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Skills Competition | Habs Notepad

Chris G
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Skills Competition | Habs Notepad
Montreal Canadiens Skills Competition (Photo by Canadiens.com)

Habs News: NHL, Montreal Canadiens, Martin St. Louis, Josh Anderson, Kent Hughes, Laval Rocket, Trois-Rivieres Lions

Montreal Canadiens Skills Competition (Photo by Canadiens.com)

ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | LAVAL, QC. — The Montreal Canadiens were at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday to face the Toronto Maple Leafs. After a scoreless first period, Josh Anderson lit the red right after redirecting Mike Matheson‘s shot in the first minute of the second period. The lead lasted less than five minutes as Toronto answered back with the next five goals to head to 5-1 victory.

“I liked our first period. The game slipped away in the second period. We missed a lot of chances, we had a lot of two-on-ones that we didn’t score on. That was the game,” Martin St. Louis said.

Anderson has had success since the start of his career against the Maple Leafs scoring 13 times in 30 games. Since joining the Canadiens in 2020-21, Anderson co-leads with Kyle Connor for most goals against Toronto with nine.

Despite consecutive losses against tough opponents in Carolina and Toronto, St. Louis is pleased with the team’s efforts. “We’re a banged up team. I respect the players that they stay engaged. We’re trying to build a brand on how we want to play.”

Team Skills Competition

The team participated in skills competition on Sunday at the Bell Centre. For the occasion, the windows along the boards were removed to allow the fans to interact with the players. 

Several individual and team competitions were on the agenda for the event. Alex Belzile won the fastest skater competition featuring six players. Belzile finished with a lap time of 13.744 seconds, with Johnathan Kovacevic as the runner-up.   

The relay race was composed of two teams of four players. Team White won the event as Corey Schueneman defeated Rafael Harvey-Pinard in the final race of the obstacle course.

Harvey-Pinard won the accuracy shooting competition featuring five players. He nailed the four targets with four shots in 9.3 seconds. Justin Barron was also perfect but his time was slower than the forward’s.

The hardest shot competition between six players was won by Matheson. His shot of 100.9 miles-per-hour edged Kovacevic and Michael Pezzetta.

The final competition was a continuous shootout between 21 players. Chris Wideman was the last man standing to win the event.

Trade Deadline Strategy Compromised

Kent Hughes has had March 3rd circled on his calendar since the beginning of the season. The club had several assets in their hand to have an impactful trade deadline. Hughes said that he wanted to add a third pick in the first round of this year’s draft. With the date coming up in under two weeks, the situation is not looking as bright.

In August, Sean Monahan along with a first round pick was acquired from the Calgary Flames for future considerations. Monahan had a good start this season collecting 17 points in 25 games before being injured on December 5th. The forward resumed practising with a non-contact jersey, but with less than two weeks until the trade deadline, the sample size may not be big enough for a team to give up a first round pick to the Canadiens.

Jonathan Drouin and Evgenii Dadonov are also on expiring contracts. Both forwards have recently played well but reports indicate that there is no interest in the market for  Drouin with Dadonov being considered as a ‘backup plan’ for some teams.

Joel Edmundson and Mike Hoffman each have one more season remaining on their respective contracts. Edmundson’s recent injury issues will have other general managers be cautious before pulling off a deal to acquire him by the deadline.

Hoffman could be an interesting acquisition for a team wanting to add depth on their power play units. His contract for next season may be a deterrent for other clubs.

Laval Blown Leads

On Friday, the Laval Rocket began a three-game series in four days against the Senators in Belleville. In the first match, Laval had a 2-0 lead in the second lead before Belleville answered back with five consecutive goals to win 5-3. 

“I didn’t like our second period. We took a 2-0 lead but we gave them too many chances. We let them get back into the game and take the momentum. I didn’t like our effort. It’s been a long time that we haven’t seen that from our group,” Jean-Francois Houle said.

Philippe Desrosiers made his Rocket debut in goal on Saturday. Laval had a 3-1 and 4-3 lead during the contest, but allowed Belleville to tie the game and force overtime. Former Rocket Jake Lucchini gave the Senators the 5-4 win 2:06 into the fourth period.

“It was a good game but we can’t allow five goals every night. It’s been two consecutive nights that we have allowed at least five goals. We have to play better defensively and we lost the special teams battle,” Houle said. Three of Laval’s six power plays were cut short by infractions.

Laval has struggled in Belleville. Since the start of last season, Laval has won two of the 11 matches at the CAA Arena. The final game of the series is on Monday afternoon in Belleville.

(Quotes courtesy of BPM Sports)

Lions Win at Home

The Trois-Rivieres Lions had a busy weekend playing three games against division rivals. Trois-Rivieres had to play the entire stretch without Joe Vrbetic as the goalie was not available due to illness.

On Friday, the Mariners shutout the Lions for a second consecutive match with a 5-0 victory in Maine. “We weren’t opportunistic. I think they were. I don’t think we played a bad game. The score of 5-0 does not represent the game. It’s very frustrating, because it’s like we never find the way to win,” coach and general manager Marc-Andre Bergeron said.

The Lions were back at Colisee Videotron to host the Adirondack Thunder for a weekend doubleheader. On Saturday, Adirondack came back from a two-goal deficit in the third period to force overtime. Brett Stapley gave Trois-Rivieres their first home win of the calendar year with his sixth of the season.

“I loved the performance of all the players on the team. We were afraid of letting it slip away, that’s for sure. We are fragile and our depth is not what it could be. It’s good to have something positive,” Bergeron said.

On Sunday, the Thunder led 2-1 through 20 minutes before the Lions replied with three consecutive goals to win 4-2.

“I thought we played a great game. We started strong. These are two teams that know each other well. We controlled the puck well. In the third period, we’re not used to playing one goal up, but I thought the guys were solid,” Bergeron said.

The Lions host the Newfoundland Growlers for a three game series beginning on Wednesday.

(Quotes courtesy of Le Nouvelliste)

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By Chris G., Senior Writer
All Habs Hockey Magazine
Copyright © 2022 Rocket Sports

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