Who would have said, just three weeks ago, that the Canadian was going to be in a position to make the playoffs? Not us.
• Also read: The Canadian in the series portrait!
• Also read: Alexandre Carrier learned this on the road
• Also read: This asset of Jakub Dobes impresses his teammates
And yet, Martin St-Louis will have his coffee this morning while looking at the rankings and he will see his team in last place which gives access to the playoffs in the Eastern Association.
This victory snatched from the Canucks in overtime allowed the Canadian to move from 11th to 8th place. With 41 points, he joins the Pittsburgh Penguins who have played one more game.
To think that this team was penultimate in the ranking on December 19 and that it then fell nine points behind 8th place. We were far from the famous mix so dear to the team’s leaders.
Resilience
What we know about this version 2.0 of the Canadian 2024-25 is that we can no longer count it as beaten.
You would have thought things were over when the Canucks took a 3-1 lead thanks to two goals in 20 seconds early in the second period, but that’s not the scenario the guys in blue-white-red had in mind.
They worked hard and quietly climbed back, scoring three times without response from the middle of the second period. And even when the Canucks tied the game in the third period, they didn’t let up.
And when the Canucks tied the game midway through the third period, they continued to push.
Fatigue
After a grueling trip of five games in eight days spread across four different time zones, we knew that it would not be easy for the Canadian despite the good streak he is going through.
We therefore had to be realistic because it was obvious that this match was going to be difficult against a team that likes a robust game and is capable of playing quickly.
The Canadian therefore chased the visit a bit starting halfway through the first period when JT Miller took advantage of a coverage error to tie the game. And this continued until the middle of the second engagement.
This is the kind of defensive error that the Canadian has rarely made for two weeks, but mental and physical fatigue can play tricks on a team that is confident.
Stunned
The Canucks could have finished off the Canadian and perhaps thought they had done so by striking early in the second period, scoring twice in 20 seconds. It was the first time since the 9-2 beating suffered at the hands of the Penguins on December 12 that the Canadian allowed two goals in less than a minute.
Two goals which were scored on a mix-up by a solid duo, Alexandre Carrier and Kaiden Guhle, and on a surplus caused by a bad decision by Lane Hutson at the opposing blue line which caused a surplus on the Canucks.
We could also put the visitors’ fourth goal down to fatigue, or at least frustration since it came during a bad penalty to Cole Caufield in the third period when the Canadian had just taken the lead.
However, in difficult conditions, the Canadian never gave up, which contrasts with the team which sometimes had difficulty hanging on at the start of the season when things became complicated.
