COLUMBUS — The Montreal Canadiens‘ playoff hopes may have been seriously dented by the 6-2 loss they suffered to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday, but they aren’t yet destroyed.
That’s what Canadiens fans have to remember in the wake of a game their team had control of but blew in uncharacteristic fashion, gifting the Blue Jackets five goals after owning a 2-1 lead with less than half the time remaining on the clock. This team has been counted out several times — and as recently as a little over a week ago, when they had 11 losses in 16 games — but they’ve bounced back every time.
The Canadiens responded from last week to this one by taking nine of 10 available points in the standings against the Philadelphia Flyers, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers. They’ve responded all year, rebounding from tough losses and putting themselves back in the playoff picture.
It’s what Montreal must do now. With four games remaining on their schedule, they’re on the bubble, tied in points with Columbus (90) for the second wild card and one point back of the Carolina Hurricanes for the first one in the Eastern Conference. The mandate is to forget Thursday’s outcome immediately and focus on Saturday’s game in Winnipeg against the Jets.
“No matter how bad this loss hurts, we’ve got character players in that dressing room,” said Canadiens coach Claude Julien. “They’re character players that care, that want to do well, and as a coach you love seeing that. I’ve got a lot of young guys but I’ve also got some veterans and a good mix, so I’m confident we’re going to go to Winnipeg and we’re going to be ready to play.”
[relatedlinks]
The Canadiens were ready to play in Columbus, but it was perplexing how ill-prepared they were to carry out two early leads to an eventual win.
They stormed out of the gate, with a goal in the second minute of the game, and held the Blue Jackets without a shot on net through the first 10.
In the second period, the wheels just fell off the Canadiens’ bus. A bad line change from Artturi Lehkonen, Max Domi and Andrew Shaw gave the Blue Jackets a five-on-two rush they completed with a tic-tac-toe play David Savard hammered into the net to tie the game 1-1.
Minutes after Jeff Petry made it 2-1 Canadiens, Oliver Bjorkstrand slipped through Montreal’s loose coverage to tip home Seth Jones’ shot from the point. Matt Duchene profited from a turnover the Canadiens made in the offensive zone to rush down the ice, turn Victor Mete inside-out and set up Artemi Panarin for Columbus’ third goal.
Goal four was a giveaway in the middle of the ice from Montreal’s Jesperi Kotkaniemi that Riley Nash took for a breakaway. The Blue Jackets forward got his own rebound and tucked it around Carey Price.
Goal five came after Petry made what he afterwards referred to as “a forced play” in the offensive zone. On this one, Bjorkstrand tapped home a two-on-one pass from Jones.
And the sixth was an empty-netter from Brandon Dubinsky, scored at 16:49 of the third period.
There was no viable explanation from the Canadiens on why things turned, just resignation about their role in the loss and a desire to put it behind them immediately.
“We definitely cracked first,” said Canadiens assistant captain Brendan Gallagher. “We made a lot of mistakes. They’re a good hockey team, we don’t need to make it easy on them [but] we made it easy for them to get those chances and then eventually score goals. That’s on us. At the same time, we move on. We get ready for our next game in Winnipeg, find a way to win that one and things can turn around quickly.”
[snippet id=4532907]
They have on many occasions for the Canadiens this season. The team started off in October with a tough loss in Toronto and followed it up with wins in six of their next nine games. They had a losing record in November and rebounded with a 10-5-0 mark in December. It was after losing three of their first five games in January that they won five of their next six to close the month. And then there was their most recent run, which led them into Columbus on Thursday with a chance to move into the first wild-card position.
The Canadiens weren’t able to capitalize on that opportunity and their quest to make the playoffs became that much harder to achieve as a result. The odds aren’t in their favour, given that Columbus and Carolina each own a game in hand, as well as schedules that are far less demanding.
For Montreal, it’s home to the NHL-leading Tampa Bay Lightning next Tuesday, in Washington against the Metropolitan Division-leading Washington Capitals next Thursday, and back home to close the season against a Toronto Maple Leafs team that’s beaten them three out of three times since October.
Their next one, against a Jets team that leads the Central Division and has already qualified for the playoffs, is the only one on their minds right now with the loss against Columbus already filed.
“[Thursday’s outcome] doesn’t matter,” said Julien. “I think at the end of the day, it might have been a great learning experience for young guys, but as a team we know we have to be better than that. Again, we had a tough one in one of those games that was really important, but right now, as I told the guys, we need to park this and really focus on Winnipeg because we’ve got to go to Winnipeg and win a hockey game. That’s where all our energy has to be starting right now.”
