KANATA, Ont. — Cole Caufield wound up from 31 feet away and won this game in the most fitting fashion for his Montreal Canadiens — by fortunately blasting the puck right through Ottawa Senators goaltender Leevi Merilainen.
Caufield scored his first of the game through Merilainen’s legs in the 18th minute of play, and this one, which went between the big Finn’s arm and body in the 33rd second of overtime, was just about all there was for the Canadiens to celebrate on this night. They were thoroughly outplayed for most of the game, and if not for Merilainen’s generosity, they’d have left Canadian Tire Centre with a very different feeling than the one they were left to temporarily enjoy in the visitors’ room afterwards.
Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’ blared after self-congratulatory cheers rang out, but the Steve Miller Band's 'Take the Money and Run' would’ve been more apropos.
At least the Canadiens knew it.
“To be up 2-0 after the first,” Caufield started, “they score two quick ones, it’s a totally different game with momentum and stuff, and I thought we kind of just let it slip away right in front of us.”
Yeah, that’s what happened, and when the good feeling of a win fades before Monday morning’s practice, the Canadiens better keep that in mind.
Because proper self-assessment is what this situation requires, with eight games to go until the Olympic break and desperate teams like the Senators hunting the Canadiens in the standings.
One of those teams — the Buffalo Sabres — seemingly snapped at least one person to attention Thursday.
The problem is that the person doesn’t play for the Canadiens, he just coaches them.
Martin St. Louis was in a bad mood on Saturday morning, and he wasn’t hiding the reason for it. He had reviewed the loss to the Sabres — which had come two days after blowing a third-period lead in a loss to the Washington Capitals — and he had come away from it knowing his team needed to correct itself with urgency.
Experience is the ultimate teacher, and St. Louis and the Canadiens had experienced something around this same time last year that they needed to learn from. Their details began to slip right before the period St. Louis had been referring to as “a chase to the break” for the 4 Nations Face-Off, and they had completely fallen off by the time the Canadiens lost seven of eight games leading up to the tournament.
Avoiding a similar fate from a more favourable position in the standings this season would be paramount, and St. Louis was stressing that Saturday morning.
He mentioned the word “detail” more than any other during his pre-game press conference, and he emphasized it when asked about last year’s lesson.
“It’s to finish strong,” St. Louis said. “Last year, we didn’t have a good sequence before the break, so it’s to learn from that and finish strong. You see the finish line. Can you sprint to it, or are you going to cruise because you can see it? Sprinting doesn’t just come down to effort; it’s about detail and mental engagement.”
The message appeared to resonate with the Canadiens through at least some of the first period of Saturday’s game, but it was clear through the second and third that it hadn’t fully sunk in.
So, when we asked St. Louis how he wanted the Canadiens to process it, we weren’t surprised to hear him say, “With truth.”
“I think they know. I think we’re a pretty honest group,” St. Louis added before concluding, “I think it helps us progress and move forward when you’re honest with the actual play, not the result, so I think we’re going to process that with some truth.”
Here’s some:
- The Canadiens were opportunistic early on, producing two power-play goals and just one scoring chance at five-on-five through the first period.
- They were incredibly fortunate that Merilainen was in such a giving mood that he allowed Josh Anderson to score on him from 59 feet away after his team had clawed their way back to even a minute and 19 seconds prior.
- Their attention to detail had been so negligible after Anderson scored — at 4:26 of the second period — that they gave up three unanswered goals and generated just five shots before Juraj Slafkovsky and Alexandre Carrier scored on consecutive attempts with 4:24 and 3:19 remaining in regulation to tie the game.
- The winning goal came after Tim Stutzle blew a tire on the two-on-one rush the Canadiens gave them just seconds earlier, and they were lucky Merilainen was facing that rare Caufield slapper.
Hey, we didn’t expect all of that to be front of mind once the volume on 'Sledgehammer' faded and the questions from reporters echoed. We were anything but shocked to hear captain Nick Suzuki reference the Canadiens’ resilience to battle back and Jake Evans talk about the effort that went into stealing this game away.
But they both acknowledged there was much more to take away from it than that, and that was just as important as the two points.
“You can be happy about the result,” said Evans, and he certainly was after helping to manufacture it following a 13-game absence with a knee injury.
But at least Evans coupled that enthusiasm with some sobriety.
“Being satisfied about it and thinking we can win like that — it’s not going to happen often,” he said. “We’re playing to become a top team and make it far in the playoffs, so we need to clean up a few things.”
St. Louis knew it was at least a few before the game, and he knows it’s a lot more after it.
The coach said the Canadiens’ energy sagged with their power play coming undone in the second, that five-on-five shifts were extending too long, and he talked about the desperation of the Senators, who are now 11 points back of the Canadiens instead of the eight back they deserve to be with two games in hand.
Meanwhile, every other team chasing the Canadiens in the Atlantic Division — the Sabres, Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs — all earned points Saturday and are sprinting towards the Olympic break with the same desperation the Sens displayed Saturday.
The Canadiens took what Merilainen gave them, but they'd better take way more than just that from this game.
The next one is against a stingy Minnesota Wild team with much better goaltending.
It’ll be the first of two games the Canadiens play against the Wild before the Olympics.
They’ll have two more against Buffalo in between, one against Boston, one against the Vegas Golden Knights, one against the powerhouse Colorado Avalanche, and the details better be much more refined before the pre-Olympic chase ends in Winnipeg on Feb. 4.
