Call of the Wilde: Montreal Canadiens lose in overtime to Detroit Red Wings – Montreal | The Canadian News

The Montreal Canadiens have not won two games in a row this season, as they approach the quarter mark on the season. They had a shot at that Saturday night as they sought their third win of the year over the Detroit Red Wings.

Montreal is playing better hockey lately, but couldn’t cement that with a 3-2 loss at Motown.

Wilde Horses

The current establishment is too impatient with current prospects. It is a new and disturbing trend. Part of the trend is that the player is mentioned and asked to perform at the NHL level too early. The other part of the trend is that the player has exhausted all his opportunities with an organization at too young an age.

Enter Ryan Poehling. This is a player who was taken at the end of the first round and scored a hat trick in his first professional game. Everyone thought he was ready because he caught lightning in a bottle one night. He wasn’t even close to being ready.

Very few are ready as soon as they enter the NHL. If you are Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid, then yes, you are special and special things can happen very quickly. However, almost everyone is not in that category, and organizations must stop having these high expectations for players who need experience.

Poehling in his first season as a professional divided the duties between Laval and Montreal. He fought in both places. In his second season, Poehling counted at a rate fairly close to one point per game. This is only its third season, and many are calling it a failure. This is unjustified.

Its third season is just beginning. He had six points in his first seven games at Laval before being called up to Montreal. In this, just his second game, he already has his first goal. It was a clever shot from the far side to open the scoring in the first half.

Poehling is 22 years old. His first season, he shouldn’t have been in Montreal. I was not completely ready. His second season was just half a season because of COVID-19. He has hardly played professional hockey. He has played only 101 professional games. Give him some time to figure this out: 101 games is a ridiculously small number to rule out a first-round pick.

An example of a player who took the time to come to North America and made a career for himself is Artturi Lehkonen. He has gotten everything he can with the skills he had to find for many years in the NHL. It was a great play by Lehkonen that scored the tying goal. Lehkonen crashed into the boards in the corner and was on his back when he made a tremendous pass to Chris Wideman, who went the other side to make it 2-2 in the third.

Wild goats

Samuel Montembeault is 25 years old and has only played 25 games as a NHL player. He has a save percentage below .900 in the NHL. He had a save percentage below .900 in the American Hockey League. He was .900 in the Quebec Youth League in Blainville.

Let’s call it an interesting pick for general manager Marc Bergevin when he needed a goalkeeper to replace Carey Price. Perhaps Bergevin should not have chosen an inexperienced goalkeeper to fill this position. After allowing two goals on his first two shots, Montembeault was strong, stopping the next 22 to help the Habs take the game into extra time – something to build on, perhaps. People certainly know that it is not easy to intervene at any time, but that is the job of a backup. His save percentage is .889 this season. It ranks 58th in the league.

When Jake Allen left the game for concussion protocols after being crushed by Dylan Larkin, his Canadiens teammates also appeared to have quit the game for the next 10 minutes before recovering. Allen looked good after contact. I skated smoothly and smoothly on the ice without any problems. She was even shaking her hair so she could put the helmet back on properly. His entire demeanor said he was completely fine. Not stunned. Not dizzy. Not glassy eyes. He looked normal.

However, in the second period, it was announced that Allen would not be returning. It’s hard to know if Allen failed the SCAT concussion tests, or if the Canadiens were just being careful and held him up overnight. However, it should be noted that it was about half an hour after the test started that it was ruled out. That is the time it takes to complete the test.

For now, we’ll just have to wait to see how Allen feels. Everyone hopes it won’t be long, because the club definitely needs it.

Wilde’s Letters

Cole Caufield has finally scored a goal after the biggest drought of his entire life in hockey. Caufield needed 15 games to score this season. He did not score in Montreal for the Canadiens in 10 games, getting only one assist in that time. He then went to Laval, where it took him another five games to finally count one.

Yet it was such an extraordinary goal for Caufield to finally break through. Caufield was skidding down the right side and had crossed to the corner and was behind the goal line when he fired the wrist shot into the back of the goalkeeper’s shoulder, which had left his spot glued to the post.

It was not a mistake that Caufield shot him there. He’s done it before on many occasions, and while it’s a low-percentage shot, Caufield does it on purpose for an astonishing success rate.

Caufield now has one goal and three assists for four points in five games. It’s not what I expected, but it looks like it’s starting to find its way again after this shocking fall.

Caufield is not the best Rocket player by any means. That honor goes to Jesse Ylonen, who may be showing the NHL’s potential in his second year of action in the American Hockey League. In her last four games, Yvonne has two goals and three assists.

The rocket lost to the Utica Comets 5-3 on Saturday.

Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after every Canadiens game.