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Juraj Slafkovsky was the habs’ least-used player (unlike Logan Cooley).

 Charles-Alexis Brisebois
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Juraj Slafkovsky was the habs’ least-used player (unlike Logan Cooley).
Credit: Getty Images

If the Arizona Coyotes still existed, they’d surely take advantage of the fact that Logan Cooley was better than Juraj Slafkovsky last night to rub the Canadiens’ nose in it.

But they can’t anymore.

Logan Cooley, whom the Canadiens didn’t draft with their first pick of 2022, really was better than Slaf, whom the Canadiens did draft with their first pick of 2022.

In fact, he was the most-used forward (23:13) in Salt Lake City’s 3-2 win over Montreal.

Yesterday, Cooley made this play in particular. It was his 17th point in 22 games, which is better, for the moment, than Slaf has offered the Habs in the last two months.

Ironically, this was done in the game where Slaf was punished most severely by Martin St-Louis. He was playing on the club’s fourth line, but more importantly, he was the club’s least-used forward.

His 11:29 of playing time are quite similar to Joshua Roy’s 11:30.

Since Slaf played on the first wave of the powerplay, it’s understandable that at five-on-five, he wasn’t often on the ice. So it was a big message tonight.

And let’s just say he wasn’t the most visible on the ice.

Kirby Dach was also “punished” on four, but he got some overtime. He got 14:30 of playing time, which is still a little better than Slaf.

Emil Heineman (14:24), Joel Armia (14:39), Christian Dvorak (14:29), Josh Anderson (13:39) and Brendan Gallagher (13:56) were the other players who, like Roy, Dach and Slaf, played less than 15 minutes.

That said, that doesn’t mean the others were perfect. After all, Nick Suzuki may have had plenty of playing time (21:21), but he wasn’t very good.

We sensed a certain disengagement on his part.

Inevitably, when he’s not as good, it doesn’t encourage his team-mates to give more. And here, the club looked like it was playing its second game in two nights, not its first back-to-back duel.

There won’t be any easy ones.

It’s all well and good to talk about Slaf and playing time, but the fact remains that yesterday, the Canadiens mostly looked bad. So what explains it all?

Here are a few possible solutions.

1. Only 13 shots on net in nearly 65 minutes – shameful. The Utah Hockey Club had 14 shots in the first period alone, and André Tourigny’s men won.

Coincidence? I don’t think so, no.

2. Seeing David Savard get angry at a referee (and get one of the softer 10-minute misconducts I’ve seen in a long time) shows there’s frustration. And that’s something.

Savard had a point, though: yesterday, the referees didn’t have it. The Habs should have been more disciplined, obviously, and the home club didn’t play a flawless game either, but…

3. Mikhail Sergachev was excellent yesterday. He stabilizes Utah’s defensive brigade and showed the Habs the player he could have become had he not been traded in 2017.

Water under the bridge since then, but still.

4. Some guys are too soft in this club. Justin Barron (who should feel the urgency to play better) and Christian Dvorak are two guys who didn’t bring much to the table yesterday.

That puts me in all my Utahs. I must be getting old because I thought it was good last night. #JokeDePère

5. Samuel Montembeault didn’t get the W yesterday, but he did what he had to do. He kept his team in the game and didn’t give away any horrible goals. He can’t do everything on his own either.

It wouldn’t be fair to ask him to do that.

6. In Mike Matheson’s absence, Lane Hutson was good. In fact, he quarterbacked both powerplay waves and was the skater most used (26:28) by Martin St-Louis.

Good thing he’s here.


Extensions

Yesterday, apart from the Habs and Utah, there was only one other game on the menu: Vancouver won 2-0 against the Bruins in Boston. Connor Garland and Jake DeBrusk were the two scorers.

Tonight will be different: there will be 15 games on the menu. And tomorrow, on American Thanksgiving? No games.

(Credit: Sportsnet)

As for the Canadiens, they’ll be in Columbus tonight: the boys have been traveling since yesterday’s game. Patrik Laine and Mike Matheson are on the trip. The former is not expected to play tonight, but there’s no word yet on whether the latter will.

There will be no practice today: only the extras will skate at 11:30.

Cayden Primeau will be in front of his team’s net. He’ll have to do well if he wants to continue buying time in the NHL. He won’t want to be distracted by the cannon…

Remember that the Habs will also be playing in the afternoons this weekend: Saturday in New York and Sunday in Boston, in a weekend where Jeff Gorton will see the Habs take on his former clubs.

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