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In Hainsight: Tough Loss Against the Wild |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
Minnesota came to town with a single win to its name and with a starting goaltender that had been shaky at best in his first three starts, but the Wild and Marc-Andre Fleury were far from being an easy prey for the CH last night. Prior to this match, Fleury had a 1-1-1 record, a 5.25 GAA and a .847 save percentage, but that didn’t prevent him from playing very well against his home province’s Habs, allowing a single goal on 28 shots for a .963 save percentage. Last night’s outing was the 944th of his career giving him the sole possession of the 6th place amongst goaltenders who have played the most career games.
The Wild weren’t all that dominant last night really, after all, they only scored 2 goals on Jake Allen and their third was in an empty net, but the Canadiens just weren’t competing enough and in large parts beat themselves. When you shoot yourself in the foot, it’s hard to keep going. In most games this season, the Sainte-Flanelle’s young blue line has looked good, but last night, Jonathan Kovacevic committed 6 turnovers, Arber Xhekaj who backchecked hard found himself behind the net as the Wild scored their first goal of the game and walked right into a trap that negated a Canadiens’ power play opportunity as he had to head to the sin bin for roughing.
The loss wasn’t all on the youngsters though, on one single power play, Chris Wideman was dispossessed twice and then managed to get called for interference, talk about a momentum killer.
Then, there was Mike Hoffman. I understand the willingness to showcase him and hoping that some poor GM will bite, but very rarely does he do something on the ice that is likely to generate any interest from any team. Countless plays just die on his stick and his presence on the power play is both disappointing and infuriating. Last night, he had a golden opportunity to get the Canadiens back in the game on a penalty shot, but he just couldn’t convert.
Meanwhile, I feel it's worth mentioning that Jordan Harris spent over 25 minutes on the ice against the Wild, blocking a whooping 7 shots and didn’t turn the puck over a single time. Over 3:30 minutes of his ice-time was spent on the penalty kill and he is proving himself to be a pivotal part of this blue line. It should also be noted that Kayden Guhle retreated to the locker room at one stage in the final frame clutching his ear, but he was at practice this morning.
The Canadiens will now take off for a 4-game road trip that will take them to Buffalo, St-Louis, Minnesota and Winnipeg. It was announced yesterday that both Joel Armia and Joel Edmundson will make the trip with the team. Hopefully, they will be inserted in the line-up sooner rather than later, but both are still practicing in no-contact jerseys.
Who’s likely to give way? Up front, I truly hope that Mike Hoffman gets the chop, and I don’t think I need to explain why. At the back, I would take out Jonathan Kovacevic. The waiver pick-up hasn’t been bad, although last night was his worst game, but the others have just been better. You can’t take out veterans Savard and Wideman since Hughes has said time and time again that he didn’t want to go with 3 rookies at the blueline and right now there are 4, Guhle and Harris have both been very impressive and Xhekaj brings a toughness than no one else on the team does, well see if St-Louis agrees with me. I’m very aware that Chris Wideman is not sitting in the right chair right now. The veteran defenseman was pretty much signed to be a 7th defenseman who can help mentor the kids and be a good teammate, but injuries have made him be both overused and casted in a role that he cannot fulfill successfully. Once Mike Matheson is ready to return though, it will be time to scratch Wideman and allow the 3 top defenseman prospects the team has in Montreal right now to continue to develop.
Today’s practice isn’t much help in trying to decipher which changes may be coming since both Josh Anderson and Chris Wideman weren’t practicing and were receiving treatments instead with Armia and Edmundson still wearing no-contact jerseys as previously mentioned. Juraj Slafkovsky was also back at practice, but he wasn’t skating on a regular line and we’re still waiting for an update about his health.
This morning, the Canadiens returned Schueneman to Laval and acquired Nicolas Beaudin from the Blackhawks in return for forward Cam Hillis who wasn’t part of the Habs’ plans anymore. The team announced that the 23-year-old left-handed defenseman would be joining the Rocket in the next few days. At 5’11’’ and 168 pounds, the young defenseman isn’t on the heavy side, but he was a first-round pick for the Hawks back in 2018. So far, he has skated in 22 NHL games across 3 seasons and gathered 6 points in the process. Perhaps the move to Montreal will be beneficial for the Chateauguay native from a developmental standpoint.
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