Habs News: NHL, Montreal Canadiens, Tyler Toffoli, Jake Evans, Jake Allen, Dominique Ducharme, Jeff Gorton, Geoff Molson, Jiri Sekac, Laval Rocket, Trois-Rivieres Lions

ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | LAVAL, QC. — Two more names were added to the Canadiens injured list on the weekend. First, the organization announced on Saturday that Tyler Toffoli underwent hand surgery earlier in the week, with an expected eight-week recovery period. As a result, the forward may not be able to return into action before the Olympic break, that’s scheduled to begin on February.

Second, Jake Evans is listed day-to-day, after suffering an injury during the first period of Thursday’s game against Chicago. The forward is expected to be in the lineup for Tuesday’s match in Pittsburgh.

Joel Armia returned to action on Saturday, after missing two games with an injury.

A hot topic on a lot of fans, and experts minds is the usage of young players going forward as the Canadiens have no chance of making the playoffs. “Right now it’s not about what we think is best, it’s really having 20 guys in the lineup,” Dominique Ducharme said on Saturday.

With the imminent return of Jeff Petry, Brendan Gallagher, and Christian Dvorak  to the lineup, roster decisions will need to be made by management.

“It’s never a bad thing to get some mileage, it’s just at one point, as an organization, when we have more guys back, we’ll decide which way we want to go and look at every individual and make decisions. Because at the same time, you don’t just want to be having young guys that are not quite ready and are just trying to survive versus playing at another level, gaining confidence, making key plays, playing in big moments, big situations and so on. At one point, obviously, if we can get guys back, we’ll be in that situation to make decisions like that,” coach added.

Keep on Losing

On Saturday, it took the Blues 1:03 to get on the board, and they never looked back on their way to 4-1 win in St. Louis. Alexander Romanov scored Montreal’s only goal.

“I thought tonight that our level of energy was not quite where it needs to be in this situation. We need to be at top to be competitive every night, and I don’t think we were that sharp,” Ducharme said.

Saturday’s loss was Montreal’s eighth loss in their nine games. During that span, the Canadiens have been outscored 32-18 by their opponents.

Lack of Run Support

The offseason acquisitions were supposed to assure that the Canadiens had the ability to fill the opposition’s net. Projections had up to seven players capable of reaching the 20-goal mark. It made sense on paper. Reality is a different story. At this pace, there will be zero 20-goal scorers after 82 games. Nick Suzuki is trending to finish first on the team with 17 goals. 

Former Canadiens coach Michel Therrien used to often say that you need to score three goals to win a game. Through 29 games, Montreal has scored three or more on eight occasions. The Canadiens have 6-1-1 record in those eight matches.

The goaltenders, mostly Jake Allen, have been given little room for error in the other 21 games. Allen has played well since returning from his concussion.

“The one thing that he wanted is to leave with a win. That’s something that we would have liked to give him,” Ducharme said after Allen’s 33-save performance against his former team. “He’s in there every day battling. For us, he’s been really solid, it would have been nice to get a win for him.”

GM Search

The organization’s next major decision will likely be the hiring of the new general manager. When Geoff Molson addressed the hiring of Gorton, he said that ideally someone would be hired for the role as soon as possible.

“We’re in the process of creating a list, and I have a committee that will review the list before Christmas, and we’re probably going to start the process in January,” updated Molson on Friday at the NHL Board of Governors meeting.

Molson’s committee consists of Gorton, former Canadiens player and general manager Bob Gainey, and minority owner Michael Andlauer. Expect a lengthy process considering that it took 10 days for Gorton to be hired as Executive Vice President by Molson.

Montreal’s performance on the ice has not improved since Marc Bergevin was relieved from his duties. There’s a belief that Gorton was hired to begin a rebuild process, similarly to his work with the Rangers.

“It’s really too soon,” Molson answered when asked if that’s the new direction. “I’m not afraid to the idea of doing something like that. It will be up to the new general manager and Jeff Gorton to sit down together, and take a position on that.”

