kulak.
“We really want to take all the necessary precautions,” said Ducharme, who nevertheless hinted that Drouin could be in uniform against the Islanders.
If so, then Drouin will find himself back in the middle of Mike Hoffman and Josh Anderson.
A model match
In addition, Dominique Ducharme said Wednesday that his troop could build on the performance of the day before, when it defeated the Detroit Red Wings 3-0, at the Bell Center.
“Yesterday (Tuesday) it was our team. I’m happy with the way we played, he said. It was our way of playing.
“We don’t need to talk about last season anymore. We played a model match, he added. In our previous victories, we had done some good things. But yesterday was what we want to do. “
For his part, Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill was unimpressed by his squad’s effort, saying she had “played like it was a pre-game”.
The Red Wings were also deprived of two of their best forwards: Dylan Larkin (personal reasons) and Tyler Bertuzzi (unvaccinated).
However, this is not what will temper the enthusiasm in the Montreal camp.
“We respected the system of play and we relied on each other well,” said forward Christian Dvorak. When we play like this, we have a good chance of winning.
“We applied a good front chess, we won the battles for the puck. It was a perfect example of what we need to do. “
Ducharme reiterated being aware that the Canadian (3-8-0) was not going to win his last 71 games in a row. He believes, however, that if his squad can play more often as they did on Tuesday, they will be more successful than in their first 10 games of the campaign, when they scored just two wins on their record.
“We understood how much easier it is for our goalie, for our defensemen, with and without the puck, and for our forwards,” said Ducharme. We looked faster as a team for this reason. We spent less time in the defensive zone for this reason. We gave less chances to score. We understand what kind of effort it takes.
“Our challenge now is not to slow down or lower our level of play,” he added.
This challenge will begin Thursday, when the New York Islanders (3-2-2) will be the visitors to the Bell Center. They have reached the four-a-side in each of the past two years in the playoffs.
“It’s a hard-working, well-structured team,” Ducharme said of the Islanders. It will be a good challenge. Once again, we won’t have the desired result if we don’t bring what we brought (against the Red Wings). “