MONTREAL — There’s nothing fun about losing, but there is some value to be found in it.
Especially when you lose the way the Montreal Canadiens did against the Nashville Predators on Saturday night. They suffered a no-contest beat down—in every relevant category — dropping the game 4-1 and allowing the guys in yellow and blue to leave the Bell Centre smiling ear-to-ear.
The Canadiens were left shaking their heads in frustration, well aware of why they erred.
“We weren’t hungry enough,” said Canadiens centre Phillip Danault.
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There are many obstacles this plucky, blue-collar team can circumvent. A bad effort isn’t one of them. And every once in a while, particularly when things are going quite well, it’s not the worst thing for them to be reminded of that.
For it to happen in Game 42 of their season — the first game of a second half the Canadiens have all acknowledged will challenge them more than the first half did — is as good a time as any. And it’s a lesson that will be reinforced come morning, when the Canadiens wake up to see their poor effort against Nashville cost them their hold on the Eastern Conference’s last playoff spot (the New York Islanders bumped them with a 4-3 win over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday).
There was no excuse for this performance. Montreal was rested and waiting for a Predators team that lost in overtime to the Detroit Red Wings a night prior. They should have wanted it for themselves, but certainly that much more for their captain, Shea Weber, who had skated in a Nashville uniform for his first 11 seasons before being traded to Montreal in the 2016 blockbuster that sent P.K. Subban the other way.
The Canadiens, winners of 10 of 14 coming into Saturday’s game, should’ve been prepared for one of the NHL’s best teams. But they were out-worked, out-chanced, and out-scored in every period.
Nashville’s Craig Smith went unchallenged in front of Montreal’s net when he batted home a rebound on a Subban point-shot 10:44 into the first period. Teammate Mattias Ekholm had all day to wind up with his side’s 15th shot, with Canadiens forward Max Domi tipping it past Carey Price because he was late to cover with 36 seconds remaining in the frame.
It was 18 seconds after Weber scored Montreal’s only goal of the game — at 13:05 of the second period — that Smith tipped another Subban shot and snuck through Canadiens defenders Brett Kulak and Jordie Benn to tuck a wraparound into the net.
A few seconds later, a puck flipped out of Montreal’s end was in Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin’s reach, and as he noticed he was going to be engaged in a battle for it, he just stopped moving and allowed a Predators defenceman to turn the play back up ice.
Don’t be surprised if that clip finds its way into the reel Canadiens coach Claude Julien plays for his team before they welcome the Minnesota Wild to the Bell Centre Monday.
“Tonight I thought we were soft, losing battles, second to the puck everywhere, and from start to finish I don’t remember much of a time — except for when we scored that goal — that we got any kind of momentum or life,” Julien said right after he remarked, “I think it’s a lesson we learn every time we’re not ready to play. Same lesson. We’ve gotta play from start to finish.
“Obviously they had a tough loss yesterday. They thought they didn’t play well, so there was a little bit of anger in their game tonight. But they were sharp, they were good, and we didn’t seem to have a response.”
That was the case on Dec. 11, when the Canadiens lost 7-1 to the Wild.
They bounced back with consecutive wins over the Carolina Hurricanes and Ottawa Senators before the Boston Bruins schooled them in like fashion to the Wild, beating them 4-0 at the Bell Centre on Dec. 17.
Montreal’s response? They put their hard hats back on and took wins over the Arizona Coyotes, Vegas Golden Knights, Florida Panthers and Dallas Stars to go 4-2 on their road trip to close out 2018.
That’s what they need to do now — first in attempting to redeem themselves against the Wild, and then for every game that follows (they’ve got six scheduled in nine nights after a day off on Sunday).
“You can’t just come in and think you can just come in and just play,” said Julien. “You gotta play with a purpose, you gotta play with an edge, and you gotta want to be better than the other team, and that wasn’t the case tonight.”
Give Nashville their due. They came out flying, knocked the Canadiens back on their heels, got the early lead and held on through to the end.
It’s something they struggled to do recently, losing 10 straight games on the road before they beat the Capitals in Washington on Monday and took a point in a less-than-stellar effort against the Red Wings in Detroit on Friday.
They put the boots to the Canadiens, and Subban called it one of their best efforts of the season.
Weber said his teammates should take something away from it.
“I guess you could say [it was a lack of emotion],” the captain added. “It was kind of a quiet game in that regard. If you don’t get any going, it’s tough to feed off of nothing. We need to fix that and learn from it. More big games coming up and the schedule’s not really easing up as far as games, so we need make sure we’re not staying in a rut with what we did tonight.”
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