MONTREAL— This game against the Colorado Avalanche wasn’t a bad one for the Montreal Canadiens. Not like the one they won 5-2 against the Boston Bruins right before it.
But the Canadiens lost 4-1 Saturday because things have a way of evening out over an 84-game season, and sometimes it happens even quicker than expected.
This time, it happened within just 48 hours, and it’s good the Canadiens had that in perspective afterwards.
That should keep this team rolling.
It came into this game on a 12-game point streak, at 9-0-3, and it was honest in its assessment of why it ended.
Juraj Slafkovsky was right when he said execution was lacking. And Captain Nick Suzuki, who scored the team’s only goal in the game, correctly cited a lack of discipline as an impediment to positive momentum when the Canadiens needed it most — while they trailed by two goals in the third period.
But penalties to Josh Anderson and Adam Engstrom aside, the process was where it needed to be to give the Canadiens a chance, and it was specifically geared towards correcting what should’ve taken a chance away from them against the Bruins on Thursday.
They didn’t succeed on the scoreboard, but at least they succeeded in that.
“I think we were tighter through the neutral zone,” said Suzuki. “Obviously they’re a good rush team, they’re going to create some chances, like their first goal. But overall, I thought we talked a lot about our neutral zone, and I thought we did a better job through there.”
The task was undeniably facilitated for the Canadiens in not having to face Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar — two of the top five players in the world who missed this game and won’t be participating in several others for the Avalanche over the coming weeks.
But that doesn’t diminish the Canadiens limiting this dangerous team to just 29 controlled entries after permitting Boston 56 of them in Thursday’s game.
They didn’t kid themselves after that one, either.
When we spoke with Suzuki, Mike Matheson, Jake Evans and Phillip Danault after it was done, all of them were thankful for the result and very disappointed by the process.
Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis pulled no punches about how flawed it was Thursday, adding on Saturday morning that he also didn’t like the way his lines and pairings were uncharacteristically sloppy with their changes.
By night, the Canadiens had adjusted, pushing off to a sharp, detailed start that was undone by a bad goal Jakub Dobes allowed to Fedor Svechkov on Colorado’s first shot of the night, which came at 3:57 of the first period.
He could’ve been more honest in his assessment of that one.
When Dobes said, “It got deflected,” he was right.
Svechkov shot it off Engstrom’s skate and into the net.
But Dobes adding, “I don’t know what else I can do there,” and “I feel like the shooter had nothing to shoot at,” and “It was just unfortunate,” spoke volumes about how his process has gone through the first quarter of the season — poorly.
The 25-year-old, who fell to 3-3-2 with an unsightly .852 save percentage and 3.93 goals-against average, was on his knees seconds before Svechkov was in any type of position to shoot the puck. He was taking away most of the short side of the net while also giving away the entire far side of it and had Svechkov not banked it off Engstrom, he surely could’ve taken advantage of that.
The Canadiens didn’t permit the Avalanche many other opportunities, which is congruent with how they’ve played through most their season.
Jacob Fowler stole Dobes’ net — and some wins — through the first 20 games, but the Canadiens have largely earned their 12-4-4 record.
They didn’t really deserve to beat the Bruins Tuesday, and it’s tough to suggest they deserved to lose to the Avalanche Saturday.
That’s how it goes in this league.
“I didn’t hate our game,” said St. Louis. “In general, I thought our intentions were good. Our execution, offensively, was lacking something. I thought we had a hard time scoring goals.”
Dobes could’ve prevented the first one — a goal given within the first four minutes for the fourth time in his eight starts. He couldn’t really be faulted on the second, and he made great saves before Artturi Lehkonen scored the third.
The fourth went into an empty net, guaranteeing the Canadiens would be held without a point in a game for the first time in weeks.
“We were on a long run, and sometimes those runs come to an end,” said St. Louis. “We’ll take it and get going on another.”
Execution will return, some discipline will need to kick in for the most penalized team in the league, and the power play will need to find the mojo it’s been lacking since the season began.
It blanked on both its chances Saturday and ranks 31st in the NHL.
But with the talent the Canadiens have on both units, that’s bound to also even out — at least a bit — between now and Game 84.
