It's probably not a coincidence. Last Wednesday, Josh Anderson received a huge wave of love when he jumped onto the ice looking 12e Skaters in the endless shootout session. He hadn't hit Alex Nedeljkovic, the Penguins' goaltender.
In the next game, Anderson scored two goals. For the first time this season he beat a goalkeeper. He made it twice against Semyon Varlamov in Saturday's 5-3 win over the New York Islanders at the Bell Center.
Yogi Berra, former New York Yankees great, had already said it in one of his legendary statements: “Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.”
We will forgive Berra's miscalculations, but we will remember that sports are often played between the two ears. In baseball, like in hockey.
For Nick Suzuki there is no coincidence. The fans' spontaneous reaction to the last game against the Penguins gave his teammate momentum.
“It definitely helps,” Suzuki replied. When the crowd stays with you in difficult times, you feel better. I liked the reaction from our fans at the shootout on Monday. Our fans are great. They wanted to help him get out of his hole.”
The best supporters
Anderson, who scored his first goal of the season into an empty net in the 25th game of the year against the Seattle Kraken, hesitated when asked if it was just a coincidence that he scored two goals in the first game after that famous game had an ovation in the shootout against the Penguins.
“I don't know. Maybe. Maybe that's the case.”
After a short pause, Number 17 continued with his answer.
“I thought the last game against the Penguins was special. Sometimes as a player in dark times you don't expect that kind of reaction from the audience. But I've been saying it since my first day with the Canadiens, and even when I played in Columbus, I always thought the crowd at the Bell Center was the best in the NHL. The Canadian counts on the most passionate fans.”
Anderson was voted the first star against the Islanders and received another ovation during his on-ice interview with his colleague Renaud Lavoie.
“Just the encouragement they’ve given me over the last few games is just wonderful to me,” said the Ontarian. I won't forget that. I was emotional on the ice, I'm not going to lie. Those were special moments. I know the fans have been through difficult years in recent seasons, but they remain patient and continue to encourage us.
Five goals from the attackers
There are the two goals from Anderson, but also a healthy contribution from the attackers. They scored all five goals in this win. Joel Armia, Cole Caufield and Christian Dvorak, sitting in an abandoned cage, also diluted the scoresheet.
Photo Martin Chevalier
The CH needed the offensive awakening of its attackers. It was like that for one evening. Nick Suzuki's trio (with Caufield and Slafkovsky) showed a strong game and spent most of the time in the opponent's territory in the first two periods of the game.
The Habs also got off to a very good start in this game and dominated the Islanders in the first 40 minutes. It was 4 to 0 on the scoreboard, but also 36 to 16 in the shooting column.
But the Islanders scared their rivals by scoring three goals in the third period. The Canadian bent without breaking.
“We didn't want to give up a shorthanded goal early in the third period, and the Islanders quickly scored another goal,” Suzuki noted. We haven't played with a big lead in a long time. The third time we came out flat. We stopped working, we can’t get too confident.”
After Brock Nelson's second goal and the score was 4-2, Martin St-Louis had the bright idea to calm his troops down by calling a timeout.