A clear priority for the Canadian

You will have to arrive early at the Bell Center on Saturday. First, because before the game, Shea Weber’s name will be added to the Ring of Honor, where the Canadiens’ alumni admitted to the Hall of Fame rub shoulders.

Then, because if the trend of recent weeks continues, this could well be the best part of the show that the Canadian and the Columbus Blue Jackets will present.

After bleeding defensively, the Habs are experiencing the same nightmare offensively. Monday’s seven-goal haul in Buffalo was just an oasis in an offensive desert that extends, for now, from the end of October to today.

On October 29, the CH suffered an 8-2 beating at the hands of the Seattle Kraken. In seven games since, the offense has fallen flat. The goals scored average (2.43) is not catastrophic in itself, especially because of the aforementioned game in Buffalo. But the team is averaging just 21.7 shots per game, the worst total in the NHL during that span.

In terms of scoring chances at 5-on-5, the team hasn’t reached ten in a game since said drubbing. Thursday in Minnesota, Natural Stat Trick only gave Montreal two scoring chances at even strength.

This is the price to pay for obvious defensive improvement during this period. Turnovers like the one committed in the neutral zone by Christian Dvorak on Thursday, which led to the Wild’s only goal of the 5-on-5 game, were legion two weeks ago and have significantly diminished since.

“I love how we defend ourselves. We are very connected, said Martin St-Louis, after Saturday’s morning training at the Bell Centre. We play with an attitude, we are tough to face defensively, but we are not as hard to face offensively. We have a lot of possession time. But possession does not necessarily mean attack. It’s an opportunity to bring on the attack, but we’re not connected enough, we’re not playing fast enough together to move from possession to attack. It’s a balance that we’re looking for, but not at the cost of stopping doing things defensively. We don’t have to take more risks. »

Offensive problems can sometimes originate in the defensive zone, if the recovery is deficient. But for CH in recent weeks, it is very precisely in the opposing zone that offensive creativity dies down.

“We’ve had almost six minutes per game in the offensive zone for several games, but that doesn’t equate to enough scoring chances,” lamented St-Louis.

We turn to the usual suspects to identify those who are lagging behind. Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook and Joel Armia only had two points in the current seven-game series.

Barron returns

We also note that the defenders did not score any goals in this sequence and in this sense, St-Louis hopes that Justin Barron will help him. Left out during the last six games, the one who has the same initials as the former mayor of Montreal Joseph Bourret, the singer Jano Bergeron and the colleague of Montreal Journal Jonathan Bernier will return to the game.

“It’s frustrating at times,” Barron admitted. You want to play, but we have several good defenders here. I’ve been trying to work on things. »

Barron will replace Jayden Struble, who was guilty of a high stick Thursday in Minnesota that earned him a double minor penalty, during which the Wild scored the insurance goal.

St-Louis, however, insisted on defending Struble. The head coach spoke a few words to his young defenseman on the ice before the official start of practice, then explained his decision to send him to the bridge.

“Struble only comes out because we need to give JB a game. And we need a little more attack, that’s for sure. But defensively, Struble is elite right now. We will try to replace that collectively, and we will hope that JB helps us offensively. »

Brendan Gallagher did not take part in the morning exercise, but was still at the Bell Center to receive treatment. He will be in uniform Saturday evening, assured St-Louis.

The injured Rafael Harvey-Pinard replaced him in Dvorak’s trio, but is not yet ready to return to action.

Samuel Montembeault will defend the Habs net.

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