It must have been a rather quiet Friday in Brossard, but in the end, the Canadiens’ players had to undergo rather intense training.
“We’re one of the worst teams in the league, so that doesn’t surprise me,” later dropped Tyler Toffoli, who expected to sweat.
One of the worst teams in the league? As of Friday, only the Senators, Kraken and Coyotes were lower than the Canadian in the overall NHL standings. That means the Canadiens are just a little less worse than a rebuilding club, an expansion club, and the Coyotes, who have been finding new ways to sink since 1996.
In short, for a team returning from a presence in the final, it is not very good company.
“No one other than us can make a difference,” added Toffoli. We have to do it on our own, otherwise there will be changes, one way or another, and the guys won’t like it. ”
That’s good to say. The notion of changes will undoubtedly circulate quite often in the vicinity of Brossard and the Bell Center over the next few days, and this is certainly not foreign to the Canadiens’ record (4 wins in 19 games), nor to the numerous defeats of the club, all created creatively.
To this end, we could probably put dozens of statistics here, all as painful, but for your own pleasure, we chose to retain this one: of the 13 defeats of CH in regular time this season, 9 were conceded by a gap of 3 or more goals. That obviously includes this dismal 6-0 against Pittsburgh Thursday night at the Bell Center.
The Nashville Predators come to the Bell Center on Saturday night, and for the Canadiens, it might be a good idea to win this one. And the next 10 meetings too.
“In this market, you expect you to win, and you don’t win,” said Josh Anderson. We must stop feeling sorry for our fate. We have to go on with two consecutive victories just so that we can feel better.
“We are not doing our games well at the moment. I do not know why. We don’t play together and as a team, we need to better support our defenders and goalkeepers. We give too many good chances to score the opponent […] We’ve played enough games, we should know the system by now. We changed the system a bit after 10 games. But we’re prepared, we should know what to do. ”
With the defeats will come the rumors, and in such a context, the general manager Marc Bergevin is already singled out. Since a coach was sacked last winter, it would be surprising if Dominique Ducharme paid the price for this false start. Which brings us back to Bergevin, who is still without a contract for the next season.
“Everyone here is having a hard time,” Anderson added. No one expected that. It’s up to us to turn the tide, to fight. (Bergevin) prepared this team as best he could, it’s not the managers’ fault. He’s built a team that can win and we’re not doing that right now. So it’s up to us, not management. ”
In the immediate future, therefore, it is the club that you have in front of you that will have to pull through. Carey Price has still not taken part in training with the team, and there will be no miracles in the deal or waiver market.
“Of course there is frustration, recognized Dominique Ducharme on Friday. We are very well aware of what is going on. We come here every day, and the guys are working, they are getting ready. They want to get results… but the results don’t come. ”
Allen, not for now
Jake Allen, out of the game since November 13 with a concussion suffered during a game against the Red Wings in Detroit, is expected to return to the game shortly, but it will probably not be for Saturday night at the Bell Center. , when visiting the Nashville Predators. “The chances that he will be there are slim,” noted Dominique Ducharme. Recall that Allen was the goaltender most often employed at the time of his injury, with 14 games played. Ducharme did not provide further details about his training on Saturday.