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Rafaël Harvey-Pinard admits: he’s not playing with confidence this season

Last year, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard was one of the Canadiens’ biggest stories. The young forward came to town midway through the season and, in 34 NHL games, scored no less than 14 goals.

He had impressed so much that he scratched a few points on the ballot for NHL All-Rookie teams last year. He was far from being one of the winners, but it was recognition nonetheless.

That said, we suspected that his 0.41 goals per game would be hard to replicate. He’s capable of hitting the target, but it was rather unlikely that he’d have a 30+ goal season (he was on a pace of nearly 34 goals over 82 games last year) in 2023-24.

And so far, he has yet to score a goal in nine games this season. He has amassed four assists, but clearly a goal would be good for him, as he openly admits he’s not necessarily playing with confidence this season.

That’swhat he told Arpon Basu.

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Nick Suzuki, who’s been there recently (it took him a while to score his first goal of the campaign, too), also sees a lack of confidence in RHP, but he recognizes that this can change quickly. In fact, even against the Golden Knights, he saw positive signs that the tide could turn at any moment.

The Quebecer knows that he must avoid rushing the game and that he must keep things simple… and he’s not losing hope that he’ll get there eventually.

Because in reality, even if we knew he probably wouldn’t reproduce last year’s goal-scoring pace, he’s capable of doing better than a mere four assists in nine games, especially when paired with Suzuki and Cole Caufield.

The “real” Harvey-Pinard is probably somewhere between the one we saw last year and the one we’re seeing this season.

The good news is that the Quebecer recognizes what’s going on right now and knows what he needs to fix to get back on track.

We can only hope that his confidence will return as soon as possible.

In bursts

– Speaking of players still looking for their first goal of the season.

– This trio needs to get going fast.

– Adam Engström seems in no hurry to arrive in North America. Let’s hope he doesn’t do a Mattias Norlinder of his own…

– Cédrick Guindon is on fire.

– That would be great news.

– Wow.

– MLB can’t be too happy.