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Joel Edmundson said it best in his post-game comments when he said that Martin St-Louis can’t do it all himself, the spark is still there but it’s up to the players to perform on the ice and they just can’t win when they get massively outshot. Last night’s “performance… was underwhelming to say the least and there really isn’t much to say about the game aside from the fact that the Jackets really did deserve this 5-1 win.
On a more human point of view though, it must have been a good night for Jeff Petry who was reunited with his wife and kids for the first time since the Christmas break. I know, Petry had had a very rough season, but this is a guy who was playing his 500th game wearing the Sainte-Flanelle yesterday and he’s done a lot for this team over the years. In case you don’t know, the strict public health guidelines in Quebec have led Julie Petry to decide to go back home to the States with the couples’ 3 boys. It can’t have been easy for the blueliner to miss his family for all those months.
Félicitations à Jeff Petry qui joue ce soir son 500e match avec les Canadiens! ðŸ‘
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) April 14, 2022
Congrats to Jeff Petry, who's playing his 500th game as a Hab tonight! #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/Rlax6YpXOA
Today, the Canadiens will have a day off before playing 2 games in 2 nights on Friday and Saturday so don’t expect much news in Habsland today. As an inside, last night, Alexis Lafrenière was a healthy scratch when the Rangers beat the Flyers 4-0 and it didn’t take long for people to start speculating about the Canadiens trying to pry the former 1st overall pick from the Rangers’ hands.
Brian Wilde, who writes the Call of the Wilde for Global after each game suggested that the Canadiens should try and trade their 1st round pick for Lafrenière this offseason. There’s no denying that it’s an idea that could be entertained by HuGo, but I really hope it doesn’t come to fruition. Why? Because the youngster is already struggling to establish himself in the league and any Quebecer who doesn’t perform in Montreal becomes cannon fodder.
Both fans and the media are quick to turn on local talent that doesn’t produce as they think they should, see Jonathan Drouin for a recent example. Guillaume Latendresse, Louis Leblanc and Mike Ribeiro for older ones. There’s plenty of love for grinders who work hard such as Francis Bouillon or Steve Bégin, but cast a Quebecer in a leading role and if they go through a rough patch, they get eaten alive. Remember Desharnais after he signed his big contract? No one could say Desharnais wasn’t working hard (which is what a lot of people say Drouin doesn’t do) and yet he was borderline vilified in the media and by the public. Who could forget Coderre’s tweet asking that he be sent to the AHL? Mind you, they say no man is a prophet in their own land and there is truth to that. David Beckham wasn’t treated very well by the media in England, and he bolted overseas to play for Real Madrid, leaving the best football league in the world in the process. I think it takes someone very strong mentally to sustain that kind of pressure and I’m not sure Lafrenière is there yet.