Canadian: massive attack gives sign of life

ST LOUIS | The more effective the weapons, the higher the chances of winning. Unable to do it justice since the beginning of the season, the Habs’ massive attack was finally unlocked.

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The Canadian took advantage of two of his three power plays, which helped him a lot to beat the Blues 7-4.

Juraj Slafkovsky, who was making his comeback after missing three games with an upper-body injury, had yet to step onto the ice a man ahead.

Possibly judging that he was ready for this mission, St-Louis used him in the second unit. The tall Slovakian responded by beating Jordan Binnington with a superb shot at the edge of the net.

“I always want to shoot,” Slafkovsky said after the match. But that’s just a goal. The tests have to be redone every day. My goal is to be better from one game to another. »

Just over two minutes later, Cole Caufield imitated the rookie while another Blues player, Colton Parayko, was in the brig. This goal, Caufield’s second of the match, allowed the Habs, thanks to three unanswered goals, to take the lead for the first time in the match.

“We faced adversity. We lost by two goals midway through the match. We fought. The massive attack put us back in the game. The momentum changed sides from that moment on,” commented Christian Dvorak.

That massive attack marks, we look forward to. What we least expected is a hat-trick from this same Dvorak. The American had yet to hit the target in 8 2/3 games when the third period began. Two goals scored in his first appearance of the period and another from an empty net allowed him to end the game with the first hat-trick of his career.

It took him 367 games to live through this moment of euphoria.

“I’ve already been close several times, but it feels good to finally break the ice,” he said.

hungry sadness

It must be said that in equal parts, his trio is the one that has shown the most stability during the first two clashes. As his teammates scrambled to get out of their turf, he, Josh Anderson, Brendan Gallagher and gave Jake Allen a few moments to rest every time they hit the track.

Because, yes, the Canadian exploded with seven goals. But the first half of the match did not give the impression that the Montrealers were going to add two points in the ranking to their record.

Met a few hours before the start of the game, Martin St-Louis expected his opponents to come out strong and apply a lot of pressure to stop his three-match losing streak. He had been right.

Craig Berube’s men rushed the visitors relentlessly in the first part of the game. Enough to give himself a 3-1 lead midway through the game.

Nick Suzuki was the Canadian’s other scorer.

On Caufield’s second goal of the game, he recorded his 100th career assist.

What we noticed…

THE DROUIN STANDS

Joel Armia and Michael Pezzetta played their first game of the season. Recovered from his upper body injury, which caused him to miss the last three matches, Juraj Slafkovsky returned to training. Jonathan Drouin, Evgenii Dadonov and Rem Pitlick were left out. It was the third time this season that Drouin watched a game from the bridge.

DACH IN THE FIRST THREESOME

Martin St-Louis is still trying to find the perfect partner for Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki. It was Kirby Dach’s turn to get an audition. “He has the skills to play with talented players. I’m curious to see what it will be like,” St-Louis said before the game. After a lackluster start to the match, the 21-year-old striker got his bearings and was an accomplice to Cole Caufield’s two goals.

SWEET REVENGE FOR ALLEN

On his first visit to his old home, Jake Allen allowed four goals in a 4-1 loss. This time he stopped 26 shots for his third win of the season.

FIGHT AGAINST TYLER PITLICK

Tyler Pitlick’s 14-game season in Montreal did not go down in history. Signed by the Blues earlier this week, although it was only worn for 9 minutes and 58 seconds, Pitlick wanted his previous team to take notice. He did all the work leading up to Noel Acciari’s goal with an effective strike from the front against Arber Xhekaj. Earlier in the game, he almost opened the scoring, but missed an open goal.

RARE BAD SEQUENCE

The loss was the Blues’ fourth in a row. This is the first time since the hiring of Craig Berube, on November 21, 2018, that Brett Hull’s previous line-up has gone through such a sequence.