Sekac Reflects Back

On July 1st, 2014, the Canadiens signed free agent Jiri Sekac to a two-year contract. Sekac was a highly touted forward from the KHL. He played a total of 50 games with the organization before being traded.

“I was young and wild,” Sekac told TVA Sports in an interview published on Friday. “I was not behaving like a professional, I thought it was easy for me to play in the NHL.”

Sekac, 22-years old at the time, took the opportunity for granted. “Two years earlier, I was a player that virtually nobody knew, and then I had a good season in the KHL before I came to the NHL. It was a difficult situation to deal with and I got lost.”

The forward collected four points in his last 26 games with Montreal. “My unprofessional behaviour off the ice obviously affected my performance, which was inconsistent.”

The organization provided several warnings to Sekac, but that did not change his off-ice behaviour. “I was stupid for a while. I thought it wasn’t my fault, that I wasn’t given enough chances to show off. With age and experience, I understand today.”

Sekac played another 58 games in the NHL with the Ducks, Blackhawks, and Coyotes before returning to the KHL. He’s currently playing for Lausanne HC of the Swiss league.

“Obviously I’d rather be playing in the NHL right now. I don’t know if I have any regrets, because it was fun anyways, but obviously I would have done things differently, for sure.”

Rocket Split Weekend Matches

The Rocket were on the road for a pair of games against Eastern Conference rivals. On Friday, Lukas Vejdemo‘s two goals was not sufficient as Laval lost 5-3 against Rochester. “We got good chances, but we didn’t score. We have to pay attention to turnovers. A couple of turnovers were costly tonight,” Jean-Francois Houle said.

On Sunday, Raphael Harvey-Pinard scored twice in the third period to give Laval a 4-2 win in Hershey. “When we took the lead, Primeau made big saves, the guys sacrificed their bodies to block shots for the team’s benefit,” Houle said.

“Often he works and he isn’t rewarded or doesn’t appear on the scoresheet. Tonight it paid off for him. He’s a player that works hard and an important player for our team,” Houle commented on Harvey-Pinard.

Cayden Primeau stopped 38 pucks in his sixth consecutive start. “It’s good to play, but you got to be ready for whenever your name is called, and taking advantage of the opportunity,” said the goalie.

“Cayden is a goalie that has a lot of potential. He wants to be a number one goalie in the NHL one day, he needs to take the workload. In the NHL, they play every second day. That’s what we’re doing right now, and he has the net,” explained Houle.

The Rocket host the Bruins on Friday, and then head to Syracuse to face the Crunch on Saturday.

(Quotes courtesy of 91.9 Sports)

Lions Success in Newfoundland

Trois-Rivieres were in Newfoundland to square off against the Growlers three times over the weekend. On Friday, Philippe Desrosiers made 50 saves to lead the Lions to 3-2 win. “The result speaks for itself! We’re lucky we had him. He really won us the game,” Eric Belanger said about the goalie’s performance.

On Saturday, the Lions scored three times in 28 seconds during the third period, but were still short as the Growlers won 5-4. “In the first period, they came out strong while in the second we only gave up four shots. I thought we did well despite everything. With all of our injuries, I can’t be upset at the effort of my guys. They did the job. We were one step away from creating a tie. It was so close,” said the coach. The loss snapped Trois-Rivieres’ seven-game winning streak.

On Sunday, Newfoundland forced overtime by tying the game with 2:38 remaining in regulation. In overtime, Mathieu Brodeur scored with 14 seconds remaining to give Lions 5-4 win.

“I’m really proud of what we’ve done. If I had been told that our club would have four out of six points, I would have taken it! It was a team victory on Sunday,” said Belanger about the weekend’s performance against the ECHL’s first place team.

This week, the Lions will host the Maine Mariners for a three-game series at Colisee Videotron on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.

(Quotes courtesy of Le Nouvelliste)

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By Chris G., Senior Writer
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