The last pre-season game between the Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators degenerated to such an extent that Montreal club head coach Martin St-Louis admitted to feeling a little apprehensive about another duel between the two teams at the end of camp.
On Tuesday, the Senators’ Ridly Greig applied a dangerous check to Kirby Dach in the first period. Arber Xhekaj then applied a similar hit to Tim Stützle and the Habs defenceman was ejected for the second straight game.
The two teams will meet again Saturday in Ottawa. St. Louis said he asked general manager Kent Hughes if he could talk to his counterpart in the Canadian capital, Steve Staios, to see what type of lineup he plans to deploy against the Canadiens.
“I’d like to know what Ottawa is thinking of doing too,” St-Louis said Friday after practice at the Gilles-Cadieux arena in Mont-Tremblant. “It’s been an emotional camp, not just for us, we’ve seen it all over the league. It’s disappointing to lose players. I hope we start the season healthy on Wednesday [against the Toronto Maple Leafs].”
Last Saturday’s preseason game against the Maple Leafs was also marked by incidents that caused a stir across the hockey world. Canadiens forward Patrik Laine suffered a sprained left knee in a collision with Cédric Paré. Xhekaj was removed from the game after trying to attack Paré a little later.
The Canadiens had organized six pre-season games this year, including two each against the Maple Leafs and the Senators, their two natural geographic rivals and two section rivals.
“There’s always good games between us, with intensity,” defenceman Kaiden Guhle said of the matchups against the Senators. “The teams don’t like each other.
“I expect the same on Saturday. There will be physical play,” he added.
Despite the distractions of the preseason games in the final week of camp, St. Louis said he was pleased with the work they’ve done since returning to work. The club has allowed just two goals at five-on-five in its first five outings. It has a 2-3-0 record.
“It shows in the way the players behave on the ice, in our collective play,” St-Louis said. “It’s not like we changed a lot of things, but we made small adjustments. We attacked things chronologically, starting with the most important things.”
St-Louis therefore indicated that it had put the emphasis on defensive play and numerical inferiority.
“There was a lot of gray areas last year because we were making reads, but we weren’t all on the same page,” defenseman Mike Matheson said of working in the defensive zone. “We needed to get better at that and that’s something we’ve been working on.”
“It’s not like football where every play starts at a standstill. Hockey, you can say every play is a little bit different,” he continued. “There’s always going to be a lot of gray in hockey, but that’s why everyone has to be on the same page, to react the same way when we’re faced with a new situation.”
St. Louis and the Canadiens players are also aware that there is still a lot of work to be done on the power play. The Habs have not scored in 25 opportunities in their first five preseason games.
Matheson recalled that the first unit had only played two games together so far. He also noted that the team had made a lot of tactical changes.
St-Louis said he would likely look at that aspect of the game early next week.
“The end of things was the offensive side, and the power play is part of that,” he said, reflecting on his program during camp.
Until then, he hopes not to lose any soldiers in combat against the Senators. St. Louis also acknowledged that management will have to make difficult decisions to cut four players and confirm the composition of its 23-man roster that will begin the season.
Leave a Reply