Martin St-Louis brought out his philosophical side. He looked nothing like a furious head coach following that 4-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
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He’s smart enough to know that the “Canes” have a much better hockey team. There was no point in getting angry like his mentor with the Tampa Bay Lightning, John Tortorella, so often did.
The final score is nothing short of catastrophic. But following 40 minutes, the Hurricanes were already leading 3-0 and outrageously outscored their rivals 42-19 in the penalty shootout column.
Rod Brind’Amour does not have in his DNA to advise his players to slow down. He always has a team that keeps their feet on the ground. In the third period, however, the Hurricanes slowed down by firing only two small shots, one of which was an empty net goal, that of Andrei Svechnikov.
At a press conference, St-Louis retained this more positive end to the meeting.
“It’s hard to replicate that in practice, you can’t play at such a high pace as in our last two games,” he said. I know we don’t have the results, but we will be better. I’m happy with the way we were fighting, even in a loss. I think we have improved as a team. You cannot do such repetitions in practices. The Hurricanes exert so much pressure. »
“It shows us, what are the big teams, what we can remember. Even in this defeat, there is something positive. We defended well during our numerical disadvantages in the second period. I liked our third period. We will take the positive. »
Volume and Chaos
Of the Canes’ 18 skaters, only Jordan Staal and Max Domi didn’t get a shot once morest Allen. Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen led the way with six and five shots respectively.
“The Hurricanes always have a volume of shots, they don’t hesitate to shoot everywhere, explained St-Louis. The Panthers go there more for the quality. But the Canes like to create chaos. They spent a lot of time in our area. When we tried to get out, their defenders came quickly on us. There was pressure. »
About the punishment to Allen, St-Louis corroborated the statements of his guard.
“They followed the rules. If he removes his mask himself, it’s a punishment. There is a bit of gray in the interpretation. I don’t know this rule yet. Jake told me he had done the same thing this year, taking off his mask with the puck at the blue line. We saw that he had lost his braid. It’s dangerous for a goalkeeper. I thought they were to whistle the puck once further. »