A week of training and important projects for the CH

If happy people have no story, as Chantal Pary sang, the same cannot be said of happy teams.

Particularly when the happiness is very recent like that of the Canadian.

Topics abounded in the locker room on Wednesday after a fairly tough training session, the first of a series of three that will lead the team to its second game of the week, Saturday, against the Vegas Golden Knights.

The CH’s rather atypical schedule this year sometimes compresses several games into a short time or, on other occasions, leaves the team inactive for four or five days. In late October, the team’s four-day break came on the heels of a 7-2 drubbing of the New York Rangers.

The problems were obvious, in particular the defensive shortcomings and the players, with their morale low, tackled their shortcomings. It took a while, but they managed to turn things around…for now.

This time, this strange five-day break comes after a streak of three victories in four games, including the most convincing victory of the season Monday night against the Edmonton Oilers. It will be followed by a dry sequence of 9 duels in 17 days. This week, instead of putting out fires, St-Louis will have the opportunity to light those of passion. And it’s better to take advantage of this respite.

Cole Caufield said Monday evening that the last few weeks, which culminated with the victory against Connor McDavid’s gang, could prove to be a crucial moment in the Canadian’s season. In this sense, the following work week is of the same importance.

What can we do to try to maintain the pace and continue this momentum sustainably?

That’s what we’re talking about this week. We are not in a mode of fixing things, rather of keeping them the same. So it’s a question of how we structure the practices, the exercises, what we talk about, etc. We prepare ourselves so as not to have any hollowsexplained St-Louis.

On the other hand, you always have things to correcthe admitted.

Now, we are in a good position to strengthen the stock which works well. We are not necessarily in collective corrective mode, but rather individual. You never know where your team will be during these breaks so you can’t plan for them. You just have to be ready for what you have to do at that moment and that’s what we do.

In other words, it will be less about gaming systems than about restoring confidence to those who have little to no confidence.

A complicated file

Of all the goaltenders who have played at least 200 minutes in the NHL this season – there are 64 of them – Cayden Primeau comes last in terms of efficiency rate at five on five (.832) as well as in the cumulative of the different phases of the game ( ,845). His performance is far inferior to colleagues who have not had it easy this season like Devon Levi, recently sent back to the American League, or Tristan Jarry, as disheveled as the poet of the same name.

In his last start, on November 11 in Buffalo, the poor man gave up 5 times on 14 shots before being replaced by Samuel Montembeault. And since then, he has been champing at the bit in silence. In addition, due to the reduced schedule, Primeau risks waiting until CH’s visit to Columbus on November 27 before jumping into the fray again.

An endless break after a bumpy final match which is far from ideal.

Sometimes, when you have a bad game, you like to quickly return to the net to put it behind you. It can’t be easy when you’re only playing two weeks latersaid Montembeault, empathetic.

Before adding, but I have confidence in him, he will bounce back. He’s a really good goalkeeper, he’s got a great attitude, he’s going to be fine.

Sixteen days without playing for a healthy goalie is a long time. Especially when it lacks rhythm. Last year, despite a menage a trois that you may have heard about, Primeau had only one 16-day break: from October 24 to November 9, 2023.

It is also a bit of this baggage acquired last season, his best in the NHL, that the 25-year-old American is currently trying to draw from.

I’m inspired by this experience from last year where I didn’t play much. I know how to stay ready. I train like I’m always going to play, I do all the right thingslaunched Keith’s son.

I feel good in training. I’ve been feeling good since the start of the year, actually. I don’t feel like I played poorly in full matches, but rather in a few sequences. If we take away those moments, I think I played pretty well.

Is this evaluation that the backup goalkeeper makes of his game a way for him to keep his head above water? Primeau says it himself: the challenge of this art of keeping the nets is a mental one, first and foremost, and the goalkeeper also consults a sports psychologist outside the team environment. for over a year now to help him in his quest for stability.

St-Louis, in addition, grants starts to the most deserving goalkeeper, a new feature this year, which does not favor his return.

The team can get by without him currently since Montembeault has almost exclusive custody of the net, but the time will come soon when he will need good performances from him to get closer to his goal, which is to be competitive for the longest time. possible.

A stretching file

This problem is not an emergency, but an imperative for the CH reconstruction plan to succeed. Adjusting it is less pressing than in the case of Primeau, but matters a lot more.

This is Kirby Dach. Only 1 goal and 7 assists in 19 games, a differential of -13 ranked second to last in the entire league. It was obvious that his return to the game, after missing the entire last campaign, was not going to be smooth; we can think that this is why the coach is lenient towards him and has not made him skip his turn yet, whether for a few appearances or for a match.

Moreover, for four games now that he has been playing with Juraj Slafkovsky and Nick Suzuki, the trio has produced. He himself collected three assists during this sequence. Except that we are still far from the young center who showed great promise in the winter of 2023.

Dach is supposed to become the second pivot of this formation. If it does not succeed, the plan of Messrs. Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes should be revised, at least partially. St-Louis will try to take advantage of this week of work and rest to restore confidence to its player.

Sometimes a player like that just needs a little luck to get going again. It only takes one good match.

He tries to teach him not to get carried away by his emotions, not to let himself be brought down by a few mistakes or a bit of bad luck.

Dach, St. Louis said, sees the game through a roll of toilet paper.

When you don’t have confidence, you don’t see clearly. But I saw him play like thathe explained, spreading his hands.

When he does it, it’s extraordinary. But it doesn’t happen overnight.

Good news. St-Louis and Dach still have three days left before the next match.

In burst

For the first time since his knee injury suffered on September 28 during a preseason game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Patrik Laine practiced with his teammates on Wednesday.

He jumped on the ice a good half hour before them and continued the exercise with them for about fifteen minutes before returning to the locker room. Just like Rafaël Harvey-Pinard currently in Laval to get back into shape, Laine is approaching a return to play, having dropped St-Louis.

[Lorsqu’il] is going to come back, I expect it will take him a little while to get back into it. One match, two weeks? I don’t know. We’ll see how it progressesconcluded the boss.