Last night, the Canadian lost. I could also have said that CH played on a Tuesday and it would have had the same effect.
Farce aside, after two games in a row being destroyed on Tuesday, the Canadian offered a much more dignified outing last night. Martin St-Louis’ men even pushed the match into overtime against the Flames.
But in seven seconds, the club allowed its third goal of the match and that ended the game.
We can say what we want about what happened on the faceoff on Nick Suzuki or on Christian Dvorak, but the fact remains that the Flames scored in part because Dvorak did not won his faceoff in a fair manner.
That’s why he was there.
Because yes, Mike Matheson and Nick Suzuki started the overtime with Dvorak. Even if he didn’t have a bad game (by his 2024 standards, at least), he didn’t deserve his place there.
Imagine losing three on three without Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson touching the ice…
Dvorak was there to win his faceoff. And even if he was good yesterday (73.7% efficiency in the faceoff circle), he was not able to win the one that mattered the most.
Remember that this week, Marc Bureau came to help the centers in Brossard, precisely.
It reminds us of when Claude Julien and Dominique Ducharme sent Phillip Danault to start the overtime in 2021. He was there, too, to win the faceoff.
And that enraged everyone.
A good overtime team plays to win and sends its best players on the ice from the faceoff. It trusts them instead of sending a “specialist” for a few seconds.
The Canadian played and still plays, a few years later, so as not to lose. And yesterday he lost.
As right-handed as he is, Nick Suzuki still won more than 60% of his faceoffs yesterday. He is not a two of spades in this matter and he would have had a chance of winning the faceoff, too.
Yesterday, the CH paid for its blunder cash leaving a ranking point on the table. He lost in seven seconds, one second away from making history since the fastest overtime in history lasted six seconds.
This means that for the fourth time in a row, the Canadian lost.
This is the ninth time that CH has lost this season. The club is not #DanceLeMix since winning only four times in thirteen matches is not exactly enough.
But at least the players’ effort was there (the CH didn’t vomit on themselves) and the guys didn’t get washed out on a Tuesday evening. If there was a column for moral victories, that would make a nice little two points.
But what else do I remember, then?
1. Lane Hutson was everywhere on the ice. We saw him flying on the ice and he was very creative… even if he wasn’t always in winning conditions to score.
Joel Armia, Oliver Kapanen, Alex Newhook and Josh Anderson on the second wave with him? At least there wasn’t Mr. Five Against Three and Mr. Overtime, i.e. Christian Dvorak.
2. We were talking about Marc Bureau earlier. But what was his impact on yesterday’s match? How much better or not better did the guys do in the faceoff circle against the Flames?
Here’s what it looks like.
- Christian Dvorak : 73.7 %
- Nick Suzuki : 62.5 %
- Jake Evans : 55.6 %
- Oliver Kapanen : 20%
3. Yesterday, Juraj Slafkovsky had two shots on goal, but he seemed in position to do so more often. My colleague Marc-Olivier Cook wanted to see him shoot a little more often on goal.
Moreover, speaking of colleague Cook, he is lying here: he does not find it “trivial” at all.
4. We couldn’t wait to see how Samuel Montembeault would react following a few difficult outings. And even if he wasn’t perfect, it’s clear that he was much better last night.
So much the better for the CH.
5. CH didn’t play badly, but they only shot eight times on goal in the last 40:07 minutes of play. 23 shots against 36, after leading 15-10 after 20 minutes, that’s not sufficient.
To work, therefore.
6. Brendan Gallagher scored on the power play yesterday and without an offside, he would have scored a second time during the game. This might have helped avoid the extension.
Gally is doing well. He and Jake Evans have been surprises for the past month.
Prolongation
The Canadian will train at 11 a.m. this morning in Brossard. Subsequently, he will head to New Jersey to convince Johnathan Kovacevic to return.
Tomorrow, the Devils are on the menu. And Saturday night, the Maple Leafs will host the Canadian.
Next week, the club will be in Buffalo on Monday (at 12:30 p.m.) before playing a match in Minnesota on Thursday evening, at 8 p.m. It will really be a strange week on the road for the men of Martin St-Louis.
Next Saturday? Columbus will be in town. But that’s still a long way off.
