January has been a gruelling month for the Canadiens.
Saturday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils at the Bell Centre was the Canadiens’ 12th game in 23 days, including six on the road. That hasn’t left much time for practices. Monday morning’s practice at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard was only the third full team practice in the last two weeks for the Canadiens.
The OT loss to the Devils — following a 4-2 loss to the Red Wings last Thursday in Detroit — marked the first time the Canadiens have lost back-to-back games since Dec. 14. Since then the Canadiens have a 13-4-2 record and they are 1-1-1 in their last three games. Through Sunday’s games they were only two points out of a wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
“It’s a hard league,” head coach Martin St. Louis said after Monday’s practice. “It wasn’t a week with our best hockey, but we were still able to get three points from three games, which I think is something positive.
“You have to stay on top of it as a coach and it’s hard to stay on top of it when you don’t have a lot of practices,” St. Louis added. “That’s why I’m happy today we had a team practice and a chance to have some good repetitions.”
What was the main focus of the practice?
“Just run through a lot of the scenarios that we see in games and get some reps and get some details back into our game a little bit,” St. Louis said. “It’s a type of practice that we’ve done in the past, the last month when we had time days before a game. It’s almost like simulating a little bit of the different scenarios. It’s a lot of simulation.”
After Monday’s practice, captain Nick Suzuki came to the defence of teammate Mike Matheson, who received plenty of criticism on social media after Saturday’s loss when he couldn’t control a poor pass from Patrik Laine in the offensive zone in overtime, which resulted in a breakaway going the other way with the Devils’ Jack Hughes scoring.
“I thought he had a good game and then I come home and my fiancée’s saying that people were saying unfortunate things about Math,” Suzuki said about Matheson, who logged 24:32 of ice time against the Devils and finished the game minus-2. “I didn’t like hearing that.
“He plays the hardest minutes on our team against the toughest players and defence is a position where mistakes get blown up out of proportion,” Suzuki added. “He’s been our top D for the whole season. I think people are definitely being too hard on him.”
Matheson leads the Canadiens in ice time with an average of 24:42 per game and has 3-19-22 totals in 47 games to go along with a minus-6.
Forward Josh Anderson and defenceman Kaiden Guhle did not participate in Monday’s practice, taking a therapy day instead. Defenceman David Reinbacher practised with the team for the first time since suffering a pre-season knee injury that required surgery. After having surgery on his left knee on Oct. 1, the Canadiens said Reinbacher would be sidelined for 5-6 months.
When asked if Reinbacher — the No. 5 overall pick at the 2023 NHL Draft — was ahead of that schedule, St. Louis said: “I have no idea. You’d have to ask my medical staff.”
When asked what he thought about Reinbacher’s performance during the practice, St. Louis said: “Honestly, it’s the first time. He understands the drills. It’s not like I was evaluating him today.”
Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, who was called up from the AHL’s Laval Rocket on Saturday but didn’t play against the Devils, practised Monday on a line with Jake Evans and Joel Armia.
St. Louis has been trying to give his players some extra days off from practice during this tough stretch of the schedule and has cancelled some morning skates on game days or made them optional so they can conserve energy.
Sunday was one of those off days, but that doesn’t mean St. Louis had the day off.
“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” he said. “I think as a coach when you have a day off it’s a chance to reflect a little bit, it’s a chance to get organized for the next day. I don’t think there’s a complete (day off).
“I think during the 4 Nations break I’ll be able to take a break from the Canadiens, sort of speak,” St. Louis added. “It’s not going to be seven days, but I’ll have plenty of hockey to watch with my three boys. I don’t know if I actually take a break from hockey ever.”
The Canadiens will be off from Feb. 10-21 when the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament is being played in Montreal and Boston. Samuel Montembeault (Canada), Armia and Laine (Finland) are the only three Canadiens who will be playing in the tournament.
St. Louis’s oldest son, 21-year-old Ryan, has 5-8-13 totals in 10 games this season as a forward at Brown University. Lucas, a 19-year-old defenceman, has 1-4-5 totals in 19 games at Harvard University. Mason, a 17-year-old forward, is playing at Brunswick School, a college prep-school in Greenwich, Conn.
St. Louis said he does enjoy when the Canadiens players have a Sunday off.
“Days off on Sunday’s kind of nice because you have (NFL) football,” he said. “So yesterday was a little work, a little football. But that’s coming to an end, so I don’t know.”
There is now only one game left in the NFL season — the Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles on Feb. 9.