The Canadian spent his practice on Wednesday throwing into empty nets or into nets covered in carpet with small holes.
The idea, of course, was to allow the players to regain a healthy dose of confidence, especially after Tuesday night’s game at the Bell Center, in which the boys in blue, white and red managed just one goal. “You have to start somewhere … confidence is a big part of it,” Juraj Slafkovsky said with a smile about putting pucks into nets without any goaltenders.
It should be remembered that the Canadian players failed to play a game with more than two goals in regular time in the last four visits. We won’t go into the (very) long list of players on this team who are down offensively right now, but Martin St-Louis summed it all up in one sentence on Wednesday in Brossard. “It’ll help when a few guys get unlocked,” he explained.
That’s really the biggest problem with this team at the moment: there are guys who are blocked, the problem is undoubtedly purely Montreal, like the city’s knocking veins, but we’re getting lost.
Martin St-Louis hasn’t named him, but we’re guessing Cole Caufield is one of the must-unlockers, having managed just one five-on-five goal since the start of the season.
On Wednesday, in the middle of the locker room, the young attacker still had the same smile when he declared that “sooner or later she will enter”, and claims that he is not too worried about it.
“Obviously it’s frustrating … We all want to score every night,” he began by saying. We want to help the team win. But at the end of the day, I get scoring chances.
“It’s frustrating, yes, but we get up the next day, start over and try again next time. We learn from these experiences, we learn to deal with adversity. That’s what I’m doing right now… The goals will come sometime, I like how I play five on five. »
While everyone here is talking about the collapse of the offensive and those who are not able to implement it, Martin St-Louis sees the glass half full; among other things, he reflected on the last four games of his club: “(maybe) our best series of four games since I’ve been here”, he analyzed.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
Martin St-Louis
But he also spoke about trust.
“There is a little self-confidence of some players, and there is also a little bad luck,” he added. But we’re creating enough scoring chances to win… I know we want to score more goals and it will help us when a few guys get unlocked.
“But the guys are in a good place from a psychological point of view; They are disappointed with the result from Tuesday night, that’s normal, but let’s move on… The guys feel it on the ice. The only thing that is difficult for us right now is putting the puck in the net. »
Because of this, they spent more than an hour throwing into empty nets or into nets covered with a mat with holes. It remains to be seen if they can score when the goalkeeper is in front of the net.
Guhle did well
PHOTO BY ERIC BOLTE, USA TODAY SPORTS
Kaiden Guhle
There was almost nothing on Kaiden Guhle’s face Wednesday afternoon in the Bell Center locker room. No skate marks, no cuts. The young defenseman who was hit in the face with a skate by forward Elias Lindhom during Tuesday’s game against the Calgary Flames is doing very well. “It didn’t really hurt at the time, but it scared me a little bit,” he said. Especially after what just happened in England… I’ve been thinking about it a bit. It’s still a little tender, but it’ll be fine. »
Absent from training
PHOTO BY DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
Mike Matheson
Three were absent from the Canadian’s practice on Wednesday, all due to treatment: Jordan Harris, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and Mike Matheson. They will be evaluated daily. The Canadian will hold a pregame workout Thursday morning at the Bell Center in preparation for tonight’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights.
