Habs News: NHL, Montreal Canadiens, Mathieu Perreault, Brendan Gallagher, Jeff Petry, Christian Dvorak, Philip Danault, Laval Rocket, Trois-Rivieres Lions

ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | LAVAL, QC. — The Canadiens were in California over the weekend to face the Kings, and the Ducks. On Saturday, Josh Anderson gave his team a 1-0 lead through 20 minutes with his second of the season. Los Angeles took over the game and scored five unanswered goals, on their way to 5-2 victory.

“I didn’t like our effort when they pushed back. I didn’t like the way we reacted. We played on our heels, we had no execution, we had no push-back besides a little at the end of the second period,” Dominique Ducharme said. “It wasn’t a good period, but you come back in the room and it’s a 2-1 game heading into the third. That’s when you need to come out, except we take a penalty 10 seconds in, which is one of the worst ways to start a period, especially when you want to get back into a tight game.”

The team’s embarrassing effort led to Marc Bergevin addressing the players after the game, followed by a players-only meeting.

On Sunday morning, the Canadiens boarded a bus in Los Angeles and made their way to the Honda Center in Anaheim to face the Ducks. The Canadiens were able to come back from two one-goal leads, but it wasn’t enough as the Ducks handed them a 4-2 loss. The previous night’s post game meetings did not translate to two points in the standings.

“It was decided on one play in the third period. We didn’t react well on that play, and they took advantage of that scoring chance. Right before that, we missed 2-3 chances on the power play,” Ducharme said.

Failed Road Trip

Montreal flew home on Sunday night from Anaheim with only two of the possible eight points during the four-game road trip. A complete failure.

Through 10 games, the Canadiens have 2-8 record. It’s the franchise’s worst start since 1941-42, when Montreal had 1-8-1 record. “We don’t like it, we’re not happy,” Ducharme said. “We have to be consistent, and give ourselves a chance every night.”

The horrible start in October already puts the Canadiens in a bad position to clinch a playoff berth. “We definitely dug ourselves a hole. We have a big home stand coming up. All these games are so important in the regular season to put yourself in a good position to fight for a playoff spot, and we haven’t done a great job in being consistent every single night, and that’s got to change,” Nick Suzuki said.

The Canadiens five-game home stand begins on Tuesday against the Red Wings. Detroit arrived in Montreal late on Saturday night following their loss against Toronto, and will be well rested, and ready for revenge from Montreal’s recent 6-1 victory.

More Injuries

The Canadiens list of missing key players continues to get bigger. On Sunday, the team announced that Mathieu Perreault will miss two to three weeks with an eye injury. The forward started having double vision and doctors realized his retina had detached. He had a small laser procedure in Los Angeles to cure right eye.

Brendan Gallagher was a game time decision in Anaheim, and scratched after taking part of warmups for a few minutes. Ducharme said that Gallagher will be re-evaluated in Montreal, however the coach hinted that he will miss some time.

Jeff Petry was also a game time decision on Sunday, however ended up taking part of the match. The defenceman also missed some time during the Kings game. I think it’s safe to assume that he’s not currently playing at 100 percent.

Penalty Kill

The Canadiens allowed five goals while being shorthanded over the weekend, which brings the total to 15 since the start of the season. It’s the most amount that they have allowed through 10 games since the 1985-86 season. Montreal’s penalty kill is at 65 percent, ranking them 30th in the league ahead of the Jets, and the Coyotes.

“There’s a sacrifice level there for sure. You got to be willing to get into the lanes when it’s time to get into the lanes, attention to details with your sticks, and making sure you’re in the right position,” said a frustrated Ben Chiarot on Saturday.

“We’re not doing a good enough job up ice as forwards, and then they’re getting easy entries, and able to setup,” added Tyler Toffoli.

Costly Faceoffs

The Canadiens were horrible on the faceoff circle over the weekend, only winning 34.2 percent of the draws. On the penalty kill, Montreal’s centers only won 16.7 percent of the faceoffs. A lost draw while being shorthanded allows the opposition to setup their power play and apply pressure.

