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There was Florian Shikaj, all by himself, standing right in front of Mackenzie Blackwood, the glint of his first NHL goal shining in his eyes and the puck coming to his stick just in time for him to score it.
He would never have suspected that the solid piece of carbon fiber was too weak to deliver the moment he had always dreamed of.
Poof! Shikaj leaned against its roof, snapping in half.
He was hamming it up on the bench when, seconds later, Juraj Slafkovski gave Ivan Demidov a Grade-A chance that the Russians dropped to give the game a completely different color against the Colorado Avalanche.
The final result came in just over a minute and changed after a series of unfortunate events involving Shekij, Slafkovsky and Demidov. It tipped Colorado’s way on a four-on-four when Nathan MacKinnon jumped off the bench and took advantage of a broken play in the neutral zone to skate unimpeded through Montreal’s slot and cash in at 387.th His sterling career goal to make it 5-1.
What are you going to do?
Canadians should forget that.
“You can’t just throw it away,” coach Martin told reporters at the St. Louis Ball Arena. “We’ll see about that. We don’t play again until Tuesday. Not sure what I’m going to do with that. It’s only gone after 15 minutes.”
Although he should have known that it was a fixed damage texture.
It was Montreal’s third game in four days, their second game of the trip being played in the Mountain Time Zone starting Friday at 1:00 pm PT in Las Vegas, and it’s up against a high-profile opponent in Denver (the steamroller Avalanche team that came off a 4-loss streak this season). Talk about long issues.
St. Louis should be happy with how the Canadiens faced them.
He said he was satisfied with the way they started, and a review of the tape will only confirm that feeling.
The Canadians came out with the best of intentions. They plowed the ice, dribbled off the ice, had scoring chance after scoring chance and made eight of their first 11 shots in the game. A white would have given them an early lead they earned, but it never came.
One immediately went against the Canadiens when Florian’s brother, Arbor, caught his heel on the skate of the team’s X-carrier as he was backing up to save Burke Nelson on the rush.
Nelson took advantage of the accident and scored.
His goal came just six minutes before Ice captain Gabriel Landskig scored a goal that shouldn’t have counted.
He entered Jacob Dobbs’ crease on his own, and caused a collision with Canadiens forward Josh Anderson, causing him to make contact with Dobbs’ skate and knocking the Montreal goaltender out of the game.
But the NHL decided it was Anderson’s fault when St. Louis challenged it, and it was clear then and there that the Canadiens were not destined to win this game.
It was confirmed before they lost it 7-2, and there was some profound lesson to be learned from it.
“We didn’t play good defense,” Nick Suzuki told reporters in attendance after the game ended.
“It felt like a lot of their chances came off the rush, and they’re a really good rush team,” he said. “I thought our coverage was poor at times and allowed them to find the seam, find people early, and that’s kind of what hurt us the most.
Suzuki and his teammates should be very concerned with themselves for the damage they did, which proved painful after reacting badly to being 3-0 down in the first minute of the second period. St. Louis certainly looked upset with them as they forced several plays in the three minutes between that goal and the next one.
The camera caught him leaning into his players and exhorting them to stay in the game.
They responded well, with Demoff scoring after just four minutes.
He then set up the chance for Xhekaj before Slafkovsky set one up for him, and the game went from there.
Is there more to it than that?
More damage is done. They teach lessons that call for deep self-reflection and self-reflection.
But Canadians don’t need to dig beyond the surface to digest it and respond appropriately.
Clean up the coverage, reinforce the need for a composer when the game feels like it’s slipping, and check the rest for some scary bounces.
The Canadiens may have gotten some good at three wins as a result of this loss, but they got them the way they played. The result in Colorado didn’t diminish that accomplishment, and they’re coming home from this three-game road trip with four points in regulation—and more positives than negatives to focus on before their next game.
Some of that includes Dobbs and Samuel Montambault stepping up in net for the most part. Zachary Bolduc was also an offensive sensation while Slafkovsky continued to run his line with Demidov and Oliver Kapanin. Alexandre Tequier not only scored his first point with the team but also proved that he can help provide some balance, and the team’s power play came back to life.
All of this is more than just trouble in Denver.
That should give the Canadiens confidence to start December off on the right foot against their fiercest rival, the Ottawa Senators, on Tuesday at the Bell Centre.
Maybe Xhekaj will take another look at it first.
