Canadiens can’t allow frustration from loss to Flames to undo healthy process
The Canadiens battled against a tight defensive structure and hot goalie in Saturday’s loss to the Calgary Flames. And though it was often frustrating, Montreal can’t let that take away from a solid process.
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CALGARY — In Jake Evans’ estimation, his Montreal Canadiens had roughly a 55 per cent chance of winning with the way they played against the Calgary Flames on Saturday.
Though that might seem like a small margin, it’s the type of sizeable one the road team hopes to have going into a game against an opponent similarly entrenched in a tight playoff race.
Playing to earn that edge should make parking this 1-0 loss to the Flames easier to do for the Canadiens.
Don’t get us wrong: this result hurts them. The Canadiens missed out on collecting at least a point for the first time in seven games. And though they didn’t lose a ton of ground in the Eastern Conference wild-card chase, they’re unhappy to lose any ground and certainly miffed to not gain any.
But the Canadiens shouldn’t be leaving Scotiabank Saddledome feeling defeated. As coach Martin St. Louis said after the game, “it’s about the next action,” and the Canadiens can make that a positive one against the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday by building off the last ones they had against the Flames.
Those Flames were stingy. They parked themselves in a 1-2-2 defensive scheme that cluttered the neutral zone even before Joel Farabee scored just over 16 minutes into the second period, and they doubled down on it through the end of the game.
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But the Canadiens fought through the mud to reverse a 16-6 shot deficit through the first 27 minutes of play and finish ahead 26-24 in the category. In the process, they forced Dustin Wolf to play at the height of the abilities that have made him a Calder Trophy contender for NHL rookie of the year.
It’s something for them to build on next game.
“I thought we had our looks, had our chances,” said Canadiens top scorer Cole Caufield, who missed the net with Montreal’s two best chances that could have tied and won the game for them.
“Credit to Wolfy,” Caufield added. “He played unbelievable. The way he competes is pretty special.”
Caufield’s team competed well, too.
It didn’t allow the frustration of time and space being as limited as it was — particularly in the first period — to undo its process.
“We corrected ourselves after the first,” said St. Louis. “I didn’t hate our first. We just felt we didn’t get enough out of it. We didn’t hurt ourselves, but I felt we didn’t get enough in the offensive zone and a big part of it was our transition…
“We corrected ourselves a bit. We talked about it. It allowed us to spend more time in the offensive zone in the second and third period. We just didn’t capitalize. This team plays very tight, like we did also tonight. I think both goalies were great. The game could’ve gone either way, it just didn’t go our way.”
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Montreal’s rookie-of-the-year candidate, Lane Hutson, did everything in his power to change that.
He played more than half of the third period, put chances on the sticks of everyone he was on the ice with, and he covered his own end just as well.
Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky each played nearly nine of those final 20 minutes, while Nick Suzuki played 10:24, and all three of them did everything short of putting the puck in the net.
None of them can allow that to blur their focus going to the next game.
“It sucks right now, but you’ve got to move on quick,” said Suzuki.
The pressure of the race can make that challenging, but the 25-year-old captain of the Canadiens isn’t feeling that at this moment.
“It’s honestly more fun and exciting than pressure,” he said. “It’s been a rough few years of kind of (only) playing for ourselves and building what we’ve been building, but now we’re in a race and it’s exciting games. We’re trying to focus on the process and not the results. It was a pretty good process. Just didn’t get the results we wanted.”
The Canadiens can’t allow that to keep them from sticking to the process that gives them an edge against any opponent.
