ELMONT, NY | The Canadian has two options: to see the glass half full or half empty.

On Saturday, Martin St-Louis’ men suffered another setback against the Islanders, their third in a row. They have now lost four of their six games this season.

A defeat is a defeat, some will tell you. Basically it’s true.

But in a process of rebuilding, or at least “transitioning to learning to learn to win,” as St-Louis mentioned in the morning, there are ways to judge a group that go beyond those two points.

Last Thursday night against the Los Angeles Kings, the Habs were dull and devoid of brilliance. He let the Kings leave Montreal with a 4-1 win without having to try too hard.

The Islanders can’t say the same on Saturday.

Yes, Patrick Roy’s men dominated the shot column, 36-24, but they still needed all their spare change – and nine rounds of penalties – to defeat the Canadian.

“If we had won that game, we would have deserved it,” St-Louis admitted after the game.

Without a doubt, the Canadian was better against the Islanders than he was against the Kings. Not hard to beat, you might say!

“Our fighting spirit was there. Defensively, we missed seven chances to score after two periods of the game. […] I really enjoyed our departure and the things we’ve been talking about lately. The intentions were there. You lose 2-0, but we were very calm on the bench.

Good news

When we say the glass is half full, we must add that the team received two pieces of good news.

In the morning, Martin St-Louis doubted the presence of Mike Matheson and Juraj Slafkovsky, but both took part in the game.

And Matheson’s presence made it possible not to overwhelm Lane Hutson, as was the case against the Kings on Thursday when Hutson was on the ice for more than 30 minutes, especially because Matheson left the encounter in the first period.

Well, almost. He played just over 24 minutes, the second most total playing time for the Canadian, behind Matheson (28 min 10 sec).

An endless presence

Of those 24 minutes, almost four occurred during the same presence!

Midway through the second period, Hutson and his partner Logan Mailloux, along with Oliver Kapanen, Christian Dvorak and Josh Anderson, remained trapped in their territory for more than three minutes while the trio of Mathew Barzal, Bo Horvat and Anthony Duclair circled in the attacking zone.

The quintet still managed to contain the Islanders’ repeated attacks before finally managing to vacate their territory after spending endless minutes on the ice.

Just under four, to be exact: 3min 58sec for Mailloux, 3min 51sec for Dvorak, while Hutson (3min 22sec), Kapanen (3min 43sec) and Anderson (3rd). Min. 5 sec) must also have felt the effect of lactic acid in their legs when they returned to the bench.

“I was exhausted. But the boys fought well. That was the main thing today, we fought. “It was tiring, but I recovered quickly,” admitted goalkeeper Cayden Primeau.

Solid foundation

He was also very good.

He gave up twice on the first five shots of the game (two very quality shots from Bo Horvat and Kyle Palmieri, you have to admit) and ultimately finished the game with 33 saves on 36 shots.

In addition to Primeau’s 36 shots on goal, CH blocked 25 (!), several of which came during one of the team’s six penalties on Saturday.

David Savard and Mike Matheson each blocked five.

“Savard eats so many pucks, I’ve never seen anything like that. Matheson too. It’s a beast. And it depends on young people. Barron and I are doing our best,” admitted Jayden Struble, who returned to the lineup for Arber Xhekaj on Saturday after recovering from an upper body injury.