Pierre Turgeon is one of the last two Canadiens players to surpass 90 points in a season. A mark that he and Vincent Damphousse achieved in the 1995-1996 season.
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When he was invited to the Bell Center on Tuesday evening for his recent induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame, the former Habs captain can sleep soundly.
At least for this winter.
To get close to that, we would first need to see a flourishing of five-on-five production. Including that 2-1 loss to the Calgary Flames, the Habs forwards have scored just three goals in five games with 10 players on the ice.
Considering that early in the season, it was the balanced play that kept the Canadian alive while the special teams struggled. We have been experiencing the opposite situation for some time now.
As if it were impossible for everything to be okay at the same time.
This is partly why Martin St-Louis has decided to separate Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki, starting with the Canadian’s visit to Detroit.
While the Canadian’s head coach insists his team’s two star attackers have excelled defensively since being deployed in different units, production is hardly encouraged anymore.
Furthermore, St-Louis, trailing by a goal, brought the two Thieves together with just over twelve minutes left in the third period. Without success.
Poor Anderson
Josh Anderson Photo AFP
However, it must be acknowledged that both of these trios had chances to score on Tuesday.
Caufield punched Jacob Markstrom in the face after taking a subtle throw from Christian Dovrak. The Flames goaltender frustrated Caufield again while playing two-on-one with Juraj Slafkovsky.
A little later, Josh Anderson, who entered the opposing zone with Suzuki, saw his shot hit the crossbar.
Still looking for the first goal, the poor guy nodded as he retreated to his team’s bench. Just like when he saw Markstrom deny him the equalizer late in the third period.
The Ontario native has fired 37 shots since the start of the campaign. In the Bettman circuit, only two other attackers who have had at least 30 shots on goal have not yet moved the strings: Rickard Rakell and Jordan Martinook.
Positionless hockey
Luckily, the Canadiens defenders found a way to light up the red light. Five of the team’s last nine goals came from behind. Gustav Lindström, who scored his first goal in a Montreal jersey, is the last in line.
The Canadiens defensemen have now scored 10 goals, placing them third in the league table. This is quite a contrast to last year, when the team’s defenders combined their efforts and scored 33 goals, ranking 26th.
“The game has evolved so much. Now we need defenders who not only support the offense, but are an integral part of the offense. We are moving more and more towards ice hockey without a position,” explained St-Louis in the morning.
Except that the attackers’ main mission is still to score goals.
Guhle was afraid
Elsewhere, Kaiden Guhle had quite a scare when he was accidentally hit in the face by a skate from Elias Lindholm. Due to the recent tragic event in England, everyone held their breath. Even the Flames fan who cheered on their Section 302 favorites all night long.
Last week, Michael Pezzetta and Brendan Gallagher were seen testing out the neck brace at training. With Guhle’s luck, will we see more this week?