SUNRISE | The BB&T Center, FLA Live Arena or Amerant Bank Arena. Even though the home of the Florida Panthers keeps changing its name, there is one thing that remains more stable. The Canadian doesn't win in South Florida.

The Panthers celebrated their eighth win in a row against CH in their own arena with a 4-1 win on Saturday evening. The most optimistic will console themselves with the thought that the final result remains smoother than in the two meetings last year: 7 to 2 and 9 to 5.

Jake Allen, who got off to a decent start in front of the Habs goal, offered an interesting explanation for this misfortune that plagued his team at Sunrise. But it has to be said that Allen has good answers to every question.

“It's part of ice hockey, there are things that are difficult to explain,” replied the 33-year-old goalkeeper. I've been playing in the NHL for a long time. I saw some pretty strange sequences. When I started in Montreal, I know we never won in San Jose. »

“In the end I got a win against the Sharks. I didn't know that statistic after that game. But we have to find a way to turn around this bad luck in Florida, especially against a team in our division. We often play against the Panthers. They are one of the good teams in the NHL, but we can compete with them. »

As a reminder, on October 28, 2021, Allen defeated the Sharks in San Jose with a 45-save shutout in a 4-0 victory. The CH had previously lost 12 games in a row in San Jose, with their last win dating back to November 23, 1999!

In another corner of the opposing team's locker room, David Savard also spoke about his team's difficulties in the Panthers' amphitheater, a place always visited by Montreal fans on their trip to Florida.

“I don’t know, but I don’t really like this building,” Savard said. Even when I played with the Blue Jackets or the Lightning, I didn't like it here. It's always hot and the ice cream is often soft. But it's the same rink for both teams. That is not an excuse. The Panthers won the 50-50 battles tonight, more than we did. They also have a very good ice hockey team. »

Bad punishments

It's not just the history of a building that brings bad luck. There are also much more tangible reasons to explain this setback. The CH hardly generated any attack against the Panthers and only fired 19 shots towards Anthony Stolarz.

The Habs only got five shots in the first period and three more in the next period. With such a cautious attack it becomes impossible to win a match. Cole Caufield scored his team's only goal with a perfect backhand shot on the power play.

But beyond the low number of shots, CH also shot themselves in the foot with two bad penalties in the offensive zone. Nick Suzuki in the second period and Joel Armia in the third were at fault.

Eetu Luostarinen scored both power play goals for the Panthers, including the game-winning goal in the third period, while Armia ended up in the penalty box. In his 248th NHL game, Luostarinen recorded his first double.

“I feel like I didn’t hold him (Dmitry Kulikov) too hard, but they called the penalty,” Suzuki said. If you take a penalty in the attacking area and the other team takes the opportunity to score, it hurts even more. »

At a press conference, Martin St-Louis did not hesitate to say that the stupid penalties in the offensive zone had ruined his team.

“It was 1-1, it wasn’t a perfect game for either team, but the punishment in the offensive zone hurt,” he said. We must do better at deflecting our punishments. But if the score is 1-1 in the third period, you can't take a penalty in the offensive zone. »

Without giving his name, St-Louis sent a message to Armia. But with only 12 attackers on his team, it's hard to take him out of his formation for the next matchup unless he goes with a formation with 11 attackers and seven defenders.