Canadian 2 — Blackhawks 4 | They won’t be able to win them all

(Chicago) At one point, Pat Maroon scored a goal, and obviously it was going to be a funny night.

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This is often the case when a team faces something that is supposed to be “easy”, if you will, but it has long been established that nothing is ever easy, isn’t it? Even more so when Arvid Soderblom plays as a goalkeeper not happy not to have been chosen by Sweden for the Four Nations Showdown.

Faced with so many obstacles, the Canadian couldn’t do much, and in the end, he escaped this game against the worst team in the NHL by a score of 4-2.

It’s often said that anything can happen in this league, and that’s exactly what happened Friday night in Chicago. However, the Canadian had just defeated three good clubs in quick succession before arriving here, facing the Blackhawks who are also in the process of rebuilding, and perhaps even more so.

“We talked about it before the match, we weren’t going to take them lightly, and we didn’t do it,” Mike Matheson said at the end of the evening. Of course we were playing well before arriving here, but we still have work to do. So we don’t have the right to think that it’s going to be easy against anyone. »

There are times, too, when the goalkeeper opposite plays “on his head”, as the expression goes, and this was undoubtedly the case here. This Soderblom is certainly not a very well-known name, but the Canadian finished the evening with 40 shots in his direction, a high this season for the Montreal club, and very often, the Blackhawks goaltender said no.

“It’s something that happens,” added Mike Matheson, not at all discouraged by the situation. It must be said, we really had several chances to score, but he was there all the time, well placed.

There is obviously no moral victory in this league, but if there is anything we remember from this visit to the Montreal locker room at the end of the evening, it is that no one had their heads down . There are nights like that where the puck just doesn’t want to go, and everything indicates that this was one of those nights.

“It wasn’t ideal to start the match by giving them a 5 against 3, they scored like that from the start and we have to be more disciplined than that,” noted goalkeeper Samuel Montembeault, who received 26 shots. Despite that, I found that we were able to play better in the second period.

“It’s hard to find a rhythm when you have to spend too much time in the penalty box. We still had a good game, and we launched quite often too, with several good scoring opportunities, especially in the second. Their goalkeeper made some good saves. »

Like his players, Martin St-Louis also showed the air of a guy who was not at all downcast.

The Canadian will therefore travel to Denver to conclude this long five-game road trip with a match against the Avalanche on Saturday. For this team, a win there would be nice, but if there’s anything to take away from the two games in Florida, the one on December 31 in Vegas, and then this one in Chicago, it’s that the future of this team is somewhat taking shape.

It’s still a long way from a playoff spot, but at least it’s a small step forward.

Rising

Mike Matheson

He finished his evening with 28 minutes and 10 seconds of playing time, and with two assists.

Declining

Juraj Slafkovsky

Three turnovers according to the scoresheet, but it seemed even more than that.

The number

8

The number of shots made by Mike Matheson.

In detail

No Savard, no Wool

This Friday evening of the Canadian in Chicago began with two bad news even before the first puck: David Savard was going to have to skip his turn, and Patrik Laine too. In the case of the former, it wasn’t entirely a surprise, since he had to leave the previous day’s training before the end. It was a little more surprising in the case of the second, and the Canadian indicated that Laine was slowed down by “flu symptoms”. These two absences allowed players who had not played for a long time to finally be able to play. Jayden Struben took Savard’s place, who had been left out in the previous eight games, and Laine was replaced by Michael Pezzetta, left out since October 27 and who had to miss… the last 28 club matches!

Roof vs. Roof

One brother against another doesn’t happen that often in this league, but it happened on this very cold Friday night in Chicago. Freshly recalled from the American League, Colton Dach was in his first game in the NHL, at 21 years old. In the end, the young Blackhawks forward finished this first night with 5 shots, still a record among Blackhawks players. On the other side, Kirby Dach assisted on Emil Heineman’s baseball-style goal in the third period. “It would have been even better if we had won,” commented the Canadiens’ Dach at the end of the evening. But it was special and I thought Colton played very well. »

A place always special

The Blackhawks are no longer a team of legends like they were not so long ago, and Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and other Antti Niemis haven’t been here for a while now, but whatever: a night of hockey in this city , it’s still something. It begins as it should with the national anthems of the best in this field, Jim Cornelison, who honored us with a Oh Canada more than bilingual, which very often does not even happen in Toronto. Then, there is this organ which never goes out of style, and also, obviously, the “dou dou dou, dou dou dou” of the crowd to the sound of the classic Chelsea Daggerevery time the locals score a goal. We will never get tired of Chicago.