When the siren sounded confirming the Canadians’ 4-0 victory over the Sabers on Wednesday, smiling Samuel Montemboldt made a funny gesture by slipping toward his teammates.
The doorman from Becancourt, who was enjoying his first close in the NHL, repeatedly passed his hands, as if handing out money to his comrades who came to congratulate him in the middle of the ice rink.
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If that’s what you’ve seen, cancel your eye doctor’s appointment. TVA Sports journalist Renaud Lavoie was told about the idea behind the charade.
“Before the match, like every season, putting a little money on the board (…) to organize a great party, all the Canadian players put in X, Y, Z amount. The amount is not important and everyone is involved,” he explained to “JC” on Thursday.
For Montembault, the most important thing is the result.
“What he mostly wanted to say was ‘Hey guys! The money’s on the board, we’ve won it and we can have a nice little party at the end of the season!'”
In response to this anecdotal information, Jean-Charles Lagoy could not help but joke about it: “How many men with two-part contracts at this club, surely there were few who wanted to block shots with their faces to choose above the circumstance!”
As in the series
Since Martin St. Louis took the reins of the Canadians, the club has escaped three straight games before weaving a four-game winning streak. It’s not unusual for a head coach to lose his first matches behind the bench, but it’s not entirely a coincidence.
“From day one, he challenged his players,” says Renaud Lavoie. “Before the first game, he said ‘we’re going to do 4 out of 7, like it’s in the playoffs.’ His first matches ended in a 0-3 loss in the series. And there, we won the last four.”
St. Louis mentioned in his press conference Thursday that he runs the “winners.” In this sense, against the saber, his men won their series 4 of 7.
“He didn’t tell us,” the journalist recalls. Montembolt, during his press conference, mentioned this word of mouth. I made sure that this is it. For them, it was the seventh match.