The Montreal Canadiens are having their worst start to the season in 80 years.
The Habs continued their slide in the Eastern Conference standings by losing for the second time in 24 hours on Sunday, this time by a mark of 4-2 against the Anaheim Ducks.
Head coach Dominique Ducharme’s men completed their four-game trip to the American West with a 1-3 record, and are at 31e and second-to-last in the NHL – just ahead of the poor Arizona Coyotes.
Adam Henrique, Vinni Lettieri, Troy Terry and Sam Carrick, in an empty net, blackened the scoresheet for the Ducks (3-4-3), who thus signed a first victory since that of October 18 against the Flames of Calgary.
Mike Hoffman and Jake Evans fought back for the Canadian (2-8-0, 4 pts), who has his worst record after 10 games since the 1941-1942 season (1-8-1, 3 pts).
“We don’t like it, we’re not happy, that’s for sure,” Ducharme admitted after the meeting. And we will attack the next 10; we cannot change what is being done. We have to be constant. We have to give ourselves a chance every night. We won’t win them all, but tonight we gave ourselves a chance. “
“It’s a game that made the difference, and we have to make sure that we manage these games properly. We have to look forward for the next 10, ”added Ducharme.
The driver of the Montreal club, however, does not believe that the current results can be explained by luck.
“Luck, you create it for yourself.” We look at Jake’s goal [Evans] – this trio brought a lot of energy, pucks to the net, a lot of pressure – and they had that kind of feedback. On the other hand, we had four or five great chances to score, and we missed the net. It’s a matter of confidence, of making sure that we give ourselves a target bigger than a hole, ”summarized Ducharme, visibly disappointed.
The Ducks have therefore converted two of their six power-play superiorities, while the CH have been limited to one goal on four occasions.
Goalkeeper Samuel Montembeault made his second start for the Canadiens this season after October 14 against the Buffalo Sabers. He made 22 saves in the loss.
His opposite, John Gibson, repelled 16 shots in front of the Ducks’ cage.
As has been the case for some time now, the Canadian quickly conceded the first goal to the opponent.
The match was not four minutes old when Henrique was already on the score line. The response was not long in coming, however.
Thirty-three seconds after Henrique’s net, Hoffman took advantage of a power play to defeat Gibson’s vigilance with a lightning reception shot. It was a fourth goal in five games for the Habs newcomer.
Lettieri, however, gave the Ducks a 2-1 lead at 12:47 of the first period. It was his first goal of the campaign, which came during a major penalty imposed on Cédric Paquette for giving tape.
The second period was pretty smooth, at least until Evans, returning to the game after a three-game absence, brought both teams to square one by grabbing a loose puck in the enclave, with 1:55 to play on engagement.
All hopes were then allowed for the third period.
Terry, however, put the finishing touches on a breakaway by beating Montembeault with a nice backhand feint at 10:10. On the streak, Ryan Getzlaf became the leading scorer in Ducks history, with 989 points.
Carrick then sealed the outcome of the game by shooting into an empty net, with 1:10 to go.
The Canadian will therefore have to wait more before signing his first victory at the Ducks’ home since that of March 5, 2014 – a 4-3 win in the shootout.
The Canadian will be back at the Bell Center on Tuesday evening, to host the Detroit Red Wings.
A cascade of bad news
Things had started badly for the Bleu-blanc-rouge on Sunday. Even before the initial faceoff, the Montrealers learned a slew of bad news.
Forward Mathieu Perreault suffered an eye injury – a detachment of the retina, according to the Sportsnet network – and as a result he will have to be absent from the game for two to three weeks.
Brendan Gallagher was also missing, having briefly taken part in the warm-up session. We do not yet know the nature of his injury, as well as the severity of it.
On the Ducks’ side, forward Jakob Silfverberg’s name has been added to the list of players subject to the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol. His teammate Rickard Rakell was also conspicuous by his absence on Sunday, but due to an upper body injury.
On Saturday, the league announced that five San Jose Sharks players, along with their head coach Bob Boughner, have tested positive for COVID-19. The Canadian faced the Sharks on Thursday night, but so far no player appears to have been infected with the virus.
Anyway, the Canadian already has his arms full with his setbacks on the ice. If he had to also have to negotiate with an outbreak of coronavirus in his locker room, that would be the last straw.
Cloakroom echoes
Jake Evans acknowledged that this is one of the toughest streaks of his young NHL career with the Canadiens:
” I do not know what to say. It is difficult to have answers to explain what we are going through at the moment. Everyone puts their shoulder to the wheel and tries to find ways to win games. We’re going to get there, it’s only a matter of time… It’s a very good team, which is tightly knit, and we want to find solutions as quickly as possible. “
Nick Suzuki, the Habs new headliner, said he was disappointed with his own performance:
“I always wanted to be an example for my teammates, but I didn’t do anything today, to be frank; it was probably one of my worst games in my career. I am very disappointed with the way I played, especially in the absence of several of our center players. I have to play better. “
Goalkeeper Samuel Montembeault would have liked to see the goal of Troy Terry, who scored the winning goal for the Ducks in the third period:
“He surprised me, because he was coming with a lot of speed and he made a small gesture forwards. I really didn’t think he would be able to do two little “moves” like that; I expected a lot more to throw. It’s certainly disappointing, but I think we played well, especially in the third period. In a situation like ours, it’s important for a goalkeeper to make an important save like that at the end of the game, and I didn’t do it today. “