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In Hainsight: Homecoming Wasn't the Answer and Canada Takes Gold |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
The Canadiens’ last road trip was a disaster and it was hope that the mothers’ trip might have inspired the team to play better if only by sheer pride, but the presence of their mothers did noting to inspire the players in the tail end of the never-ending trip and coming home didn’t do the trick either.
As the country was stuck to its television to watch the World Juniors’ gold medal game, the Canadiens played an uninspired and lifeless game. It took Martin St-Louis’ men 17 minutes to get their first shot on goal of the game. While it must be said that the Rangers weren’t able to muster more than 6 shots in the first frame themselves, this is not how you’ll win a hockey game.
Still, at least, for once, the Habs went back to the locker-room on level footing after the first frame, but it was just a matter of time before they came undone. I’ve rarely seen a team with such fragile confidence and when Juraj Slafkovsky committed a turnover on the power play which led to a Chris Kreider breakaway and shorthanded goal, that fragile confidence crashed and burnt.
From then on, the Habs looked disorganized and lost in their own zone with missed defensive coverage and way too many long sequences in which they just couldn’t get out of their own end. When the Rangers added 2 goals in the span of 59 seconds to make it 3-0, everyone knew the game was over.
The one positive to come out of this game was the fact that Joel Armia finally scored his first goal of the season, benefiting from yet another puck put on the net by young blue liner Arber Xhekaj who’s now 7th in team scoring with 13 points. By the time the final buzzer went, the Rangers collected 2 easy points thanks to a 4-1 victory.
The medical update that was expected to be given last night has been pushed back to today but according to RDS’ François Gagnon, the Canadiens will be without Kaiden Guhle who has a brace on his left knee for 4 to 6 weeks. We also know that Brendan Gallagher’s injury is the same one that forced him to miss 13 games already this season, but no word yet on how long he’ll be out of commission for this time.
If there wasn’t much to cheer about in Montreal last night, Habs fans can find some solace in the Canadiens’ prospects play in the World Junior Championships. 3 Canadiens prospects went home with medals last night, Roy and Beck captured the gold with Team Canada while Lane Hutson got the bronze with team USA.
Better yet, as both medal games ended in overtime, the game-winning goals were both prepared by Canadiens’ prospects. Lane Hutson took the puck to the net against Sweden and USA hero Chaz Lucius was able to complete his hat-trick on the rebound to seal the deal and allow the Americans to bounce back from what was a soul crushing defeat against Canada in the semis. As for Canada, its golden goal came off a 2 on 1 breakaway orchestrated by Joshua Roy who served a perfect pass to Dylan Guenther who had no difficulty getting it past outstanding goalie Tomas Suchanek for his 2nd and most important goal of the game.
In the end, Joshua Roy broke Jonathan Huberdeau’s record for most points at the World Junior Championships by a Quebecer (18 points in 12 games) with 19 points in 14 games and had an amazing tournament. He worked his way up the Canadian line-up by doing everything that was asked from him and earned his place alongside phenomenon Connor Bedard through hard work. For a guy who was once thought to lack work ethic, this is quite a feat. The future looks bright for Roy, although success on the World Junior Championship stage doesn’t always translate in the NHL, see Alex Nylander for example (28 points in 21 WJC games).
As for Lane Hutson, he showed he could play very well in his own end and defend properly against top competition no matter how tall the opponents were. It’s a shame he wasn’t called upon more by the American coach, but so far, he really looks like a steal at 62nd of the last draft.
The Canadiens will be back in action tomorrow night as they’ll host the St-Louis Blues at the Bell Centre. St-Louis comes to town with a 2-game winning streak while the Canadiens have only won 1 of their last 10 games and have lost 7 in a row.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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