”I do not suppose we performed as poorly because the rating appeared,” Nick Suzuki mentioned after Tremendous Bowl Sunday’s 7-2 drubbing.
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Tremendous Bowl weekend means one factor in Montreal — the Canadiens historically play a pair of residence video games and, this time round, traumatized younger, impressionable followers whose dad and mom paid far an excessive amount of of their hard-earned cash for this train.
Sunday’s 7-2 drubbing administered by the St. Louis Blues on the Bell Centre means yet another misplaced weekend for Montreal hockey followers. This marks the second time in three seasons — following Saturday’s 3-2 defeat towards Dallas — the Canadiens misplaced each video games, though they really swept the pair in 2023, after they weren’t that aggressive.
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This marks the seventh time the Canadiens misplaced twice on Tremendous Bowl weekend. Eight occasions, conversely, Montreal captured the back-to-back affairs.
For the file, Montreal total has profitable information on this weekend. The Canadiens are 17-11-2, with three video games tied, on Saturday, whereas on Sunday their file now dropped to 17-13-1 with one tie.
There was no Tremendous Bowl weekend video games in 2005 and no Sunday recreation was performed in 2021.
Worst potential begin: The Blues wanted solely 25 seconds, and one shot, to open the scoring. Alexey Toropchenko effortlessly deked defenceman Jayden Struble out of his jockstrap earlier than sliding the puck previous goaltender Jake Allen. There might be no higher harbinger of what was about to transpire on this afternoon.
“He beat me large and made a pleasant play,” Struble mentioned. “Clearly, I may have saved skating extra and will have executed extra.”
And we thought CFL officiating was weird: The place do we start on the inconsistency displayed by referees Garrett Rank and Kyle Rehman? The groups mixed for 67 penalty minutes — 38 for the Blues, together with a pair of 10-minute misconducts. However three issues particularly jumped out at us:
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Michael Pezzetta’s borderline holding name on Kevin Hayes late within the second interval, leaving the Montreal ahead shaking his head within the penalty field, then Mike Matheson’s tripping penalty towards Brandon Saad. Matheson misplaced the puck, resulting in a breakaway, however recovered and made a sliding cease on Saad. A penalty shot initially was signalled earlier than it was modified to a minor. Lastly, a late Pezzetta aim was disallowed following a video evaluate. It was decided a battle began earlier than the aim, which wouldn’t have altered the end result, however we beg to vary.
“I believe refs are human,” Matheson mentioned. “I made sufficient errors to speak about. I believe it’s unfair to imagine each name’s going to be excellent. All people makes errors in the course of the recreation. It’s irritating for positive whenever you suppose one thing isn’t proper. We may do a greater job of leaving that the place it’s and never letting it have an effect on us, getting so caught up into it.”
Medical replace: Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, who was injured towards Dallas, will miss four-to-six weeks with a lower-body harm. Defenceman Jordan Harris, who appeared to undergo a concussion on Sunday, is day-to-day. Fellow rearguard Kaiden Guhle, who was taken exhausting into the boards by Marco Scandella late within the recreation, was nonetheless being evaluated post-game, however might need suffered bruised ribs.
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Hit of the sport (half I): Tanner Pearson on Jake Neighbours within the third minute.
Hit of the sport (half II). Pezzetta, who continues to impress us with little ice time, formally was credited with three hits. We’re guessing his third-period collision with Jesse Ylönen wasn’t included in that whole. Ylönen was gradual to come up.
Three-into-two doesn’t work: Few sportswriters are mathematically gifted, however the Canadiens’ three goaltender system merely isn’t truthful and isn’t working. Whereas it seems Allen stays the odd-man-out and will probably be moved earlier than subsequent month’s commerce deadline, who will take him? With 29 stops, his save proportion towards St. Louis was .806. Allen now has a 5-10-3 file, 3.63 common and .895 save proportion.
He merely didn’t seem assured on Sunday and was responsible of some unhealthy positioning.
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Cross of the sport: Juraj Slafkovsky to Nick Suzuki on the Canadiens’ opening aim.
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The clubhouse chief: The Canadiens’ Josh Anderson, at minus-4. Each Pearson and Jake Evans got here in at minus-3.
Offensively challenged: The Canadiens have been held to 11 objectives of their final 4 video games, and 5 of these got here final Tuesday, towards Washington. Suzuki and Slafkovsky have every accounted for 4 of these, that means the remainder of the group has scored 3 times. Little marvel Montreal’s file is 21-23-8, together with 10-14-3 on residence ice.
Typically teaching modifications truly work: The Blues had been 13-14-1 and on a four-game dropping skid, when Craig Berube, who led the group to its solely Stanley Cup title, was fired on Dec. 13. Since then, beneath interim head coach Drew Bannister, the group has gone 15-7-1 and has gained seven of its final eight. Sounds just like the group might need to take away the interim title?
One Canadiens’ victory: Johnathan Kovacevic scored an unanimous determination towards Neighbours late within the recreation.
They mentioned it: “I don’t suppose we performed as poorly because the rating appeared,” Suzuki mentioned. “That’s clearly not the best way you need to begin a recreation, however we are able to’t let it have an effect on the remainder of the sport.”
“It was a tricky one for me, for positive,” Struble mentioned. “For positive that was my most irritating recreation.”
“We took too many penalties and didn’t capitalize on our possibilities,” Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis mentioned. “I believed we had a means higher first interval than the rating (indicated).”
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