(Anaheim) Anaheim is well known for its Disney park and the magic that comes with it, and now, this is where the Canadian will try to create his own magic.
How ? That’s the complicated part.
Because there will be no Marvel superheroes to come to the aid of this club, any more than a Tinkerbell who will arrive here with a magic wand at five against four, but in the meantime, there will be a new first trio who will attempt to achieve something as spectacular as a Disney film. Or almost.
Thus, it is Nick Suzuki, Brendan Gallagher and Alex Newhook who will form this new first trio when the Canadian visits the Ducks on Wednesday evening in Anaheim.
“We haven’t played well recently, that’s no secret,” Gallagher began by saying in the small visitors’ locker room at the Honda Center. We forgot why we had success earlier this season in the last few games. We have to be responsible to ourselves, with the coaching staff too. Everyone has to show up and do their job. If we come back to that, we will see good results again, and the atmosphere around here will be a little better! »
Because it’s a bit tense. On Tuesday, the players experienced a somewhat intense training session, where Martin St-Louis felt the need to express himself very clearly when things did not work to his liking. But the players were able to finish it off with a little breakaway contest, as if they were back in the pee-wee ranks.
The idea being of course to restore confidence to this group which has just lost its last four matches.
“It’s a great opportunity for us,” Gallagher added. We’re in a position where the team has to find a way to win, so there’s a bit of that sense of urgency, definitely.
“Nick [Suzuki] and Alex [Newhook] are two special players, so my job will be pretty obvious: help them as much as I can, try to be effective on the forecheck, and try to put the puck on their stick more often possible. We will hope that we can achieve success. »
Meanwhile, Cole Caufield still hasn’t returned to that top line, and he’s still looking to do better than what he’s done so far, which is just one goal at five-on-five in 18 games this season.
Moreover, he insists that he is not at all affected by this prolonged demotion to the second trio.
“It’s an 82-game season, and sometimes you have to shuffle the cards a little,” he noted Tuesday noon in Anaheim. I’m still confident even though I’m not on the first trio. »
Martin St-Louis therefore tries to get back to basics, as he likes to say, by pushing his players to refine the smallest details during training. “Things that aren’t necessarily fun, but you have to do them as if you were in love,” he imagined with his usual enthusiasm.
The coach also spoke about the “standards” his club must return to.
Not tomorrow. Right away.
“The standards have fallen recently… it’s our job to bring the players back to those standards,” he explained.
Barely arriving in sunny California, the Canadian was confronted with bad news. Thus, it has been confirmed that Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and Jordan Harris will have to be absent from the game, the first for a period of six to eight weeks, the second for a period which is not determined. Harvey-Pinard suffered a possible ankle injury on November 2 at Arizona, and missed the next three games, before returning on November 11 against Boston. Harris suffered his first injury on November 11, but he returned to action in Boston last Saturday, and he suffered a new injury during this game. Did these two players come back too quickly? We may never know. “But it’s in the nature of hockey players to never want to give up,” recalled defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic. It’s in our DNA to want to play, to not want to take a single day off. »
Since the Canadian is now without three regular defenders – in addition to Harris, Arber Xhekaj and David Savard are also sidelined for health reasons – another defender was recalled from Laval at the end of the day. Thus, Mattias Norlinder was the lucky one. In 14 games with the Laval Rocket this season, the Swede has one goal and one assist.
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