Alexis Belanger-Champagne, The Canadian Press

BROSSARD, Que. – At a time when the Canadiens’ offense seems to have picked up momentum, Montreal head coach Martin St-Louis is hoping his team will continue to create as many chances while giving opponents fewer chances to score.

The Habs have scored at least four goals in four of their last five games. However, he has conceded at least four goals in his last four games.

“That’s often because we shoot ourselves in the foot,” St-Louis said on Monday. In the offensive zone we threaten, then we try a risky pass and counterattack to excess.

“I don’t have the feeling that the opponent is beating us all over the ice. Rather, I think it’s up to us to deal with the danger,” he continued.

St-Louis added that it will be necessary to see whether or not better hazard management will hurt the team’s performance on offense.

Captain Nick Suzuki stressed that players don’t need to cheat in their zone to cause offense.

“What I encourage in my line is to say that the better we do our job in our zone, the more time we’ll have with the puck to play offense,” Suzuki said. I think Martin sees it the same way.

After 18 games, Suzuki has 11 goals and 12 assists. That’s 50 goals and 55 assists in 82 games.

Some of his teammates had jokingly remarked that it was surprising that he got the ten goals ahead of linemate Cole Caufield. The latter has now caught up with his accomplice by 11 goals.

However, Suzuki is not surprised by his offensive performance. And he believes he can continue to fill opponents’ nets, although it’s probably not realistic to imagine him continuing to move the ropes on 27.5% of his shots like he’s done so far this season. .

“Maybe I’ll choose my shooting moments better,” said Suzuki, who is in his fourth season in the NHL. Teams are also keeping an eye on Cole, which gives me more space on the other side. Kirby (Dach) is perhaps more of a passer-by. We can meet or play all three, that’s a good recipe for us.”

St-Louis sees this simply as the progression of Suzuki, who had also shown his goalscoring abilities at youth level with campaigns of 45, 42 and 34 goals in 65, 64 and 59 games respectively.

The Canadiens play their next game Tuesday when they host the Buffalo Sabers. They have lost their last eight games.

He then visits the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday and the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday afternoon.

Hoffman in the assessment

Striker Joel Armia rejoined his teammates in training on Monday morning while Mike Hoffman was absent for medical reasons.

Hoffman has not played since the third period of Saturday’s game, which the Habs won 5-4 in a shootout against the Philadelphia Flyers. St. Louis said after the game that Hoffman was injured, but he remained available to play on the power play.

The Canadians mentioned Monday morning that Hoffman sustained a lower body injury. His state of health must be assessed during the day.

In 16 games this season, Hoffman has five goals and three assists.

For their part, Armia have not played the Pittsburgh Penguins since November 12. He’s struggling with an upper body injury. Armia returned to solo training on November 18 and although he trained with the regular squad on Monday he had to avoid contact.

Armia have played seven games this season but haven’t eclipsed the top scorers list yet.