|
In Hainsight: Passengers No More and Bad News |
|
|
|
|
|
Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
The Jets came to town as the best team in the west and not many thought that the Canadiens had a single chance to win that game, especially with the accumulating injuries but somehow, they managed it. Martin St-Louis said not too long ago that his team had too many passengers and his players heard him, last night, there were none. Everybody put their best foot forward and played a part in this team victory.
Evgenii Dadonov who had been playing better lately on a line with Jake Evans and Joel Armia kept up the good work even though both of his linemates had to miss the game. After 5 games of making the right plays with no tangible reward, at least on the scoresheet, he found the back of the net, not once, but twice doubling his production on the season. Mike Hoffman, who’s been a healthy scratch more often than not lately also found the back of the net and provided a solid effort at both ends of the ice. While one game won’t put them on other GMs’ radar as the trade deadline approaches, it’s at least a start.
Meanwhile, Kirby Dach once again played well at center, dictating the play and sacrificing his body for the greater good when needed. Yes, he’s still struggling in the faceoff circle, but there’s more to his role than just winning faceoffs. The 21-year-old finished the game with a well-deserved pair of assists, just like Justin Barron who had his best game since being called up and his first multi-point game. There’s no denying that Kirby Dach is now a much more confident player, perhaps a stay on the top line is just what the doctor ordered for the young center. Every point he gets sets a new personal best for him now and his struggles in Chicago seem to be far in the rearview mirror.
Once more, Samuel Montembeault had a good game, he was helped by his posts at times, but you’ve got to be good to be lucky and lucky to be good. Like it or not, the 26-year-old netminder is forcing the Habs brass to reevaluate his game. The Habs reticence to give the net to Cayden Primeau makes it clear that he’s yet to earn their trust and this might mean that Montembeault’s future in Montreal is brighter than expected.
In the end, the Canadiens came out on top 4-1 and those 2 points were absolutely deserved. Prior to the puck drop, the Habs announced that Jonathan Drouin would not be able to play and that they would be using an 11-7 line-up once more.
This morning, a medical update was given, and the news was quite frankly grim. Juraj Slafkovsky has got a lower-body injury that won’t necessitate surgery but that will keep him out of action for 3 months. Jake Evans won’t have to go under the knife either, but his lower-body injury will make him miss eight to 10 weeks (this one I fully expected). Both Joel Armia and Jonathan Drouin have got upper-body injuries that will keep them on the shelf until at least the All-Star break (February 2-6). As for Jake Allen, he’ll miss at least another week and there’s nothing new to report on Sean Monahan. That’s a lot of serious injuries for a team that’s already struggling.
I’ll allow myself to move away from the Habs here for a minute and talk about the “Provorov incident”. In case you haven’t heard, which I highly doubt, the Flyers were holding their Pride Night game last night and their defenseman Ivan Provorov refused to wear the special pride colored jersey and didn’t take part in the warm-up. According to Provorov to stay true to himself and his religion (Russian Orthodox), he couldn’t wear the jersey to take part in the warm-up, but he added: “I respect everyone. I respect everybody’s choices. As a member of the LGBTQ community, this makes me sad. Hockey has got a long way to go before it really is for everyone and society is evolving, but not nearly as quickly as I’d like it.
What really gets to me is that Provorov’s decision has made a lot of people come out on social media in support of his action and questioning the very existence of pride night, stating hockey shouldn’t be about anything else than hockey. The thing is though, one way to get people to think about an issue is to go through something they like and for hockey fans, that means going through the teams and the players to highlight the need for change.
Provorov’s decision made a lot of people angry last night, but personally, I’m not overly surprised. It’s nothing new, every time the league holds these games there are people to question their pertinence. For obvious reasons, I support these initiatives and I have a few pride game-used items in my collection, not so long ago, a friend of mine told me: “You have a great collection, but those pride tap sticks kind of ruins it”. I just couldn’t believe it when he said it, but it’s the kind of words I’ve unfortunately come to expect from hockey fans. I’m just hoping that last night’s event won’t make more of these people come out of the woodwork as they’ll feel legitimated by Provorov’s action, just like there were a lot of racists incidents reported in England after the country voted to leave the European Union, but the League's reaction is less than reassuring.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»