The Canadian’s numerical advantage came under scrutiny after a poor performance against the Minnesota Wild nine days ago. Since then, the Montreal club’s side have scored four goals 18 times.
She played a particularly important role on Thursday, scoring two goals that allowed the Habs to come back from a 3-1 deficit.
“Confidence is very important on the power play,” admitted Nick Suzuki after his team’s 4-3 overtime win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. You want to have the confidence to try difficult plays to take advantage of your opportunities.
“There were some difficult moments but we scored two big goals at the right time and that kept us in the game,” he added.
The Canadian’s power play performance wasn’t always elegant against the Blue Jackets and the crowd sometimes grew impatient when the team failed to establish itself in the opponent’s zone.
Suzuki recalled that the first unit was still relatively inexperienced. Mike Matheson missed much of the first half of the season last winter, then Cole Caufield’s season ended in mid-January.
“I think ‘Mat’ and I are not always on the same wavelength,” admitted Suzuki. We miss putting on a lot of plays. As we gain confidence and become better at anticipating each other’s ideas, we will do better. But tonight was a step in the right direction. »
Matheson also admitted that cohesion between players was important in executing the power play. He also reiterated that things may have been blown out of proportion last week after the game against the Wild.
“We were frustrated because we wanted to improve,” the Montreal defender said. There’s always a bit more you can do, but yeah, it’s good to have scored a few goals tonight. »
Head coach Martin St-Louis particularly praised the importance of the Habs’ special teams moments against the Blue Jackets. In addition to the two key power play goals, the Canadian spent 65 seconds on the penalty kill to start overtime.
“Sometimes it’s important to take the right penalty or score at the right time,” St-Louis said. Tonight it was like that.
“We attach great importance to that. Tonight the results in the important moments decided the game for us. »
So there is a little light at the end of the tunnel for the Canadian on special teams.
To watch in the video
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