Few teams can claim to be anywhere near as injury-ravaged as the Montreal Canadiens, but one team that comes rather close happens to be the one they visited in Missouri on Saturday night. The St. Louis Blues are also dealing with a fair bit of injury issues, so it was a battle to see which injury-riddled club could come out on top.
Welcome to your Bottom Six Minutes, in which I’ll discuss the Habs not being that team, losing for the sixth game in a row.
I feel that Dominique Ducharme is still trying to coach to win games, which is coming at the expense of opportunities for his younger players. His least used forwards on Saturday were Cedric Paquette, Michael Pezzetta, and Jesse Ylonen. Development should be paramount with where the Habs currently are in the standings, but Ducharme appears to be trusting his veterans in an effort to move up in those standings.
I’d like to see him giving more opportunities to the youth, and I think it would give him a better chance at selling himself to his yet unnamed boss. To be able to show that he had a hand in some players taking significant steps in their careers would go a long way given that he won’t be able to stand on wins and losses.
For example, take your silver lining of the night, Alexander Romanov. He seems to be getting better and better as this tough season drags on, and he could end up being a nice silver lining for this season if he keeps it up. As much as I am not a Ducharme fan, I have to say I’m very glad he’s giving enough leash for Romanov to find his game.
Click the play button below for my full thoughts, and as always I’ll be back again after Tuesday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
