(Montreal) At the start of the evening, Jake Allen received the Molson Cup. About 20 minutes later, he found himself on the reservist’s stool, a cap on his head.
If we need to summarize what happened to the Canadiens on this cold Tuesday evening at the Bell Centre, it’s pretty much this: it went from festive to not at all festive quite quickly, during a bad exit from the starting goalkeeper.
That largely explains this fairly easy victory for the Tampa Bay Lightning, with a score of 5-3. After 13 minutes and 50 seconds of play, and after 4 goals on only 9 shots, the matter was already over, and Allen was on the bench.
On the other hand, he was not in the locker room at the end of the match, the Canadian having made the decision not to make him available to members of the media.
“When you allow a goal on the first appearance of the match again… we have a fragile team, we have lost a little confidence,” admitted Martin St-Louis after the match. That pretty much sums up the first period. But we found each other a little later…”
A little later, the Canadiens’ coach explained that what happened was “not necessarily Jake’s fault,” but it’s hard to ignore that Allen had a .927 save percentage in early evening, and by the time we left, this rate had dropped like a bad day on the stock market, to .910.
Jordan Harris blamed a bad start overall. “Even if they had played the day before,” noted the defender about the Lightning players. We know the kind of attack they have, if we could have slowed them down when they started to start the match well… but they got off to a good start. »
But maybe this was all to be expected? After all, the Canadian had undoubtedly deceived reality a little at the start of the season, for a host of reasons, first and foremost the goalkeepers. Especially Allen himself, who often delivered unexpected performances. These good evenings in front of the net helped mask the defensive deficiencies of this team for a while. Obviously it wasn’t going to last.
With David Savard absent, the others had to play different roles, and Mike Matheson, among others, found himself playing a role that was probably too demanding for his own good. He was on the ice four times Saturday in St. Louis when the opponent scored, and Tuesday night, he was on the ice for four enemy goals, again.
Mike Matheson was not made available by the Canadian at the end of the evening, so Martin St-Louis had to speak in his place.
“He would be the first to say it, he’s not playing to his standards right now,” explained the Montreal driver. Every player who plays as much as him will experience something similar in a season. We know what he can bring to the team, I know that he is trying to bring us that too, to offer us better performance, and we will continue to help him, because we need the player that he is capable of being. But it’s hard to do that for 82 games…”
What is also difficult is to win with indiscipline, and twice on Tuesday evening, when the Canadian was trying to come back up the hill after reducing the gap to two goals, there were bad penalties, including that of Arber Xhekaj. “I didn’t like that punishment… you don’t give yourself a chance when you receive punishments like that,” summarized Martin St-Louis.
Finally, the history books will remember that on November 7, 2023, the Canadian was defeated by a certain Matt Tomkins, goalkeeper of his state, at the venerable age of 29 years old. He earned his first NHL victory ever, in his third start. A guy who has played everywhere, including the previous two seasons in Sweden. It was against him that the Canadian lost.
A club undergoing reconstruction, that’s not bad.
He came on in relief of Jake Allen, and a few big saves on his part at least helped slow down the Lightning’s enthusiasm.
Such evenings remind us that it is best to use it occasionally, sparingly.
This is Mike Matheson’s differential during Tuesday night’s game.
If Matt Tomkins hangs on in Tampa for most of the season, expect his name to come up at your local drinking establishment when the discussion turns to Bill Masterton Trophy candidates. The Lightning goaltender signed his first victory in the National League on Tuesday, at the ripe old age of 29. As he himself likes to recall, Tomkins took “the long road” to reach the NHL, spending four years in the NCAA, time in the AHL and ECHL, as well as two seasons in Sweden, before finally settle down in the Bettman circuit. The respect from his teammates was palpable. At the sound of the siren, Alex Barré-Boulet recovered the puck, before giving it to Victor Hedman who gave it to head coach Jon Cooper, who gave it to the winner in the locker room. It was probably at this moment that the journalists gathered near the locker room heard howls of joy behind the doors. “All the sacrifices have been worth it to get here. There were several questions along the way. Is this job for me? I made several stops. Sweden was a big part of that. I left there without realizing that it would bring me back here. » The victory was particularly symbolic for this goalkeeper who idolized Patrick Roy and Carey Price.
Mike Matheson is undoubtedly experiencing his most difficult times since his arrival in Montreal. The man who often took on the role of general of the Canadian blue line struggled again on this evening of the 175th anniversary of the election of Zachary Taylor to the presidency of the United States. Matheson ended the evening with a differential of -3, as he did Saturday in St. Louis. His more or less narrow marking of Nick Paul on Tampa’s second goal was enough to leave one wondering. His difficulties also coincided with the October 28 game against the Jets, when he forfeited after the second period. He hasn’t missed a game, but it makes you wonder if he’s playing at 100% of his abilities. “He’s not playing up to his standards these days, but every player who plays that many minutes goes through that in a season,” explained Martin St-Louis.
At the end of the second period, Samuel Montembeault walked past the Lightning bench to retreat to the locker room, but not before Alex Barré-Boulet gave the Canadian goalie a good pat of encouragement. The two friends played together with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, then with the Syracuse Crunch. “We saw each other again in the summer, we became close,” said Barré-Boulet. Among the few positive points to note for CH, we certainly note the performance of Montembeault, who came to the rescue of Jake Allen in the first period. The Bécancourois ultimately blocked 22 of the visitors’ 23 shots, and he had just scored a gem on Nikita Kucherov when the Lightning finally thwarted him at the end of the match. But in the 43 minutes that followed his entry into the match, he at least kept CH in the game, making many brilliant saves. “There are no more hiding places, he’s a very good goalkeeper in the league,” believes Barré-Boulet. I knew it, I had played with it. I’m not surprised by his success. To see him fight like he did tonight is to his credit. » Montembeault took advantage of this match to narrow the gap between him and Jake Allen. His efficiency is now .902, compared to .910 for the New Brunswicker.
