Canadian 2 – Flame 1 | The flavor doesn’t matter

The end of raffles in the NHL deprived us for more than 15 years of the “flavor of victory” or “flavor of defeat” that covered sports pages about ten times a year.

Simon Oliver Lawrange
Journalism

The Canadians’ narrow 2-1 win over Calgary Flames can be classified as the “flavor” of the games. To see the duo of Shea Weber and Ben Chiarot fight against the opposing first-line in the first twenty, someone guessed in anticipation of defeat. With a 1-1 mark in the third period, the smell of overtime became more pronounced. Finally, the lucky ones can say that they are famous for two points in the ranking. But it was, however, not a feast.

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We have to give this team what it deserves: It was a lot less painful than it was last Wednesday. “A little better”, qualified Dominic Ducharme. However, he “does not think we can say we stole it.”

It definitely seems like there is something very complicated about beating Flames this season. In their last four matches against them, since the tough and methodical Daryl Sutter took office, only 90 of the Canadians’ shots have reached the opponent’s net. It’s an average of 10 less per game than the cruising speed of CH this season (22.5 versus 32.5).

The penalty shoot-out statistic is flawed, but in this particular case it is illuminated. Demonstrates how hard Montreal attackers get close to Flames’ network and get high quality shots.

Therefore, the question arises: If this situation was repeated on Saturday night, why did Al-Kindy escape victory?

“We did not give up,” said Xia Weber. There were times when we could have moved on, but we stuck to the game plan and found a way to win. ”

This does not mean, however, that the chassis has not been tested. The 30 spins that Flames received as a gift could have cost much more. Sure, the CH players have worked hard to spend less time in their area, which is a frequent sin in recent meetings, but leaving the zone wasn’t very fun. At one point, it made you wonder if the defenders had challenged themselves to send the maximum number of inaccurate passes towards the center of the ice.

Nevertheless, and it is important to emphasize this on a large scale, Dominic Ducharme’s men held out. The Canadian has often proven that he can afford to lose these kinds of matches. Only in recent weeks have we seen the equivalent of gifts at the start of the game, those of matches that started correctly, but escaped along the way, and those harsh corrections in order.

After juggling these scenarios and escaping five of the previous seven games, the fact of signing a tight win, not that elegant, but against a particularly strong opponent, can only be helpful.

Some of them are good, others are of lesser quality

From this victory we remember the performances inspired by the trio Nick Suzuki, Joel Jeremiah and Tyler Toffoli. Two goals from this unit showed how effective this team can be when they get it right.

In the second, above all, Jeremiah defeated Christopher Taniff in one of those “50-50 fights” that Ducharme talked about a lot, while Toffoli beat Mark Giordano in the net.

“It’s an excellent example of what needs to happen,” said Weber. We’ve talked a lot about our desire to make these games a success. And it works. ”

In the radius of the fault that has occurred, it is impossible not to underline the difficulties the veteran group faced – not here in general, but most veterans.

A lot of ink has been written about this, but Weber just wasn’t what it was before. The somewhat dynamic duo with Ben Chiarot was opposed to the trio of Johnny Godrow, Elias Lindholm and Matthew Tkachuk. The defenders owe al-Kindi a drink to Jake Allen for having saved their buttocks, as he quickly turned around them.

When asked about his night of higher lows, Weber smiled and focused on “big win” and “action” to resume the next day, this time against senators in Ottawa.

On the other hand, Ducharme stated that Chiarot has yet to “find his directions” after an absence of more than five weeks.

The coach was more dodgy about Eric Stahl. After seven matches, the picture is much clearer in his condition, not in his favor. Since his arrival with the Canadian, he hasn’t been on the ice yet to score any goal for his team at 5 vs 5. His heavy legs don’t relieve Corey Berry’s work, almost invisible since his transfer. To the right of Staal.

“He brings us things that may be intangible,” Ducharme said. He’ll help us. ”Fortunately, because what is tangible is that unless a drastic shift occurs, it will be hard to justify that Jake Evans chomped on the stands indefinitely.

When asked about the internal competition looming in the defensive line-up, Ducharme said he rates his players “every match” and “things change quickly.”

With the compact end of the orthosis, the analysis grid must be applied to all its men. Whether they played 50 or 1,200 NHL matches.

Height

Joel Jeremiah

One of the matches where the Finn has velvet hands. Contact with Nick Suzuki continued throughout the evening.

In decline

Eric Stahl

We don’t want perseverance, but the veteran is a real ravaging of his trio. He is tough in both offense and defense.

Match number

38

That’s the number of matches Tyler Toffoli needed to reach the 20-goal mark. This is the Habs’ fourth fastest harvest since 1990. Meanwhile, Gilbert Dion, in 1991-92, was the most effective, with 20 goals in 34 games.

They said

in detail

Colak is right … in the meantime?

The return of Ben Shiarout influenced the change of the game within the third duo of the Canadian defenders. Brett Kulak and Alexander Romanov are back, after forming together at the start of the season. Except that Dominic Ducharme now prefers to see Romanov from his natural side on the left, it is Kulak who has found himself on the right, having not seen him much since his arrival in Montreal. Ducharme gave a brief assessment of the number 77. The head coach said, “He is a good skater, his adjustment went well.” The duo weren’t dominant, but were on ice for Montreal’s two goals. Colak got the assist in the first goal of the match, but it was a minor throw-in. His case will be interesting, as his ability to play on the right may determine whether he keeps his place on the team when John Merrill and Eric Gustafson complete their quarantine next week.

Worried about the flames

The fire was hot in the third period. Already clinging to slim hopes of conducting the qualifiers, they have seen Noah Hanifin retreat into the locker room, after doing his best against the gang. Hanifin eventually came back quickly and seemed more afraid of harm. In the morning, Daryl Suter also explained that Haneefin’s lead encouraged him to form a “super duo” with his best defenders, Mark Giordano and Christopher Taniff. In so doing, Sutter was able to reconcile Giordano with a more reliable partner than the young Rasmus Anderson, who is going through his ups and downs. “I didn’t say that [Giordano] He was handcuffed, but had to cover Anderson’s back a bit more, ”Sutter argued.Giordano gave a good match, until he was beaten by Tyler Toffoli for the winning goal.

Always on the fence

The Habs power play has officially returned to neutral. The arrival of Alex Burrows as coach in charge of the five-point attack had an immediate effect, an effect that was still felt when COVID-19 cut short the season at CH, who had scored four goals in his four matches before. Stop. Where ? 2 goals in 27 attempts, just 31 shots in 52 minutes, according to Natural Stat Trick. On Friday, White was locked up on two occasions and got three shots in four minutes. Josh Anderson had his best chance at the end of the first half, but seemed to miss his shot with Jacob Markstrom lying down. Otherwise, in the second strength match, the lack of options was evident when Jonathan Drouin flew twice before joining Toffoli, who didn’t have a very good angle. The Canadian will not train before Saturday’s game, so he will have to find solutions with video.