They were wise words from a long-time pro scout, offered to me ahead of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and they resonate right now.
“It’s the team that sticks most to its identity that usually wins,” he said.
And the team that strays too far from it gets embarrassed, like the Montreal Canadiens did in their 3-1 loss to the Calgary Flames on Saturday. They were rested, prepared properly for the game, but every single player seemed to be looking to the person next to them to do the job instead of trying to get it done themselves.
So, some other words resonate after Montreal’s 4-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Monday. The ones Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme said earlier in the day about the team not being constructed to be able to depend on just two or three guys to win games.
“We need everyone,” he said.
The Jets don’t. They have Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler, Nikolaj Ehlers and Pierre-Luc Dubois—bona fide superstars. They have forward Kyle Connor and goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, two of the three best Connors in the NHL, who kept them in this game on their own and gave them a chance to win it—one of them with two goals that staggered the Canadiens and the other with incredible save after incredible save, including one on a Brendan Gallagher penalty shot.
But the Canadiens are built on depth, and they leaned on it for what might be considered the most crucial win of their season to date—one that keeps them above the Flames and in pursuit of the Jets, Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs in the standings.
Ducharme made several key adjustments to get the team-game back in order. He pulled Victor Mete and plugged Xavier Ouellet onto his third defence pairing with Alexander Romanov. He broke apart his best duo to reunite Jeff Petry with Brett Kulak, who played outstanding as a pair in those bubble playoffs, and he had Joel Edmundson partner up with Shea Weber to handle some of the heavy minutes against those lethal Jets forwards.
The coach also had Josh Anderson and Jonathan Drouin play with Jesperi Kotkaniemi and put Nick Suzuki between Brendan Gallagher and Tyler Toffoli. He pulled Artturi Lehkonen out and played Jake Evans in his spot on the wing. And he put in motion some set faceoff plays as one of the final of several tactical changes he’s wanted to institute since taking over for Claude Julien close to three weeks ago.
And the Canadiens went out and played the way they’re supposed to. Not perfectly, but very much to their identity—as a hard-working, fast-skating, in-your-face team. One that supports the puck and the play all over the ice.
“The communication wasn’t there, the support wasn’t there and those are the things that, when we do that, we have success,” said Anderson less than 24 hours after Saturday’s loss. “I can guarantee you (Monday) everyone’s going to be flying out there and ready to go because we have to.”
Anderson lit the match, diving on a loose puck to give Drouin and Kotkaniemi the play they connected on to give the Canadiens the all-important early 1-0 lead. He then stoked the fire with his first power-play goal of the season, making it 2-0 in the sixth minute of the second period.
Brendan Gallagher poured the gasoline on to force Neal Pionk into a turnover that Tyler Toffoli took advantage of to score his 16th goal of the season and give the Canadiens a 3-1 lead. And Toffoli added his 17th with an empty-netter to seal the deal with 48 seconds remaining.
In between and all throughout, Carey Price played like the Carey Price we’ve seen for most of the 699 other games he’s started in the NHL—calm and in control, with 34 saves to show for his efforts.
“About Carey,” said Anderson, “He stood in there all night for us. He played absolutely amazing, and what a milestone for him tonight to get that win.”
Price, Anderson, Drouin, Kotkaniemi, Gallagher, Toffoli and Ducharme played the leading roles, but the whole cast was worthy of a curtain call.
“I liked what we did collectively,” said Ducharme, “starting with our goaltender, to the defencemen, to the forwards.”
Ouellet and Romanov played under 14 minutes, but they were steady and assertive. Kulak played over 20 and unquestionably had his best game of the year.
Montreal’s fourth line played effectively, while its third line—centred by Phillip Danault fighting through an injury—controlled 50 per cent of the shot attempts at 5-on-5 despite starting 66 per cent of its shifts outside of the offensive zone.
“(Danault) was really solid,” said Ducharme. “He was skating well, he was hard on pucks. That’s where he’s got his best game is when he moves like this and he’s making those little and hard plays. And he gets the puck out, he gets the puck more often in the offensive side…”
Suzuki, who scored 12 points in his first 12 games of the season before scoring just five over his next 15, had an assist on Anderson’s goal. He got throttled against the Flames Saturday and pushed around by the Jets Monday, and he pushed back.
“It’s awesome to see,” said Drouin of the 21-year-old. “Maybe he’s fighting the puck a little bit or he’s not playing his best hockey, but he’s working hard. He’s fighting through it. I thought today he played a great game…you can see the confidence coming back a little bit. It’s normal when you’re a young guy—when things aren’t going well, you’re trying to force it, but it’s not really the play. But I thought tonight he just worked hard.
“He’s a good player, so teams are going to target him a little bit. They know he’s one of our good players, but again, he answered back and he’s fighting.”
The Canadiens had to answer back and fight after a bad loss to the Flames. They had to recapture their identity and play to it.
Anderson believed they’d do it. So did Gallagher.
“I have a lot of confidence in this group, I have a lot of confidence in the players we have to get the job done,” he said on Sunday. “And I think what gives me that confidence is we have a lot of guys that, when we go through tough times, respond the right way.”
That’s what the Canadiens did in this game, and what they have to do in another key matchup with the Jets Wednesday before returning to Montreal for back-to-back games against the Vancouver Canucks to close the week.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
