TEMPERATURE | Would Martin St-Louis’ comments that his team played its best game in Vegas since he took over at the helm of the team have gotten to his team’s heads too quickly?
• Also read: Rafaël Harvey-Pinard left the meeting with a lower body injury
• Also read: Punished until defeat
On Thursday night, the Habs suffered perhaps their worst result of the season against the Arizona Coyotes, playing their third game in four nights. André Tourigny’s men stormed Jake Allen’s goal.
In this 2-3 defeat, the poor devil held on as best he could. In the second period alone, they fired 34 shots at the Montreal goal, 18 of which hit the target.
“It’s disappointing,” said Martin St-Louis about his team’s performance. There are three or four players who played well tonight. It’s not enough to win a match. »
One can argue that Allen, Sean Monahan, Brendan Gallagher and Nick Suzuki are the members of the quartet that the coach was careful not to identify.
Getty Images via AFP
Not a question of youth
Great in Vegas, terrible in Arizona. That’s the kind of inconsistency we should expect from this team that’s still rebuilding. Although Gallagher refused to acknowledge this after the meeting.
“That can no longer be an excuse. We’ve all been here long enough to understand how difficult this league is. You can never take a game for granted,” said the veteran, who scored the 400th point of his career.
St-Louis was somewhat along the same lines. In his case, however, there was a feeling that he was far too unhappy with his players’ performance to let them get away with it so easily.
“This can have many reasons. But I won’t blame the youth of the team. We weren’t there this evening. »
Still the lack of discipline
It has become a real pain. Once again, the Habs visited the penalty box too often. Especially in the third third, when the team went into the penalty area three times. At important times.
Arber’s shot
“We set ourselves a big goal at the start of the third period. And we got a penalty…,” St-Louis said.
A penalty in which Nick Schmaltz scored the winning goal.
A flirtatious Mullett
This was also my first visit to the Coyotes’ temporary home. A 38th NHL arena for me. Last year it was widely reported across America that this building was not designed for Bettman circuit training.
It is indeed intimate and, most importantly, is the home of the Arizona State University Sun Devils. That means the Coyotes aren’t the best treated team on the ground.
Aside from Mullett Arena being pretty. In addition to the main enclosure, it has a training track. The Coyotes players lack nothing. And there is a wonderful atmosphere there.
Even the facilities reserved for the visiting team are sufficient. Good! The showers are on the second floor, but that’s a detail. I have seen visitor changing rooms that were much less spacious.
The ones in the Senators’ House and the ones in the Bell Center are among the worst.