The Canadian | The journey of all perils

About ten years ago, the annual trip to California was dreaded by teams from the east. Add to the long plane ride and jet lag the fact that the Kings won the Stanley Cup in 2014, the Sharks reached the final in 2016 and the Ducks had five straight 100-point seasons from 2013 to 2018 .

A young Tanner Pearson wore the Kings colors at that time. “When I arrived in the NHL, the trip to Anaheim, Los Angeles and San José was the corner of death,” recalled the veteran Canadian winger on Wednesday, a few hours before the team jumped into the plane to Fort Lauderdale.

Pearson didn’t think he said that well. The Canadian will play his next four matches in Sunrise, Tampa, Nashville and Raleigh. Four places where, for years, the Habs have essentially served as cannon fodder. Think of the Washington Generals, Glass Joe in Punch Out! ! or any song that was opposed to Bed of Roses at the Combat des clips in 1992. They all had as much chance of success as the CH in the coming days. At least if recent history is anything to go by.

In its last 10 games in each of these four cities, Montreal has a combined record of 5-28-7. You read correctly: 5 victories in 40 matches. The team scored 87 goals and allowed 163. Roughly speaking, it’s as if Montreal suffered 4-2 defeats on average. In fact, there were close matches, but also beatings of 9-5 in Florida, 4-0 in Tampa, 6-2 in Carolina.

As a player in the East when the three California clubs terrorized the NHL, St. Louis can understand Pearson’s comparison. “They were good teams. Luckily, we only went there once. Now, we face these three teams (Florida, Tampa and Carolina) more often,” recalled the Canadian head coach.

Since the start of the 2018-2019 season, the Lightning, Hurricanes and Panthers respectively occupy the 2^e4^e and 6^e ranks in the NHL for percentage of points amassed. During this period, the Lightning won the Stanley Cup twice and lost in the final once, the Panthers reached the final last year and the Hurricanes played in the Eastern final twice. .

St. Louis stayed local with his metaphor for the day, comparing this trip to holes 11, 12 and 13 at Augusta. “The Masters Tournament is approaching and in my eyes, Florida, Tampa and Carolina, it’s Amen Corner. You have to deliver your best performance, be precise, committed, manage risk. It’s like Amen Corner, the way these teams are built. And you have Nashville, too. »

Bad memories

It’s not just in the NHL. At every level, players prefer certain arenas and hate others.

Kaiden Guhle has bad memories of his trips to Saskatoon, when he played for the Raiders in the WHL. He remembers that Prince Albert had difficulty unraveling the mystery of the Saskatoon Blades.

Checked, Guhle did not suffer that much, compared to what his current team is experiencing in Florida. He won 5 of his 13 games in Saskatoon.

Jordan Harris, an NCAA Northeastern University product, names Boston College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst among the places that gave him the most headaches. His memory is precise; Northeastern was 1-4-0 against each of those two teams on the road during Harris’ stint.

The players were well aware of their problems, not so much during the matches as in the preparation. “We said to ourselves: we haven’t won here in a long time, let’s go get it. It wasn’t: it will be hard, we never win here. The mentality looks like this. Plus, at university, we prepare all week, we know we have this game coming up, it’s extra motivation. »

The difference is that Harris and Guhle played on teams that competed on equal terms. Difficult to say the same for CH this winter.