This wasn’t a loss like any other, and certainly not one like the last one the Montreal Canadiens were dealt by the Washington Capitals.
But it was a still a loss, and a painful one at that for the Canadiens, who were in strong position to notch an improbable win under very unfavourable circumstances with 20 minutes to play in Tuesday’s game.
They had reasons to fade, to allow the Capitals to claw their way back from 2-0 before winning 3-2 in overtime, and we viewed them as legitimate even if they didn’t.
That the Canadiens didn’t use those legitimate reasons as excuses, though, was as commendable as the heart they displayed to still squeeze a point out of this game. Because their season is about growth, about maturity, about consistency of brand no matter what obstacles arise, and they’d be failing themselves in all departments just accepting when they play beneath their own standard just because they have reason to.
That standard has become high, and Brendan Gallagher and Joe Veleno were trying to keep it there by telling reporters at Capital One Arena that the Canadiens should’ve taken two points instead of just one in Washington.
“Anytime you’re up two goals going into the third,” said Gallagher, “you should be able to win that hockey game.”
He and Veleno were two of several veterans who did their part, while the kids, who have been largely responsible for keeping the Canadiens in the chase for pole position in the Atlantic Division, seemed more incumbered by the circumstances of Tuesday’s game.
The Canadiens had arrived in Washington at 1:30 a.m. ET, after beating the Vancouver Canucks in a game that had ended late Monday night at the Bell Centre. They weren’t settled into their hotel rooms before 3:00 a.m., and they were going to be in tough to find a way to start on time when the puck dropped at 7:08 p.m.
This wasn’t just a back-to-back with strenuous travel; it was Montreal’s fifth game in seven nights, and you’d have expected young legs —rather than the older ones — to be their only salvation.
But young minds weren’t quite as sharp as the older ones, and it cost the Canadiens that precious extra point.
There were some dubious decisions with the puck in that third period — some from 22-year-old Oliver Kapanen and some from 25-year-old Cole Caufield — that started Washington’s offence and gave the Capitals momentum.
Some defensive lapses helped the home team capitalize on that momentum.
Right before Ethen Frank scored the Capitals’ first goal, in the 46th minute of play, 22-year-old Zach Bolduc followed up a strong play in the offensive zone by giving up too much space in his own zone. On Frank’s game-tying goal with 1:54 to play in the third, and on Connor McMichael’s overtime winner, 21-year-old Juraj Slafkovsky put himself in the right spaces to stop both plays but didn’t find a way to tie either man up.
Bolduc played a good game and Slafkovsky played a series of them, but their minor lapses in concentration on this night proved costly.
You’d hope they were as frustrated as Gallagher and Veleno at the end of it.
The former scored Montreal’s second goal and the latter was part of a heroic penalty killing performance that shut the Capitals out on five occasions.
Alex Carrier blocked an Alex Ovechkin one-timer from point-blank range on the last of those five power plays, in overtime. The 29-year-old was pivotal in that department.
So was 31-year-old Mike Matheson and 31-year-old Josh Anderson, who returned after missing five games and scored shorthanded to get the Canadiens on the board.
It was Anderson, Matheson, Carrier, Veleno, Gallagher, 33-year-old Phillip Danault and seven-year vet Noah Dobson leading the Canadiens through a hard-fought, responsible road game under the most adverse conditions.
But those more experienced players needed more of their younger teammates to follow.
“It’s always disappointing, no matter what building you’re in, when you’re up 2-0 after two, you’re playing an excellent game, even if you’re not doing anything spectacular and just playing calculated, and you lack a bit of detail in the third,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “The intentions were there.”
With exhaustion, execution fell off, and we expected it would.
But if the Canadiens are going to go from good to great soon, they must expect more of themselves.
The good thing is it sounds like they do.
“If we want to be a team that’s competitive enough to be able to beat the best teams,” said Veleno, “we can’t use (the schedule) as an excuse.”
It was hard all the way through the last week, but the Canadiens still pulled out three wins and earned seven of 10 of the points available to them.
They weren’t their best on Tuesday, but they weren’t nearly as bad as they were when they lost 8-4 to the Capitals in the third week of November.
Sam Montembeault wasn’t good in relief of Jakub Dobes that night, but he stopped 39 of 42 shots he faced on this one to help the Canadiens earn a point.
Now they must move on from not doing enough to get the other one.
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