Martin St-Louis has nothing to do with his first victory as interim head coach in the NHL. The important thing is the constant progress in the game of the Montreal Canadiens.
Posted at 3:09 p.m.
Updated at 4:27 p.m.
And he sees it, even though Jeff Skinner scored four goals for the first time in his career in the Buffalo Sabers’ 5-3 win over the Canadiens on Sunday afternoon.
“I have to be honest with my players. It has been very intense for four days, with the change of coach and philosophy. I know we haven’t won the last three games [depuis mon arrivée], but when I analyze the parties, I see that the cases I have brought are applied well. They [les joueurs] are able to perform them. I am proud of their work, that they follow my plan and we will continue to progress. We’re not far from starting to get wins and feel better, ”said St-Louis in a post-game videoconference.
Tage Thompson completed the scoring for the Sabers (15-24-8), which snapped a three-game losing streak. Skinner capped a dream day by adding an assist to his record.
Mike Hoffman, Jeff Petry and Joel Armia fought back for the Canadian (8-33-7), who is on a 10-game losing streak. The day before, against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Habs equaled the nine-game losing streak set in 1939-40 – the Montreal franchise’s mediocrity record is 12, in 1926.
Samuel Montembeault got his second start in as many days, having made 40 saves the day before in a 2-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. He concluded his day’s work against the Sabers with 26 saves. Of note, his auxiliary for the occasion was Andrew Hammond, acquired Saturday from the Minnesota Wild in return for forward Brandon Baddock.
His vis-à-vis, Craig Anderson, stopped 29 shots aimed at the Sabres net. It was only the 40-year-old veteran’s ninth start this season.
As has been the tradition since the start of the campaign, the visitors struck early in the game. Skinner opened the scoring at 3:41 of the first period on the Sabres’ second shot.
The Bleu-blanc-rouge recovered after the intermission, and the two teams exchanged five goals in total during the middle period.
Hoffman first tied the game 1-1 after just 71 seconds into the second period, unleashing a hard shot from a tight angle that seemed to surprise Anderson.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Joel Armia (40) scored his second goal of the season.
After Skinner’s second of the game at 10:15, Petry tied the game less than a minute later with a powerful slap shot from the fulcrum. It was Petry’s second goal this season, and his first since Jan. 13 against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Armia then gave CH the lead for the first time in the game by accepting a light pass from Ryan Poehling from behind the Sabers net to beat Anderson with a sharp shot, with 3:51 left in the middle period.
The celebrations were short-lived, however, as Thompson ensured the two teams returned to the locker room tied 3-3 after 40 minutes of play.
On the way back, Petry – him again! – was guilty of an out-of-bounds turnover, and he tried to make up for his mistake by punching Skinner in the face. However, that didn’t stop the Sabers star player from completing his hat trick at 8:16 of the third period, before adding a fourth goal with 1:46 to play.
St-Louis, however, did not want to throw the stone at Petry, despite his setbacks defensively.
“I’m not here to be a negative guy. I will be very positive in order to help them progress in the way I want them to play. […] I know as a player that there are maybe three or four games after each match that I would like to see again. But they are finished, they are gone. You try to learn from these games. Petry is going to learn from those games, and we’re going to talk about it to clean up his game. But he’s also doing a lot of good things that people don’t talk about, ”recalled the former star player of the Tampa Lightning Bay.
The Canadiens were without defender Ben Chiarot, who will be out for a week with a lower-body injury suffered the day before against the Blue Jackets. He was replaced in the starting lineup by Corey Schueneman, who did well under the circumstances. The Canadian also scratched Christian Dvorak, Michael Pezzetta and Cédric Paquette from the starting lineup.
It was the third game between the Habs and the Sabers this season. The New York State team had won the first two, presented on October 14 (5-1) and November 26 (4-1).
It was also the seventh game of an eight home stay for CH. There were 500 spectators in the stands of the Bell Center for the occasion, in accordance with the directives of the Public Health of Quebec.
The Habs will have a few days to prepare for the visit of the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night before visiting the New York Islanders on Sunday afternoon.
Locker Room Echoes
Nick Suzuki wasn’t happy with his work defensively, as he and his line were on the ice for each of the Sabers’ five goals on Sunday afternoon.
“They were opportunistic. We made a few mistakes that they made us pay dearly for. We have to eliminate these mistakes from our game, especially my line and me. We need to play better defensively. »
Ryan Poehling is not surprised by the success of defender Corey Schueneman, recalled urgently to compensate for the loss of defender Ben Chiarot.
“I played him in college – he was at Western Michigan and I was at St. Cloud – so I know him well. He has a very good vision of the game, is confident with the puck and he has a very good skate. It helps, because even if his game isn’t working, he knows he has the kick to fix his mistake. He played very well today. »
Corey Schueneman was surprised to receive the call from the Canadiens in the morning, a few hours before the match against the Buffalo Sabers.
“You always have to be ready to play. I didn’t expect to be called up and play today. I learned it very late, but those who succeed [dans la LNH] are those who know how to take advantage of the opportunities offered to them. […] At the same time, everyone is here to help you, because we play for the same team. It’s a good group, and I think we took a step in the right direction. »