Canadiens’ painful loss to Jets reinforces need to keep raising standard
To win games at this time of year, in the thick of the insanely tight playoff race that’s developed in the Eastern Conference, they need to give themselves a better chance, and that means not only just getting back to the standard they set for themselves over those two months from mid-November to mid-January. It means lifting it higher.
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It gets harder.
That’s what this young Montreal Canadiens team is learning with each passing game, and the lesson is painful to endure.
It was excruciating in Tuesday game, and not just because Kaiden Guhle left it in obvious distress and didn’t return.
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Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki called it a “shitty feeling” watching the team’s top shutdown defenceman hop his way off the ice after catching a rut and twisting his right leg so bad he couldn’t put any weight on it, and it was fair to assume Suzuki wasn’t feeling great about a few of the other things he saw in this 4-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets.
A missed assignment here, a missed breakaway there, and, oh, that one half-second lapse in between that really wounded the Canadiens.
There was exactly that much time left in the second period when Kyle Connor, who had already scored his 28th goal of the season in the first, somehow found himself completely unmarked in the slot for Goal 29.
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Just like that, it was 3-1 Jets.
We know what was running through Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis’s mind seeing that, and so did Suzuki.
“He really preaches that every play out there is important, no matter how big or small, and we kind of got caught holding hands there,” the captain said. “Guy’s open in the slot… It’s things that we’ve talked about a lot…That last-second goal, it’s kind of a dagger going into the break.”
The wound proved too deep for the Canadiens on this night, despite a valiant effort in Guhle’s absence.
In truth, the Canadiens put one in with and without him. They recorded 11 of the first 15 shots in the game before Juraj Slafkovsky gave them a one-goal lead, they took only three penalties against the league’s most lethal power play and killed all three of them off, they attacked in waves and defended with purpose, and they had chances to tie the game up before Rasmus Kupari put it out of reach with an empty-net goal. They did much of what they did through a two-month run from Nov. 15 to Jan. 15 that earned them the seventh-best points percentage in the NHL over 26 games before a recent slip.
“I felt, defensively, we had some pace,” said St. Louis. “I feel our exits, we were organized. We possessed the puck plenty in their zone. We were dangerous, we were hunting in the O-zone, keeping pucks alive for second and third opportunities. We were blocking shots. We were very engaged.”
It was a big step up from what the Canadiens were over their three games last week.
But the result was the same as it was in the last two.
“We just didn’t win,” said St. Louis.
At least the Canadiens gave themselves a chance.
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But to win games at this time of year, in the thick of the insanely tight playoff race that’s developed in the Eastern Conference, they need to give themselves a better chance, and that means not only just getting back to the standard they set for themselves over those two months from mid-November to mid-January.
It means lifting it higher.
That’s the phase the Canadiens are in right now.
They went from learning how not to beat themselves, and there was too much pain endured over that phase.
There were 12 losses in the first 17 games, and it shouldn’t have taken that many for the Canadiens to finally commit to a more conservative style of play and begin learning how to win.
Now the Canadiens are hoping the pain of this recent stretch subsides much quicker, as they continue to learn how to win under pressure.
That’s what they’re under now, and they earned that by climbing back into the race.
The Canadiens also earned some recognition along the way from their opposition, which no longer takes them lightly.
“They’re so dangerous, power play’s great, their top six is as talented as anyone’s in the league, so you give them some space, and they’ll make you pay,” said goaltender Jake Oettinger 11 days ago, just after his Dallas Stars finished the second of two games within a week against the Canadiens.
“No easy games against them,” texted Ben Chiarot on Jan. 23, after his Red Wings beat the Canadiens to avenge consecutive losses to them a month prior.
Every player we spoke to on the Jets Tuesday morning talked about having to play their best in Montreal to come out with a win, and that was after Canadiens defenceman Mike Matheson acknowledged that he and his teammates were aware of how teams were looking at them and needed to elevate even higher than they had previously to push through the next series of games.
“I think we’ve done a good job of getting back into the conversation with the way we’ve played, but I think now teams are ready for us,” said Matheson. “We’re not surprising teams by any means, and as we go deeper into the season, the hockey’s only going to be more difficult. We have to be able to up our level if we’re going to be where we hope to be at the end of the year.”
Matheson’s wasn’t high enough in a loss to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday, and it wasn’t quite where he hoped it would be in this one to the Jets.
Matheson was beat by Connor on Winnipeg’s tying goal in the first period, and he lost position on Gabriel Vilardi on the play that allowed Mark Scheifele to make it 2-1 Jets 10:44 into the second period.
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The 30-year-old defenceman did plenty of good things, too, especially at the start of the game — and at the end of it, when he had to step up in Guhle’s absence — but now Matheson and the rest of the Canadiens will have to step up regardless of whether or not Guhle misses a lot of time.
Otherwise, the pain will continue.
