With points in six consecutive games after the four -nations break, Montreal Canadiens players won the right to fight for a place in the playoffs. Free agents without restrictions have been held on board in the hope of a post-season.
The first game after the vote of trust was in Calgary, but the Canadians met a hot goalkeeper and fell 1-0.
Wilde horses
With expected objectives of almost three, we would have thought that Canadians could have had at least one. However, it was a night for the goalkeepers, and the goalkeeper of the flames was a little better than the Canadian goalkeeper.
Dustin Wolf did not expect to obtain an appointment for the Calder trophy as a high level recruit, but it certainly seemed to deserve one, diverting 26 shots to close the Canadians. Cole Caufield was particularly prolific with six shots, but he just couldn’t convert.
Juraj Slafkovsky had another strong game because he has definitely resumed his game since the four nations break. Slafkovsky and Caufield played nine minutes from the third period. Lane Hutson and Nick Suzuki played 10 minutes from the third.
Jakub Dobes spent a stellar night by stopping 23 of the 24 shots.
Wilde goats
There is nothing to separate. Even Owen Beck’s line had 12 minutes of ice and had an expected share of 82. In fact, this number is so powerfully excellent that head coach Martin St. may have to stand and take note of it, and perhaps make a change of line combination.
Josh Anderson was pushed to the Beck line because of Patrik Wool suffering from a disease. The trio, completed by Alex Newhook, showed that even when Laine returns, they might want to keep Anderson on the line and drop wool.
Defensively, the three agreements had expected objectives between a share of 64 and 72. Nothing said that the Canadians should have lost this match, with the exception of the Wolf game which decided the fate of everyone with its excellence. Sometimes the goalkeeper brings you and you go to the next city. This next city is in Vancouver on Tuesday evening.
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Wilde cards
Owen Beck played eight minutes Thursday evening in Edmonton. Nick Suzuki played 24 minutes. It is not durable, but for the next 20 games, the Montreal Canadians will try to make it work enough to win a place in the playoffs.
The deadline for negotiation has passed and the director general Kent Hughes could not find an appropriate case to fulfill the central second line role to help his club make the eliminatory series. This is a major challenge for other centers to compensate for the lack of experience that Beck has as 2C on Canadians.
However, Canadians went so far with the second line as a black hole all season, and the club is close to a place of qualifying series. This does not change because there is not much difference between Beck and Kirby Dach.
Beck is actually better defensively than Dach, but Beck provides almost nothing offensively at the NHL level at the moment. He will improve, but right now, it’s a bridge too far to try to help Alex Newhook and Patrik Wool to get 5 against 5 points. It is a washing.
Improving the second line of the worst figures in the league would have been massive, but GM Kent Hughes said the sellers required too high a price. Many available centers have not changed.
Whoever did it was Scott Loughton from Philadelphia. The Toronto Maple Leafs had to abandon a first -round choice to obtain it, and it is a third liner. It is the 25th choice in total that the flyers have reached. He may have taken a first in the 15th in the general classification, and a strong prospect of acquiring a second line center, and Hughes could not press the trigger.
It is not a black brand for Hughes. In his mandate, he made the trades that he felt his club improved. He would have taken a center, if we were available at an feasible price. The sellers have become greedy. They did not move their product, and that is an error on their part.
Hughes also said he wanted to trade hockey, but again, he found no lessee for his prospects, which he was imagined that all were available with David Reinbacher, Jacob Fowler, Michael Hage and Ivan Demidov. You cannot criticize someone if he can’t find any reasonable person.
Although the absolute alignment of a second -line center is now pushed in the summer, it was also learned at this deadline for trading that Hughes has changed speed and that the sale for choices is finished. What is starting is that Canadians put pressure on a place in the playoffs.
On the block as free agents without restriction, David Savard, Christian Dvorak and Joel Armia. All three stayed with the Canadians while management sent the message to the players they thought they had enough to make the playoffs.
When a team does nothing to improve their club on the deadline for negotiation, it is generally a step back, because its competitors have made movements. However, at this deadline, Montreal fought with seven clubs for the last places in playoffs and none of them went to work aggressively.
Columbus and the Rangers were essentially inactive, so no worries for Canadians there. The Icelanders weakened their club, exchanging Brock Nelson. The Red Wings have only made small movements. The Bruins have essentially abandoned the playoffs, moving Brandon Carlo and Brad walking. The senators have not improved their club in Josh Norris moving for a Dylan Cozens in difficulty. The flyers weakened their list by selling Scott Loughton.
He may even have come to Hughes that he has the hottest team, and if the others are not going to take care, then he has the advantage. There are 20 games left and anything can happen. No one can predict who has the inner track here to grasp these two joker spots, but it certainly helps that no other team has been hungry to succeed, exchanging the future to acquire the present.
For next season, the best prospect that Canadians have had this century has happened at Demidov. It will improve the wing of the second line. If Hughes can find him a reliable 200 -foot center with whom to play, Montreal will improve five to 10 points in the standings.
The first line of Canadians is in the top 10, the third line is mid-level and the fourth line is the second best in hockey. The second line is five stockings of the league. He is responsible for almost all the differential of less 23 this season.
If this enormous weakness is resolved, the differential of less 23 turns into a more 10, and a plus 10 is a place of eliminatory series. Hughes essentially has only one job to do before next October, and it is a 2C which is ready to ignite Demidov and Wool to make a complete hockey club. The arrival of more perspectives such as Reinbacher and Hage solidifies the reconstruction even more successfully.
The objectives have been achieved this season. They are in the mixture and they play significant games. It is a few months after the fourth year of reconstruction and it goes beautifully.
Montreal has a massive number of draft choices and exceptional perspectives to come, and they are already competitive. Just this hole 2C to fill, and all the systems go.