Since his arrival in the NHL, Kaiden Guhle has shown himself to be calm and confident on the ice. We rarely see him let his emotions get the better of him, and that’s something that comes in handy on the Canadiens’ defensive brigade.
That said, on Thursday night, Guhle was seen to be quite emotional by his standards, taking a swing at Travis Konecny while on the Habs bench.
Naturally, he had a hearing and was suspended for one game. He’ ll be serving his sentence tonight.
It’s not the defender’s habit, of course, but even so, it’s a shame for the Tricolore to be without their defenseman.
And Martin St-Louis agrees, noting in a press conference that he would have preferred to see the situation resolved “on the ice”.
He’s aware that his boys are capable of not letting each other walk all over them… but in this case, he would have preferred to settle it on the ice.
The coach acknowledged, however, that this is an unusual gesture on Guhle’s part, and he’s not particularly worried that it will become a recurring one for his young defender.
In the end, it’s a learning moment. Guhle wanted to defend Juraj Slafkovský, who is one of the team’s best players and one of his good friends in the dressing room, and his emotions got the better of him for a second.
Still, on the whole, the coach’s discourse surrounding Guhle’s gesture is more positive than that surrounding Arber Xhekaj earlier this season. And in the case of the latter, we were talking about bad penalties (repeated, that said), but not about a gesture that earned him a suspension.
The question now will be to see how Guhle responds between now and the end of the season. I’m also inclined to think that the defenseman will have learned his lesson and will settle his score on the ice rather than on the bench, because in the end, that’s generally what he’s done since arriving in Montreal.
As long as it doesn’t become a recurring occurrence, Thursday’s incident can be blamed on the emotion of the moment.
Highlights
– Game starts at 6:30 p.m. tonight.
– Whose luck?
– What an image.
– Great news.
– Former Jays (top) prospect finally reaches the Majors.
– Attention all interested parties.
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