ST. PAUL, Minn. | If the trend continues, the next time the Montreal Canadiens win a game in Minnesota, Lane Hutson will have retired, robots will serve us in restaurants and Donald Trump’s young son, Barron, will try his luck to become the 55th president of the United States.
We barely joke. The last time the Habs won in Minnesota was March 20, 2011, a crushing 8-1 victory in which PK Subban scored three goals and an assist. Since then, there have been 11 losses on the line at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. We can probably start talking about a curse.
Yesterday, CH did not play a bad match, on the contrary. Defensively, they once again proved that they are progressing. The pair of Michael Matheson and Kaiden Guhle were excellent for the majority of the match against the formidable Kirill Kaprizov, and we will return to that.
But in the end, the team only managed 19 shots on goal, their second lowest total of the season.
For a team that has been hammering home for two days the importance of directing more pucks to the net, they who ranked last in this regard in the NHL before the game, that’s not much. And there weren’t many dangerous scoring chances either, the best probably came from the stick of Guhle who found himself alone in the crease in the first period.
We must still recognize that it was a game of failure, during which two structured formations did not give each other the slightest inch.
“It’s a team that defends very well and there weren’t many chances on either side,” admitted Martin St-Louis. Matches like that, you have to play the game. Should we perhaps help ourselves a little more offensively? There wasn’t a lot of space for both teams.”
Solid Matheson and Guhle
We have to be honest though, there are positives. Martin St-Louis has spent the last few days praising his team’s defensive progress and CH played a good game in this aspect.
The pair of Michael Matheson and Kaiden Guhle certainly earned their post-match beer (they at least have one, eh?). The two defenders were faced with Kirill Kaprizov’s trio for the vast majority of the match and they were very effective, particularly Matheson.
You had to see him overthrow the fast 97 in the first period when the latter tried to overtake him, or when he managed to intercept the Russian’s pass during a two-on-one in the second period.
The machine starts
And, the worst part is that it’s an unfortunate situation for the Wild and which, in principle, should have been happy for the CH which led to Kaprizov’s offensive awakening. Midway through the second, the Wild announced that Joel Eriksson Ek and Mats Zuccarello, both with lower-body injuries, would miss the remainder of the game.
Used more after both players were injured, Kaprizov was used a few times on two lines, finishing with just over 20 minutes on the ice and producing a goal and an assist.
The difference
The Canadian doesn’t have Kirill Kaprizov, and that probably makes the difference. In a game this close, you need your best players to find a way to score.
And once the Wild took a 1-0 lead, the Canadian’s chances became slim. The team had not won a single game when he trailed after two periods, nor when he allowed the first goal.
“That’s what makes the difference between the top teams, they find a way to win even when it’s really tight and there aren’t many opportunities. It doesn’t take much from them,” Matheson aptly illustrated after the match.
Let’s just say Jayden Struble’s four-minute penalty in the third that led to Marco Rossi’s goal to make it 2-0 didn’t help.
Ultimately, the more things change, the more they stay the same: CH leaves St. Paul empty-handed, once again, having been shut out for the first time in the season, to boot.
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