Once again last night, the Montreal Canadiens gave us a very good hockey match against one, if not the best team in the entire National Hockey League.
Indeed, the Habs played a very solid match, being very involved and relentless throughout, which allowed them to pick up two very big points with a 3-2 victory in overtime against the Washington Capitals.
Many will say that it was not the Caps’ best game, which is true, but in the end, it was the Habs who knew how to dominate and leave nothing to Spencer Carbery’s troop.
The Habs players played an excellent match and were once again able to demonstrate great combativeness in each of their appearances.
In short, Martin St-Louis’ troupe plays with a lot of confidence and it shows.
And this confidence, well, it has allowed the Habs for several weeks to quickly move up the rankings and find themselves well placed in the race for the playoffs.
This morning, the Canadian is one point away from the playoffs with a game in hand over the Columbus Blue Jackets, in addition to being just two points behind the Boston Bruins with three fewer games played.
In short, each match and each point is now very important for CH, which forces Martin St-Louis to coach even more to win.
And that means that the Habs head coach will play his best players as often as possible and will trust the players who give him good hockey.
Those who do not perform will therefore be punished, as was the case last night with Michael Pezzetta and Jayden Struble.
Indeed, both players were benched more often than not as evidenced by their combined ice time of 8:14.
St-Louis therefore did not like their play last night and did not trust them, especially considering the fact that they were responsible for three of the four penalties obtained by the CH.
Pezzetta (3:05 of ice time) gave the Caps a power advantage early in the game, which allowed Jakob Chychrun to open the scoring, and Struble (5:09 of ice time) had two penalties in the match, including one just after Pezzetta’s.
In short, this is the kind of match where St-Louis has no choice but to shorten its bench while waiting for the real elements of its lineup, namely Patrik Laine and David Savard, to return.
The CH was able to beat the Caps with 11 attackers and five defenders, but that will not always work, and reinforcement will be needed.
St-Louis won’t always be able to get by by rotating on the second line wing and giving Arber Xhekaj a different partner each shift.
We saw it yesterday, but Xhekaj looked bad on a few plays, especially the Caps’ second goal. He misses Savard and it shows.
In short, the Canadian is getting by for the moment, but it will take reinforcements very soon to avoid this type of situation again.
In Pezzetta’s case, his career in Montreal is nearing its end, and in Struble’s case, well, at 23, he’s still developing, but if he’s so little trusted, it may very well be that he ends up being overtaken in the hierarchy.
It is also important to say that if CH continues to climb the rankings and fight for the playoffs, Kent Hughes will not have the choice to look for better depth than Pezzetta and Struble.
If we don’t want to harm the success of the Laval Rocket by recalling Alex Barré-Boulet and Gustav Lindstrom for example, well, we will have to seek help via transaction.
This remains to be monitored closely.
In Burst
– To note and follow.
– It is an opponent with great confidence who will face the CH this evening at the Bell Centre.
– To be continued today.
– Not to be forgotten.
– Very good news.
