If the Arizona Coyotes still existed, they would surely take advantage of the fact that Logan Cooley was better than Juraj Slafkovsky last night to fool the Canadian a little.
But they can’t do it anymore.
Logan Cooley, who the Canadiens did not draft with their first pick of 2022, was definitely better than Slaf, who the Canadiens drafted with their first pick of 2022.
In fact, he was the most used attacker (23:13) in Salt Lake City’s 3-2 victory against Montreal.
Yesterday, Cooley notably succeeded in this play. It was his 17th point in 22 games, which is better, for the moment, than what Slaf has been offering CH for two months.
Ironically, this was done in the match where Slaf was punished most severely by Martin St-Louis. He played on the club’s fourth line, but he was mainly the club’s least used forward.
His 11:29 of play is quite similar to Joshua Roy’s 11:30.
As Slaf played on the first wave of the power play, we understand that at five on five, he was not often on the ice. So that was a big message tonight.
And let’s just say he wasn’t the most visible on the ice. We feel that he is regressing…
Kirby Dach was also “punished” on the four, but he was entitled to playing time in overtime. He had 14:30 of playing time, which is still a little better than Slaf.
Other players who, like Roy, Dach and Slaf, played less than 15 minutes.
That said, that doesn’t mean the others were perfect. After all, Nick Suzuki may have had a lot of playing time (21:21), but he wasn’t very good.
We felt a certain disengagement on his part.
Obviously, when he is less good, it pushes his teammates less to give more. And there, the club looked like it was playing its second match in two evenings, not its first back-to-back duel.
There won’t be any easy ones.
It’s all well and good talking about Slaf and playing time, but the fact remains that yesterday, the Canadian mostly looked bad. So what explains all this?
Here are some possible solutions.
1. Shooting only 13 times on net in almost 65 minutes is shameful. The Utah Hockey Club had 14 shots in the first period alone and André Tourigny’s men won.
Chance? I don’t think so, no.
2. Seeing David Savard get angry in front of a referee (and receive one of the 10 minutes of misconduct software that I have seen for a long time) shows that there is frustration. That’s already it.
Savard had a point, however: yesterday, the referees didn’t have it. CH should have been more disciplined, obviously, and the local club didn’t play a flawless match either, but…
3. Yesterday Mikhail Sergachev was excellent. He stabilized Utah’s defensive brigade and showed CH the player he could have become if he had not been traded in 2017.
Water has flowed under the bridge since then, but still.
4. There are guys who are too soft in this club. Justin Barron (who should feel the urgency to play better) and Christian Dvorak are two guys who didn’t bring much to the table yesterday.
That puts me in all my Utahs. I must be getting old because I found her good last night. #FatherJoke
5. Samuel Montembeault didn’t get the W yesterday, but he did what he had to do. He kept his team in the match and didn’t give up a horrible goal. He can’t do everything alone either.
It would be unfair to ask him that.
6. In Mike Matheson’s absence, Lane Hutson has been good. He was also the quarterback of the two waves of power play and he was the skater most used (26:28) by Martin St-Louis.
It’s lucky he’s there.
Prolongation
Yesterday, apart from CH and Utah, there was only one other game on the menu: Vancouver won 2-0 against the Bruins in Boston. Connor Garland and Jake DeBrusk were the two scorers.
Tonight, it will be different: there will be 15 matches on the menu. And tomorrow, for American Thanksgiving? No matches.
The Canadian will be in Columbus this evening: the guys traveled after yesterday’s match. Patrik Laine and Mike Matheson are on the trip. The first is not expected to play this evening, but we do not yet know if the second will play.
There will be no training on the menu today: only the extras will skate at 11:30 a.m.
Note that it is Cayden Primeau who will be in front of his team’s net. He will have to do well if he wants to continue to buy himself time in the NHL. The cannon should not distract him…
Remember that the CH also play in the afternoon at the end of the week: Saturday in New York and Sunday in Boston in a weekend where Jeff Gorton will see the CH face his former clubs.
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