This is the new reality, in which a loss for the Montreal Canadiens is actually a win.
This one—a 6-3 smack down at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday—sunk the Canadiens to 27th in the 31-team NHL. It’s a distinct possibility they’ll wake up in 28th place. That will be the case if the Vancouver Canucks can pick up a point in their late-night game against the Boston Bruins.
With 24 games to go in their season, every loss the Canadiens manage gives them a better chance of drafting first overall this summer. That has to be their top objective, considering how bare their prospect cupboard is.
That considered, there are certain things that make a loss more digestible. Our first takeaway from Saturday’s game covers that.
The kids are alright
It was one of the highlights of the game when 23-year-old Canadiens forward Charles Hudon scored on a magnificent individual effort 4:32 into the first period.
Hudon collected a Max Pacioretty pass, took advantage of a bit of time and space, and he barrelled his way to Marc-Andre Fleury’s net before deking him to the forehand side to tie the game 1-1.
It was a little over seven minutes later when 22-year-old Canadiens forward Nikita Scherbak was on the receiving end of a beautiful zone entry from 24-year-old Alex Galchenyuk. With the Golden Knights taking a poorly timed line change, Scherbak crashed in on his off-wing and pulled the puck around Fleury before tucking it in on the short side. He had virtually no angle left to make the play and still pulled it off.
In the third period, 22-year-old Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin made his way into the slot and scored his team’s third goal of the game with a wicked slapshot on the power play.
Hudon, Scherbak, Galchenyuk and Drouin were Montreal’s most dangerous forwards in the game. Canadiens fans are going to want to see them be as dynamic in every game from here to the end of the season. If they can be, that bodes well for this team’s future.
A peculiar decision
Antti Niemi gave Carey Price some rest when he took to Montreal’s net in Colorado this past Wednesday.
Canadiens coach Claude Julien had considered Niemi’s career numbers against Colorado and decided he was a better fit to face the Avalanche—especially since the team was going to play in Arizona a night later and Price had never lost to the Coyotes in nine starts against them.
It was a justifiable decision, even though the Canadiens failed to pick up points in either city.
But, no matter how you sliced it, you couldn’t suggest that Julien’s decision to start Niemi over Price in Vegas would reflect well on him, Price or the Canadiens in any way.
When the coach was asked before the game why he was making that call, he said, “Because I have two goalies, guys, and Niemi’s the guy that’s gonna go in nets for us tonight, and I plan on utilizing both and Niemi’s been playing well.”
When Julien was asked in French if he was benching Price after he allowed five goals on 23 shots in Arizona, his response was only slightly more revealing.
“I think it’s more about where we are right now,” said Julien. “We’re not going to overuse the players. And in Price’s case it’s not a punishment, either. We’ll see him in the next game [Tuesday in Philadelphia]. Listen, we haven’t had an easy season, all of us. For sure it’s frustrating. There’s players who know because they know they’re capable of playing a lot better than they have. There’s years where things like that happen, so you just have to stay positive and keep your focus and continue to try to play well and win some games and finish strong. That’s what we’re going to try to do from here to the end of the season and we’ll manage the situation that way.”
[relatedlinks]
It’s a response that can be interpreted many different ways.
Perhaps Julien didn’t want to feed Price to the proverbial wolves—a Vegas team with the best home record in the NHL welcoming his road-worst Canadiens.
If that was the reason, it doesn’t look particularly great on Price, who was signed this past July to an eight-year, $84-million contract that kicks in next fall. The thought is he’s going to be making that much money because he has proven he gives the team a chance to win even when it looks hopeless.
We can’t say for sure that Price would’ve stopped the three of Vegas’s first six shots that beat Niemi in this game, but not giving him that chance would only incite speculation that Julien didn’t feel confident enough in him to face that challenge.
And if this was an Niemi showcase for a trade (we sincerely doubt it was), it went south less than 10 minutes in—with Price relieving him of his duties for the remainder of the game.
The numbers are ugly
This was the Canadiens’ fifth consecutive loss.
That makes three streaks of five losses or more for them this season, which hasn’t happened since 2000-01.
It was also Montreal’s 11th loss in their last 12 road games.
And it was the 14th time this season the Canadiens have allowed as many as five goals in a game.
We suppose it doesn’t matter all that much whether the Canadiens allow just one goal or five so long as the result is a loss—especially now that we’ve reached this point of the season. They’ll take all the losses they can get from here to the end.
