Catch-up hockey always ends up catching up with the Canadian

There are things that are happening more quickly than last year for the Canadian.

Brendan Gallagher scored his sixth goal of the season in CH’s 5-3 defeat Thursday night in New Jersey, while he had to wait until January 6, last season, to score his sixth goal.

On the other hand, the team had experienced its first and only five-game winless streak of the campaign in the middle of February. He has already completed such a sequence by losing to the Devils.

The cliché in such circumstances would be to say that the Habs invent new ways to losebut this is not the case. The same scenarios repeat themselves.

Since the beating suffered at the hands of the Seattle Kraken which sparked this series of losses, Martin St-Louis’ men have given up five goals in five games in the first five minutes of the game. And they who deplored their slow start to the match in the first fortnight of the calendar… So this is not a newly observed phenomenon.

And it’s particularly problematic when we know that the Canadian has still not won a single game when he allows the first goal (0-6-2).

Another thing that is repeated as often as an optometrist asks if you see better with the first lens or with the second: goals where the opponent takes advantage of the disorganization in defense. Pucks that go from the bottom of the zone to the top – the ones that require the defense to reorganize into a man-for-man formation – continue to cause headaches for Montreal players. And when the guys moving the puck and creating chaos are Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt, you better buckle down.

This is what happened, among other things, on the first goal.

It’s true that the visitors were unlucky after Juraj Slafkovsky broke his stick, but every little glitch seems to turn into a goal these days.

The sequence leading to this first goal began with a turnover at the opposing blue line, and this was the case again for the third.

Lane Hutson magnificently neutralized the threat on the 3 on 1 descent that this turnaround allowed, but successive bad decisions behind the goal line placed the five players in a very bad position. At the far point, Devils defender Jonas Siegenthaler saw a demi-glace open up for himself (the demi-glace here not being a veal stock sauce) and the Swiss was able to take advantage of the huge breach in the slot when he had the puck passed to him.

Be able to say that’s enough

On the Devils’ fourth goal, Hutson who compromised too deep in the opposing zone and who could not prevent the excessive counter-attack from Hughes and Bratt? We have already seen that too. It’s the job that comes in.

Perhaps it is time for everyone to accept that the profession will continue to come into play this season. It was laudable to want to be more competitive and to be engaged in a playoff race, but rebuilds take time.

If we talk about results – because in terms of process, cleaning up the overall game will remain on the agenda – the Canadian’s objective should first be to reduce the length of his lethargies and to give himself a little more momentum by lining up victories. It would be a good step forward for this season.

Last year, the team had five streaks of at least four games without a win. He already has two this year. There’s a whole theory behind learning the system, paying attention to detail and everything else. But when it comes to morale, being able to put your foot down and say that’s enough is also part of a winning process.

Once this is successful, it would be possible to build winning streaks, which the Habs have not really managed to do since the start of their reconstruction. Only once last year did he have three victories.

And the last time CH won four games in a row was in February 2022. St-Louis was in its second and third weeks behind the bench.

Newhook’s Awakening

In the good news department, the shelves are a little sparse, but we still find things there.

The Bleu-blanc-rouge showed character in the second period and played an offensive period reminiscent of the first period against the Flames on Tuesday.

Normally employed in the third duo, defender Jayden Struble was sent from time to time to the right of Lane Hutson in order to generate attack. This can be seen as a sign that Struble is gaining some confidence from his coaches.

In a very limited role, his normal partner Arber Xhekaj gave the Devils absolutely nothing in defense.

But above all, there is Alex Newhook who came out of his torpor by scoring his first two goals of the season. Newhook finished well last season at center for Gallagher and Joel Armia, but nothing has worked for him since the start of the season. We saw some encouraging signs against the Flames when he found himself to the left of Jake Evans. And against the Devils, Newhook increased the number of zone entries in control of the puck. He has the speed and the hands to do it.

His best entry was certainly on the occasion of his second of the evening, a rise from the back of his net to that of Jacob Markstrom. A Canadian fan sitting behind the Devils goalie, a bit of a soothsayer, actually stood up and brandished both fists when he saw Newhook continue his attack through the center of the crease.

The guy will be able to say that he saw the goal before anyone else!

With a first line that hasn’t created much offensively for a week, it’s good to see other players taking over. Newhook did his part on Thursday and Gallagher looks like a player who is being reborn.

If the Canadiens want to end their losing streak on Saturday in Toronto, and if they want to make this four-game trip a success, they need Suzuki, Caufield, Dach, Slafkovsky and Matheson to start having more dominant presences on the ice.

This is one of the scenarios that needs to change.

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