The first competition after the four nations break was an excellent and easy to win for Montreal Canadians in Ottawa.
However, to keep the hope of a place of playoffs alive, Canadians must advance a sequence of victories.
The Hurricanes de la Caroline have cooperated. The Canadians won a second impressive victory after the break, beating Carolina 4-0 while Samuel Montembeault obtained a 20-speed laundering.
Wilde horses
One of the fields of the game of Juraj Slafkovsky must improve is the way in which he uses his big frame to create chances. He sometimes seemed during his first three seasons that he does not know how dominant he can be if he had to use his size.
Slafkovsky was informed at the start of his career to go to the front of the net and bodies of blows to create space. He replied, indicating that he could use his hands to take big blows and make superb passes instead.
There may be one day when Slafkovsky is right with this answer. However, at the moment, he must follow the advice. He needs to be a great boring and difficult force for success.
The best stratagem that a beady player can try is to go to the front of the net when his team attacks. Slafkovsky has the ability to gain an interior position against a smaller defender, then turn and search for deviations or screens.
Depending on the nature of the shot, Slafkovsky should either try to get a stick on the shot, or make sure that the goalkeeper cannot see it. The two are exceptional choices that lead to objectives.
The screen and deviation also lead to rebounds. Slafkovsky does not need a heavy shot on a two -foot rebound. He just needs to stay loud and keep his stick on the ice for Tap-ins.
It is not as pretty or as exciting to score goals like this, or to help defenders to score, but they all count as one on the end. Slafkovsky’s natural tour de force is exactly what happened when the Canadians took the lead. Jayden Struble took a point shot that did not have much power on it. Slafkovsky was in front of the net where he closed it at home.
Slafkovsky can score 20 goals per year in this way, if it believes its importance. Slafkovsky should work on his deviations as much as he works on his shot. In the third, Slafkovsky was again in front of the net. This time, Lane Hutson’s goal was scored because of a screen.
Get daily national news
Get the best news of the day, the titles of political, economic and current affairs, delivered in your reception box once a day.
Recently, there have been a lot of caress keys on Slafkovsky saying he wanted to play like Brady Tkachuk. He might also want to look at the career of Ryan Smyth from Edmonton’s Oilers. He made a living in front of the net, the bottom, screening, the recovery of rebounds up to a career of 386 goals.
A second major point of the plot in it was that Owen Beck had a chance on the second line as a center thanks to a injury to Kirby Dach. Beck does not need to stack points to find success on this line. What he has to do is help the line not to be given in. Dach with Patrik Laine and Alex Newhook led the line to spend 70% of their time in their own area.
The line of the line is absolutely appalling with Dach as a center. Dach is the worst more / less player of the whole league, and the line of the line is regularly from 30 to 35. They almost never win in Shot Share as a line.
Beck is known as an excellent 200 -foot player. If he could change the overall footprint of the line so that they play more hockey in the offensive area, it would make a massive difference from the final score.
During the first period, not only had the line had a good planned total of 80 goals, but they also scored the second goal. Beck led the rush and created the space that was going hard on the net. The washer then returned to the point where Patrik Laine deviated from Alex’s boost. It was a three -point night for wool.
It was a first massive period for the Beck line. They dominated the action and also marked. However, a period is not three. The size of the sample had to become larger to validate it, but in the second period, they had a very bad change.
Newhook and wool were both likely to clean their own area, but they both failed. Finally, it was actually Beck who put the excellent point of sale with patience to stop the carnage. Beck was the savior of the line in the second. He made beautiful passes in the third.
However, the only line that had good analysis in the final buzzer was the Suzuki line. Suzuki has torn a powerful wrist in the upper corner for his 16th of the season. Suzuki has played 58 games this season with 57 points when he tried his first season per match per match.
Wilde goats
No goat since the Canadians have beaten a club that has strong aspirations for a Stanley Cup this season. Montreal dates back to its energy after being exhausted before the four nations rupture.
It is still a long way to a place of qualifying series, but the road was helped by the target going from 93 points to 89 points. To reach 89 points, Canadians must go 15 and 9 to close the season.
Wilde cards
The deadline for negotiation is approaching with rumors that are starting to pilot what could happen to the free agents without restrictions on the Canadians. An interesting idea is to float that Canadians are trying to acquire a choice of draft in the first round. The only way to do it successfully is to pack the players instead of treating them independently.
Common sense suggests that Jake Evans with Joel Armia is a perfect set for teams trying to improve the back of their list and their penalty murder. The Canadians are seventh from the League to kill penalties led by Evans and Armia.
They also form two thirds of the fourth line of Canadians which is the second best fourth line in the whole league behind the Caroline trio in the scored goals. It is also logical from a point of view of contractual negotiations for the two players because it seems that the two are in an impasse with the management of Canadians.
Jake Evans apparently requests a five -year contract, and at 28, considering where Canadians are in perspective and their reconstruction, it is an untenable demand for GM Kent Hughes. It would be a shock if Hughes accepted such a long contract with similar players like Owen Beck and Oliver Kapanen waiting to take control of this type of position on the Evans club.
Evans has played great hockey for Montreal, but this season is an aberrant value. He is not a goalscorer like this in the long term. Armia is also a usable player, but that is generally not a champion. The direction hopes to strike a home run with a third choice of first-round draft by exchanging these two.
This choice would probably be in the range of 20 to 32, because only the strongest teams in the League would be willing to separate from their first round by trying to take a long race in the playoffs this season. In addition, a first round at around 25 places in the draft has only one chance of 50%, historically, even to make the League and only a chance to transform into a star.
However, five percent are better than zero percent. Zero percent is the chance that Armia or Evans transform into a star, so since Canadians are in reconstruction, they hope again a Hutson type miracle, rather than paying the best dollar for aging veterans when a cup is still in the years.
It is a job that is perfectly logical. We will know it by March 7 if Hughes can carry out the movement. It will be an exciting period for Canadian fans, even if the club does not guarantee a first -round choice. Two first rounds already secure will build a better future.
Brian Wilde, a sports writer based in Montreal, brings you Call of the Wilde on Globalnews.ca After each Canadians’ game.
