The Canadian demands that we take him seriously

In the word New Year’s Eve, there is the word awakening.

The Canadian is celebrating the arrival of the new year by being on its most convincing momentum since the arrival of Martin St-Louis, and its 3-2 victory against the Vegas Golden Knights once again suggests that all pieces are falling into place.

It must have been a journey full of dangers. It is every holiday season.

After placing a few stones and improving his fortunes, we could easily imagine the Canadian being called to order by certain powers of the NHL and seeing the distance he still had to go before being really taken seriously .

He didn’t want to hear anything.

And now as the year 2024 ends, the CH must indeed be taken seriously.

After beating the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning in quick succession, he surprised the Golden Knights by achieving what he had never done this season, winning after shooting from back after 40 minutes of play.

A little over five weeks ago, the Golden Knights came to the Bell Center and beat the Habs by scoring five unanswered goals in the second period. It was one of those matches – there were a few – where the opponent took him to the wires before knocking him out.

How far we were from this dynamic on Tuesday afternoon!

The Canadian had only won two games this season (2-12-3) after allowing the first goal, and he saw the Golden Knights double their lead just before the end of the first period. The more fragile and less convinced version of this team might not have recovered. Not in a third match in four days.

However, the faith that this team now demonstrates in its own means, added to the fact that it was galvanized by two big victories in Florida, has given rise to the resources to return to the match and be the best team in the second half. meeting.

It is also the improvement of Dach

Allow us to return to this famous match of November 23, because the rout that evening against Vegas had forced Martin St-Louis to demote Kirby Dach and Juraj Slafkovsky to the fourth line. Dach admitted after the meeting to having made a shitty turnaround on the Knights’ second goal. It wasn’t going to be the end of the problems for the big center player.

The scenario was different for Dach on Tuesday.

Yes, he committed another shitty turnaround on the home side’s first goal, although part of the blame goes to the defensive deployment on the Knights’ three-on-three attack.

His line spent the rest of the period buzzing and trying to make up for its mistake, at least until Patrik Laine committed a costly turnover in his territory and the Golden Knights made it 2-0 with only 11 seconds to go first.

It was a test of character to recover from this kind of bad goal.

But rather than cursing the heavens and telling himself that his progress in recent matches had just melted away with the snow, Dach scored the winning goal later in the game on a two-on-one run with Laine.

A bit lucky, this shot which was intended to be a pass and which made goalkeeper Adin Hill look bad? Maybe, yes. But if bad luck contributes to a player’s lethargy and keeps him in a negative bubble, why should good fortune apologize for participating in his success?

Very quickly we will no longer remember the manner. We will only remember that Dach helped the Canadian win in difficult circumstances and that he has now scored three goals in his last three games.

The improvement of the team is also his own.

Caufield at both ends

From match to match, the Canadian is finding his identity and applying it with more regularity. As has been the case since the start of the trip, CH’s pugnacious forecheck sent the message to the opponent that they probably wanted more than him. Tuesday it was the work of Juraj Slafkovsky along the ramp, it was the chases of Brendan Gallagher…

Defensively, apart from the two failures of the Dach trio and a few sequences where it was a little more difficult for Arber Xhekaj and David Savard in defense, the Canadian did not give much to the Golden Knights.

Cole Caufield worked throughout last season to become a more complete player and he is proving this year that the time invested in the other phases of the game pays off. It’s particularly striking how active his stick is defensively.

Early in the game, while the dangerous Jack Eichel was looking for the Canadian’s best play in the zone, he came from behind to lift his stick and steal the puck from him. End of threat.

The giant steps that the top line has made defensively are crucial for a top line that constantly faces the best opposing lines. They handily won their confrontation against the Eichel trio on Tuesday, in addition to scoring a goal before the star center of the Golden Knights jumped into the fray.

The 100th goal of Caufield’s career, scored on a brilliant pass from Nick Suzuki, gave his team hope at the end of the second period. But we say restored hope…in truth, the Canadian never lost it.

The team didn’t just get their record to .500 in the last few days. She had her most impressive week since eliminating the Golden Knights in the 2021 Conference final.

Here and there

• Samuel Montembeault was excellent against the Lightning and was again excellent against Vegas with, among other things, several big saves in the second period. It’s not always about the volume of shots, it’s about being able to impose yourself when the situation demands it. In Tampa, he made his benchmark save at the expense of Nikita Kucherov, preventing the Lightning sniper from giving his team a chance to get back into the game. Tuesday it was against Victor Olofsson, who let out a nice juicy curse after Montembeault had frustrated him at the goalpost with only 12 seconds to play. Olofsson had the equalizing goal on the blade of his stick… and suddenly he didn’t have it anymore.

• Kirby Dach did not score the winning goal without the shot blocked just before by Josh Anderson, which allowed the Canadian to orchestrate a quick recovery. Anderson continues to find more ways to help his team, and that this defensive action turned into a goal at the other end is a reflection of what’s happening right now.

• CH has only benefited from four power plays in the last three games. Those who see the glass half empty will deplore its difficulties in provoking punishment from the opponent. On the other hand, the three consecutive victories since Christmas have been collected without the help of the power play, which has been surprisingly silent during the streak of six victories in seven games. This is a good sign, in a way, because the Canadian needed to free itself from its dependence on special teams. This is what he did during this period by showing much more convincing play at five against five.