NEW YORK – One of Martin St. Louis’ favourite sayings is that if you make the right moves over and over again on the ice, it doesn’t guarantee you’ll win the game, but it puts the odds in your favour.
But even favourable opportunities sometimes fall victim to fortuitous circumstances. In poker, this is called a bad shot, and the worst thing you can do in poker is let your overall strategy change.
The Montreal Canadiens clearly felt that the fluke was the work of veteran journeymen Francis Charron and Kelly Sutherland on Saturday afternoon against the New York Rangers, and needless to say, they had a terrible afternoon.
At the end of the game, Canadiens executive vice president of hockey operations and former Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton walked into an elevator filled with reporters, Canadiens hockey operations personnel and several Rangers assistant coaches. He was so angry that he didn’t consider who was in the elevator. He probably didn’t even see them.
He walked straight up and punched the wall next to the elevator. Hard. Then he made a comment about random circumstances that we can’t relate to.
Moments later, after bidding farewell to the coaching staff and management, St. Louis came out to answer questions from the media and didn’t answer any. Instead, he repeated the same line over and over, no matter what the question was.
“I liked everything about our game,” he said in both official languages. “I don’t want to talk about the refs.”
His mentor, John Tortorella, would be beaming with pride.
But the refs weren’t the only fluke that affected the game. And it might be more important.
It was the quality of the ice that was never good at Madison Square Garden, but it was especially bad in this game, which took place 12 hours before the Creed concert.
“Yeah,” Mike Matheson confirmed. “Horrible.”
Kirby Dach double-teamed Mika Zibanejad for a high shot below the Rangers goal line (more of a missed stick than a foul) as the Rangers beat the Canadiens and seemed to want him to win the game. Nick Suzuki was allowed in from the blue line for a quality shot on Jonathan Quick, Rangers defenders K’Andre Miller and Braden Schneider parted like the Red Sea, and Suzuki missed. Cole Caufield had a good chance a few minutes later and Quick came out with the net open in front of him and also got the wind knocked out of him.
I’ve never seen the term “mistake” used on the NHL’s official schedule before, but it was used in both shootouts.
“I have to look back, but I thought I had a really good possession when I went to shoot and then I cut it off. He stayed with me for a while, trying to get it into the slot and Cole missed. There were other chances. That would be a big point.”
Five games to six, after Cappo Cacco converted the Rangers’ third goal, a goal after a clear drive by Joel Armia through the boards, a play that St. Louis was forced to make. Marshawn Lynch was impressive after the game, as he did everything he could to avoid a penalty, something the Canadiens were never satisfied with.
The thing is, the fact that the Canadiens have often played this season, having bad ice, has been in their favor, because more often than not the opposing team has had more of the puck. Not so this time.
Miller and Schneider were consistently matched up against Suzuki, Caufield and Alex Newhook — a deliberate decision by Rangers coach Peter Laviolette — and the Canadiens combined for 24 shots in the 11:16 5-on-5 minutes that Suzuki and Miller were on the ice together, according to Natural Stat Trick.