[ad_1]
CALGARY – Canadians have several problems to deal with Tuesday night's 6-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
That's why they held a video session prior to Wednesday afternoon training at Calgary's Scotiabank Saddledome as they prepared to face the Flames on Thursday night (9 pm, TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio ).
When asked if there was anything specific about which to work, coach Claude Julien said:Our game as a whole. We are going through this event and you are trying to solve that kind of situation and, for the moment, we are not playing our best hockey. We are very loose in a lot of areas, so we had to tighten up a bit. Our management of the puck is not good either. Our management of the puck has been very poor and, because of that, even sometimes, the decision making has not been the best and we are exposing ourselves because of two of these major situations.
"It's about doing the right things," added Julien. "I think we have lost a lot of time in some parts of our game, allowing other teams to have more attack and more chances to score, and we concede more goals. so to do the little things right here, at this level here, each team has talent, so this is a detail that deserves the attention of teams.This usually makes a difference and we have moved away from those. "
Asked about the video session, Brendan Gallagher said:This is just a part of the year. We have to work, find solutions, and this is the simplest way. Errors will happen. It's a problem when you start to reproduce errors, so for now, we just have to fix everything we do. There are many things, but we are aware of that. And as players, I think we are very happy to correct it. I hope we can do the job tomorrow night.
Therapy day for Domi
Max Domi took a therapy day on Wednesday and did not participate in the practice.
"Just a day of therapy," said Julien, which means Domi will be in training against the Flames.
Domi extended his point series to seven games with a goal against the Oilers. He led the Canadiens in scoring with a total of 10-12-22 and placed 10th in the NHL after Tuesday's game.
"He's just very competitive," Julien said of Domi. "He skates well and he shoots with pucks. He's shooting more than he ever had last year. He has a good shot and he benefits. Things are going well for him right now. For us, it has been a great addition. "
Domi missing training, Charles Hudon took his place on a line with Andrew Shaw and Jonathan Drouin and defender Mike Reilly played the wing on the fourth row.
Here are what defense lines and badociations look like:
Tatar – Danault – Gallagher
Hudon – Drouin – Shaw
Agostino – Kotkaniemi – Lehkonen
Deslauriers – Peca – Reilly
Benn – Petry
Schlemko – Juulsen
Ouellet – Mete
Alzner – Weber
Gallagher defends the guardians
Gallagher came to the defense of goalies Carey Price and Antti Niemi, both of whom struggled.
Niemi allowed six goals on 43 shots in Tuesday's loss to the Oilers. His record fell to 4-2-0 with an average of 3.74 and a save percentage of .887. Price, who should play the Flames, is 5-4-3 with an average of 3.07 goals scored, a save percentage of 0.892 and has allowed at least four goals in each of his last four games.
"We have to help our goalies – both of them," Gallagher said. "They are fine. The goals are high, but it's only because of the quality of the chances we give up. You can not give up so many hits from the slot and expect the guard to make a backup after saving. They made important backups in the games to keep us. From time to time, they let us hang out. But for us, as a group, we had to better protect areas of very dangerous scores and allow them to earn a little more chances.
"It's on us," added Gallagher. "They have to do too many high quality backups. Even last night, it was 3-2 early in the third period because of our goalkeeper. We need to be better, we need to help these guys more, and we've talked about it. But you can only talk a lot. It's time for us to go there and do the work. "
Power Play a problem
The Canadians scored 0-3 on the power play against the Oilers. They are now two in favor of 35 in the last 10 games and rank 29th in the NHL with the men's advantage, with a score of only 13.0%.
"We just have to simplify it," said Gallagher. "Once in the zone, it seems that everything is fine. It seems like we have hard times getting established and instead of having two minutes to work on a numerical superiority, we have 30 seconds. The easier we can do it, the faster we can get ready, take pictures, get traffic. There are qualified guys there. They will play games. This is an area in which we must improve, that's for sure.
Defender Jeff Petry, who played the game on the power play:I think it's a combination of things. Things do not go well, you do not score goals and you will try to do too much to make the games come true. I think the mentality should be to simplify things and get the pucks to the net. I think we have to become fencers. I think we're putting the puck out. I think our main goal is simply to send the pucks and the bodies to the net. "
Faceoffs another problem
The Canadians won just 41% of their faceoffs in Tuesday's loss to the Oilers and 30th in the NHL, scoring only 45% of the season. The only team worst is the Colorado Avalanche, with 44.8% wins.
Domi played 4-8 in the Oilers face-off circle (33%), while linemate Andrew Shaw (who sometimes replaced Domi) was 2-10 (17%).
Phillip Danault is Canada's top four-center faceoffs, winning 51.6% of his draws this season. Matthew Peca won 45.5%, Domi 42.8% and Jesperi Kotkaniemi 41.3%. Shaw won only 37.7% of his faceoffs.
No offense of the defense
The Canadiens have only four goals from their defensemen this season, one from each of Petry's goals, Jordie Benn, Mike Reilly and Noah Juulsen. The Oilers scored three goals against their defensemen in Tuesday's win against the Canadiens.
After Tuesday's games, seven NHL defensemen scored more than four goals individually.
"We do not argue or discuss anything," Petry said of the lack of blue line goals. "We have chances. But I think it will come with time. But it's not something we talk about or talk about. "
Weber practices again
Captain Shea Weber, who has not yet played in foot and knee surgery this season, has been training for the third day in a row on this road trip. He has not played a game for 11 months.
When Julien was told that Weber looked very good, the coach replied in two words: "No contact. "
Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports said Weber was two weeks ahead of his rehab program and that he could play at the end of the month or during the first week of December.
When Julien was asked when Weber could come back, the coach said:I can not give you a date. All I know is that he always follows the same protocol or the same thing we have from the beginning. It has not changed.
Petry, who was defending No. 1 in the absence of Weber, is happy to see him skate again.
"Obviously, our captain and a large part of our team," said Petry. "So it's always a pleasure to see a guy come back from an injury, skate with the team and get closer every day."
And after?
The Canadians will face the Flames on Thursday night at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary (9 pm, TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio) and then fly to Vancouver where they will end their three-game road trip to Canada West against the Canucks. (7 pm, CBC, SN1, TVA Sports, radio TSN 690).
Next week, the Canadiens have four games on their calendar. The Washington Capitals will be at the Bell Center on Monday night (7:30 pm, TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio) before the Canadians hit the road for New Jersey Devils games on Wednesday (7:00 pm, SN1, RDS, TSN 690 Radio) and the Sabers at Buffalo on Friday (4 pm, TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio). The Canadians will return home to face the Boston Bruins on Saturday night at the Bell Center (7 pm, SN, TVA Sports, TSN 690 radio).
[ad_2]
Source link
