Penguins 6 – Canadian 3 | They weren’t ready

“We weren’t ready,” Alex Newhook said. Kaiden Guhle used the same words. At the start of the match, “we weren’t on point, we were messy,” suggested Brendan Gallagher.

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That’s good to say, but the defensive horror film that was presented at the Bell Center on Monday evening was only the fourth game of this 2024-2025 campaign. The Halloween before time, which ended in a 6-3 defeat for the Canadian at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The same morning, Martin St-Louis was delighted with the “great improvement” of his men five against five. This Thanksgiving, it will undoubtedly be difficult for him to be grateful for the effort he saw them deploy in this phase of the game come evening.

According to the reference site Natural Stat Trick, at five-on-five, the Penguins had 16 quality scoring chances. This is already the second time this season that CH has been so generous, in four matches, let’s remember. For comparison, last year, it happened six times in 82 outings, including two in April, when we were essentially playing, as Herbert Léonard said, for pleasure.

Among the defenders, Lane Hutson experienced the first poor performance of his young career, when he assisted on three opponent goals at five on five. It was also difficult for David Savard and Mike Matheson, to name a few. Among the attackers, Kirby Dach’s trio did virtually nothing good, and that of Nick Suzuki, despite a chemistry that seemed to have returned, was costly.

This is precisely the main unit that was on the ice for the Penguins’ fifth goal. The one who “hurt”, says Martin St-Louis. Literally, because he gave the visitors a 5-3 lead. And symbolically, because it hurt to watch.

Defenseman Matt Grzelcyk came out of his defensive zone by crossing Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky with an ease that we don’t know whether to be impressed or saddened by. Then Cole Caufield, in retreat, seemed to decide midway that it was no use. Kris Letang must not have scored many goals so easily in his career.

After the meeting, Martin St-Louis remained rather circumspect. He talked about his team’s annoying habit of trying too many “cute” plays [cute] at its blue line. “It went the other way quite often,” he noted.

To journalists who questioned him about defensive details, he responded a few times that he had to watch the match again and review the sequences in question before making a decision. After almost three full seasons of listening to him, we have long understood that this is his way out when he does not want to blame a player or a group of players.

No more moral victories

The head coach’s tone was not complacent, however. And the atmosphere was not any better in the locker room, quite the contrary. Brendan Gallagher indicated, as after last Thursday’s defeat in Boston, that the team had to “learn” from this defeat against the Penguins. But he also said there was “no moral victory.” “Not anymore,” he insisted.

The nuance is interesting. Even if he is aware of the famous reconstruction underway, the veteran has always judged his performances and those of his teammates on the results. He never tried to disguise defeats. In this sense, he has not changed his speech. His “not anymore” nevertheless adds, it seems to us, an additional layer to this state of mind, especially after three years during which, around him, almost all errors, all defeats were excused.

Before the meeting, Alex Newhook said, the troops had been warned. It was necessary to show “maturity” and deploy “from the initial throw-in” the same effort that allowed the CH to win last Saturday against the Ottawa Senators. It took 13 and a half minutes before the locals got their first shot on target. And it took the players in white and yellow to take a 2-0 lead for those in red to show signs of life.

It is true that in terms of maturity, the Penguins started with a head start, having 10 thirty-year-olds in uniform. Their level of disorganization in the second period, however, betrayed the fact that wisdom does not justify everything. The Canadian erased a 0-2 deficit to take a 3-2 lead. Before losing it and escaping the match, as we know.

“You have to find a way to win games like this,” said Alex Newhook, who also felt that Samuel Montembeault, in front of the net, “deserved better” from the skaters in front of him.

Indeed, the one-way relationship between goalkeepers and teammates, observed last season, is not over. Masked men constantly get defenders and attackers out of trouble, but the opposite is not true on high-scoring nights.

False starts like Monday’s necessarily put all the pressure on the goalkeeper, who has no choice but to be perfect. When it’s not, it goes south quickly. Montembeault, in fact, deserves better. Especially that his teammates are ready.