Habs looking for answers after tough start to season – Montreal | The Canadian News

If you follow hockey, you probably know that the Montreal Canadiens have had a disastrous start to the season.

The city was high during the Habs’ Cinderella run towards the Stanley Cup final, but the clock has struck midnight, the glass slippers have been smashed, and so far Prince Charming is nowhere to be seen. side.

Of the four games they have played so far, they have not won a single game. They haven’t even tied.

The team took to the ice at their Brossard practice facility on Thursday morning eager to turn things around.

“We have had a difficult start,” forward Mathieu Perreault said.

“We’re definitely a bit frustrated, but we can’t get too discouraged,” said center Christian Dvorak.

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Although it was only a few months ago, the Canadiens’ summer run to the Stanley Cup final feels like a distant memory.

Coach Dominique Ducharme believes playoff success may be partially to blame for the rocky start.

It was a short offseason and brought a lot of praise.

“You get flowers and flowers and good words for a couple of months, you feel pretty good about yourself and you think everything is going to be fine. So that sense of urgency, we don’t feel it. We didn’t have it right away, ”he explained.

However, that urgency is certainly felt now.

“We have to improve everywhere,” Dvorak said, “so that’s our focus,” he said.

Hockey analyst Jared Book has noted that fans became very negative when the team stumbled out the door and believes their frustration started with the team’s difficult offseason.

“There has been a lot of negativity, from Shea Weber’s injury to Carey Price walking away, including the NHL draft,” said Book, deputy managing editor of Habs Eyes on the Prize.

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The coach says the team has had some good stretches but needs to be more consistent, noting that consistency was the key to his deep run in the playoffs.

“We know we are a good team and we are going to show it,” Ducharme said.

He says that while the team is not as bad as fans would say, it is also not as good as the most optimistic projections.

“We are there in the middle,” he said.

Ducharme hopes some new line combinations will give the team a boost.

Brendan Gallagher will now play Nick Suzuki and sniper Mike Hoffman. Mathieu Perrault will be with Tyler Toffoli and Cole Caufield.

“I think they just need a spark, you know … this is a team that has three goals in four games, obviously what has been tried has not worked,” Book said.

If the goals do not start to come, it will be a long and dark season in the land of Habs.