A lot happened in the Canadian’s organization last night.
The Habs first defeated the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, avoiding a 10th straight loss, two fewer than the 1926 team record. The Canadian has a knack for winning when you least expect (and hope) to.
Jeff Petry, who didn’t produce and act like that made when the Canadians needed him earlier this season, he has recently started playing like the superb defender he has been for the past few seasons. Last night he scored two goals (with extremely accurate shots) to collect the first star of the game.
Fortunately, this victory, which could have cost the Canadian 32nd and last place overall, will not have had any negative effects in the end. Why? Because yesterday André Tourigny and the Coyotes won their second game in as many nights later to secure their 31st place finish.
The Canadian is now guaranteed to finish in 32nd and last place league. This is the first time we’ve seen the Canadiens finish since the 1939-40 season latest…
But also one of the very few times in NHL history that a club reached the Stanley Cup Finals well last less than a year later.
Oh yeah… the CH is also the first 32nd (because there were no 32 teams before). If we tell you that the 2021-22 season was miserable…
The 32nd rank means basically that the CH will certainly pick the top three in the amateur draft (in Montreal in July); Everything depends on the May 10 lottery…
That he has a one in four chance of getting first pick total…
One of four chances to speak second…
And a one-in-two chance for third place, as was the case with Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Alex Galchenyuk’s selections.
Here are the May 10th Habs odds in the lottery
1st choice: 25.5%
2nd choice: 18.8%
3rd choice: 55.7%Yes, the CH are favorites for 1st choice, but still have more than 1 in 2 chances for 3rd choice
— Guillaume Villemaire (@GVillemaire13) April 28, 2022
Note that the Canadian certainly has first choice (when not making trades) in any of rounds 2 through 7.
What do I remember of that first win in ten games for the Montrealers?
1. Jeff Petry was the most used defender, both on balanced strength and power play (and overall). He’s definitely found his Gameif you allow me to express it.
Petry has 6 points in his last 4 games and 8 in his last 6.
Since the arrival of Martin St-Louis, he has scored no fewer than 20 points in 29 games…he who had only 6 points in his first 38 games (under Dominique Ducharme).
With two points tonight, Jeff Petry now has 20 points in 29 games under Martin St-Louis. He had 6 points in 38 games to start the season. Complete the turn.
— HabsLinks (@HabsLinks) April 28, 2022
Hopefully it will increase in value (which was negative a few weeks ago, we remember).
As Philippe Boucher hinted yesterday, could he be back in Montreal in 2022-23 after all? We will see.
2. A win is good for the morale of the squad (both the player and the Coach). Although Martin St-Louis admitted his team hadn’t played that well and that Rangers had to rest their top three forwards, their top two defenders and their #1 goalie: Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Adam Fox, Jacob Trouba and Igor Shesterkin.
3. Ryan Poehling scored and aimed six shots at Georgiev’s net. He really is capable of the best and the worst. Can’t wait to see if he will be part of the solution in 2022-23…
4. Brendan Gallagher has been removed from the top scorer list. Gallagher (reprogrammed to version 2.0) has not found a net in his last 11 games…
Gallagher was the second least used forward for the Canadians yesterday.
5. We didn’t see much of Alexis Lafrenière last night. Julien Gauthier, who took his liberty Whine its low usage yesterday morning made its presence much more noticeable.
6. The goal the Canadian conceded on the power play at the end of the period could have hurt the team…
7. The Canadian didn’t capitalize on his two numerical advantages (besides, I remind you of conceding a goal in such circumstances).
8th. Nick Suzuki (22) collected an assist…his 60th point of the season. In a time of Montreal’s hardship, Suzuki’s offensive performance is a beautiful ray of sunshine.
9. Michael Pezzetta had an assist and Mike Hoffman had a goal. Christian Dvorak had two assists. Dvorak has 5 points in his last 4 games and is still playing good hockey (as a possible third center?) since his return to the game.
Christian Dvorak had a bad start to the season, we agree on that.
But since he’s back in action, he’s been playing much better hockey: 11 points in 18 games, better in his zone, more efficient on the FO.
It’s not bad that the player does that #CH thought to acquire! #Have
— Marc-Olivier Beaudoin (@MOBeaudoin1) April 28, 2022
Meanwhile, Cole Caufield, Jake Evans and Rem Pitlick have all been left off the scoring charts.
10 All Montreal defenders had a good game overall. In addition to Petry’s two goals, we can see Edmundson’s assists, Lagesson’s assists and the plus-2 by Harris. Maybe there was just David Savard (zeros all over) who had more trouble last night…
11. Samuel Montembeault blocked 24 of the 27 shots aimed at him, signing his 8th win of the season. If he plays at least five minutes tomorrow night, Montembeault will have been the Canadians’ most-used goalkeeper in 2021/22.
12. The Canadians have now conceded 317 goals this season, a franchise record … and a record for any NHL team since the 2005-06 lockout.
13. The tribute to Rangers’ Guy Lafleur – for whom he played on his return to the NHL – was short-lived (less than a minute) and lacking in flair (two pictures?). Shame.
Thursday in Canadian
CH returned to Montreal early in the night yesterday. The team plane landed around Dorval 1:00 a.m.
result : Martin St-Louis gave everyone the day off.
The team will play its final game of the season tomorrow night at the Bell Center (against Ben Chiarot, Jonathan Huberdeau and the mighty Panthers).
Will Carey Price be able to play this game? Since he hasn’t trained in almost a week, I doubt it.
According to the RDS, we should have news of Carey Price (and his appointment with his orthopedist in New York last night). somewhere today.
CH will provide an update on Price’s condition on Thursdayhttps://t.co/q9kpsrVTST
—RDS (@RDSca) April 28, 2022
But Marc-André Perreault, he insists that it will continue tomorrow because of the vacation at CH.
Carey Price met with the specialist tonight.
News on Friday because tomorrow is free— Marc-André Perreault (@MA_PerreaultTVA) April 28, 2022
I’m not sure if it will be tomorrow…
In short, we’re still at #31 with nothing… for tomorrow’s game as well as for next season. We’re getting used to it…