A defeat is a defeat, but at least yesterday this time, the Montreal Canadiens lost in honorable fashion, while they offered very good opposition to the best team in the National Hockey League.
The CH lost 4 to 2 against the Winnipeg Jets, while even if it did not obtain a point, it was able to compete with the first team in the general classification.
Even though the Habs were able to obtain more shots on goal than the Jets in this match, while they finished the match with 28 shots against 27.
To this end, the CH can say a very big thank you to Patrik Laine, who obtained exactly a quarter of the team’s shots in this defeat.
Indeed, the Finnish sniper, who was back in Winnipeg, where he began his career, fired seven shots on net last night.
Unfortunately he didn’t find the back of the net, but it wasn’t for lack of trying, as Laine came up against a Connor Hellebuyck in great form.
Laine had nevertheless set the bar high.
In short, Laine really did everything to score at least one goal and make the difference against his former team, but in the end, his shots were unable to deceive Hellebuyck’s vigilance.
It’s a shame, because a goal from Laine would have really helped CH last night.
If Laine does not score, the Tricolore’s numerical advantage is out of fuel, and the Tricolore loses.
Indeed, since Laine has returned to the CH lineup, he is the only one to have scored on the power play, which means that in the last six games, the CH has been shut out on the power play in the three defeats.
If we go even further, we note that the Habs have still not won when Laine does not score.
The Canadian is 3-0 when Laine scores and 0-3 when Laine is shut out.
This says a lot about the importance the Finnish sniper has had since returning from his injury.
Martin St-Louis’ troop will therefore have to find a way to make Laine one of the various important elements of the team, and not the only possible hero and savior.
As for the rest of the match, here’s what I took away from it.
1. Nick Suzuki’s point streak ends at eight games.
After obtaining 11 points in his last eight games, Suzuki was unable to collect at least one point last night, which ended his good streak of matches with at least one point.
In the case of Lane Hutson, his streak ended in the last game at seven, which is a real shame considering that with his first NHL goal last night, it could have extended to nine.
2. Three players got half of CH’s shots.
With Laine’s seven shots, Cole Caufield’s three shots and Christian Dvorak’s four shots, CH collected 14 shots, which represents half of the entire team’s shots last night.
Nine players, meanwhile, did not even get a single shot on goal.
3. The CH third trio was solid.
Josh Anderson, Brendan Gallagher and Christian Dvorak combined their efforts for CH’s second goal and were overall very solid.
They had good presences and generated good chances for the team, as evidenced by Dvorak’s four shots.
We have to give love to Anderson, who is playing good hockey this season and who has found his role, even if we continue to see that his potential remains limited due to his rather poor vision of the game.
In Burst
– Interesting.
– Nothing is going well for the Rangers. A change of coach could happen very soon.
– Wow. You have to believe that the Chiefs have a very good defense.
– To be continued.
– A big surprise.
