The Canadian will have to wait a long time between Tuesday’s thaw against the New York Rangers and Saturday’s game against the St. Louis Blues.

On Friday, Martin St-Louis practically challenged his players to raise their level of play even further. He also used the three days between the two meetings to make corrections.

“We had three days to do our homework and study, and now it’s exam time. Sometimes when you’re not ready for the test it’s because you haven’t studied enough or done your homework, but I’m confident we did it,” he said after Saturday’s morning practice.

It’s a way to challenge his men, who clearly want to deliver this slap in the face when they’re down 7-2.

Meet

The players worked hard on the ice but also behind closed doors.

“We had a lot of meetings and watched our game. After a game like that you want to be able to react,” emphasized Mike Matheson.

According to the veteran defender, this setback has dented everyone’s pride.

“Everyone is competitive. Such a game is unacceptable. You have to react, show that it bothers you and that you want something to change.”

Help young people

Matheson and David Savard took the team’s young defensemen aside Friday to hold a small meeting.

“It’s a very difficult league to play in. It takes time to get used to playing against certain teams and certain players. The more you see them, the more you get an idea of ​​what they want to do. Everyone has a desire to improve, so we will continue to work.”

Matheson also better explained why it is sometimes difficult to maintain cohesion in defensive play. He also looked at another sport, football, and talked about the work of video analysis in ice hockey.

“That’s the difficult thing when you compare it to football, where the games have a beginning and an end in video production. In ice hockey, every game is always a little different, even if there are similarities. Therefore, it takes time to get used to the way you want to play.

For his part, Martin St-Louis spoke again about colors to reinforce his point on defensive play.

“You always want to create automatisms, white and black, but there is always a little gray in the picture Game. It’s important to have black and white, especially on defense.”

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