Christian Dvorak was the best center on draws over the weekend with an awful 40-percent success rate. The table below shows the total success rates of the six centers against Los Angeles and Anaheim.

Danault Happy in LA

Saturday marked Philip Danault’s first match against his former club. It’s safe to say that he put a lot of money on the board to motivate his teammates to beat the Canadiens. 

“Montreal brought me only positives, it was a springboard for me. I gained experience in all aspects of my life, on and off the ice, and mentally. A lot of respect for the chances that they gave me,” Danault said on Friday.

The Victoriaville native signed a six-year $33-million deal in the offseason with the Kings. “He’s been everything we thought we were getting in him. He fits our group very well,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said on Friday. “We got what we expected from him in the face off circle, he’s top-20 in the league.” The coach added that Danault’s addition will allow him to manage Anze Kopitar’s ice time and help the organization’s young centermen develop at the right pace.

“My fit is excellent, they make it feel that way too, and they trust me,” Danault said about his start with his new team. On Saturday, he won 57-percent (8-for-14) of the draws versus Montreal’s top-two centres, Suzuki and Dvorak. Danault also picked up an assist on the power play, while playing 16:39 versus Montreal.

Rocket Swept by Americans

The Rocket were swept by the Americans, Sabres affiliate, at Place Bell over the weekend. On Friday, Rochester scored the first goal, and never trailed on their way to hand Laval a 4-3 loss.

“We had so many chances and we couldn’t score on them, and they scored on their 1-2 chances,” Jean-Francois Houle said. The coach was happy with his team’s performance and effort.

Saturday’s rematch was an old-fashioned offensive festival. Rochester had a two-goal lead with 5:18 remaining, when goals by Jesse Ylonen and Jean-Sebastien Dea forced the game into overtime. The Americans capitalized on a defensive breakdown to score the winning goal in a 6-5 match.

Ylonen scored twice on Saturday after being blanked through his first five games of the season. “I think I’ve been feeling better every game, and today I was more lucky than previous game,” the forward said. “He’s got some poise, he can shoot the puck. I think it was just a matter of time before the puck was going in,” added Dea.

Ryan Poehling returned to the lineup on Friday after missing the last four games with an upper body injury. Poehling tallied one goal and two assists over the weekend series and was named the third star in back-to-back games.

Laval will travel to Syracuse to face the Crunch on Friday, and then head to Utica to face the Comets on Sunday. Houle said that this week’s practices will focus on play in the defensive zone.

Lions Record First Win

The Trois-Rivieres Lions headed to Maine on Friday to face the Mariners and earned the franchises first win. Olivier Archambault broke the scoreless tie in the third period with his first goal of the season. Alexis D’Aoust sealed the 2-0 victory with his second goal of the year.

“I’m proud of this victory, because it was a nice team win on the road. Our goalie made some big saves. We started to see some nice things, and we scored some big goals. We’re going to build on that. We needed one like that. It will do some good for all us,” Eric Belanger said after the game.

Philippe Desrosiers made 34 stops for the shutout. “Philippe is very solid and inspires confidence. When we make an error, we know that Philippe will make the save. That’s what you want to see from your goalie. He’s competitive, he has a good attitude and works hard during practices,” Belanger said.

Desrosiers was loaned to the Lions by the Jets as the organization doesn’t have an ECHL affiliation this season. The goalie signed an AHL contract with the Moose after spending the 2020-21 season on the Florida Panthers’ taxi squad. In 2019-20, he appeared in 29 AHL games with Springfield, where he registered a 16-10-2 record, with 3.05 goals against average, and .916 save percentage.

The Lions will host the Reading Royals, Flyers affiliate, on Friday and Saturday at the Colisee Videotron.

(Quotes courtesy of Le Nouvelliste)

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By Chris G., Senior Writer
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