The Canadian accepted his cold in the last few games. Against the Devils and the Blue Jackets, it’s a total of nine pucks if we disregard those in an empty net that crossed the Habs cage red line.

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It seemed rather surprising from the start of the season, but the Habs’ young defensive brigade suddenly seemed a bit more fragile.

“It’s not just our game in our defensive zone. It has a connection to our game at 200 feet,” said Joel Edmundson.

“We cause some turnovers in the opponent’s zone and on our own blue line. The opponent was able to take advantage of that a little more in the last few games,” added the veteran.

The rivals were more perceptive and the Canadians’ goalkeepers performed fewer miracles. Since the start of the season, the Habs have had the worst defensive stats in several categories (see other page). As such, it was to be expected that reality would catch up with the team at some point in the season.

Martin St-Louis, who met after training his group, mentioned that the trend, which has become more evident in recent encounters, is due to the style of play practiced by the team.

“We attack. We’re dominating, we’re dominating, we’re dominating and suddenly we shoot ourselves in the foot and that leads to the opponent scoring. This means that 90% of our presence was good, but that 10% harmed us, he analyzed. Be careful in hazardous areas. You have to be a little more careful. »

Matheson had entered into a partnership with Edmundson

However, there is no talk of panic or a change in the recipe. After all, St-Louis keeps hammering that the process must take precedence over the result.

“If you play that style of play, you’re effective with the puck. Those are irritants that are part of learning,” he added.

The good news is that Mike Matheson is getting closer to a return to the game any day. He trained again with his teammates on Friday and formed a pair with Joel Edmundson.

“We can’t wait to see him back in training. The team was chasing him for a reason. He has played in this league for several seasons. He knows what it takes to win, said the huge defender. We have a young group of defenders. You’ve done a phenomenal job so far. However, when a veteran returns, that’s good news. »

The music chair?

However, the forthcoming return will take the number of healthy defenders in the Habs to eight, which will force St-Louis and Kent Hughes to make key decisions with his group.

In the past seven games, Chris Wideman has walked the catwalk six times. Johnathan Kovacevic is the other to suffer while visiting the Golden Knights. But leaving two backs on the sidelines for several games seems counterproductive, especially for rookies.

So will they favor a three or four defenseman rotation, or would they rather send a junior defenseman to the American League?

“Communication will be important,” agreed St-Louis. You have to understand that this is healthy competition. These competitions take you to another level. So it’s positive. »

A competition that Arber Xhekaj says he is already used to.

“I thought I would start the season in Laval. I expected to have to work and fight to earn a recall. Now that all defenders are healthy I just have to keep working. »

• After the defeat in Columbus, Evgeni Dadonov, Jake Evans and Juraj Slafkovsky were withdrawn from training to undergo a series of treatments. Joel Armia ran alone in front of his teammates.