This Montreal Canadiens team is built for three-on-three overtime. The playoffs, not so much.

Fans have been starved for offensive flair over the past three decades, which is why they’re understandably excited about a young, exciting Habs team that can score goals with more frequency and more flash than any Montreal squad since … forever. Cole Caufield has become one of the most prolific scorers in the National Hockey League. Nick Suzuki is one of the league’s most consistent point-getters. Lane Hutson is breaking scoring records for defencemen left, right and centre. Presumably Ivan Demidov is going to be breaking records, too.

But run-and-gun hockey isn’t what the playoffs are about. In fact they’re not about that at all. Of course you need skill to advance in the post-season, but that has to be backed by tough strong defence, grit up and down the lineup and toughness. By toughness, I don’t mean a team full of Chris Nilans. It’s not about fighting. It’s about being able to throw hard bodychecks, being able to handle hard bodychecks (hello Kirby Dach!), and being able to muscle opposing players off the puck. You win the battle of the boards with passion and force, not skill.

And you particularly need that hardness on the back end. But as is becoming increasingly clear, Montreal’s D corps doesn’t have any of that sandpaper. Well there is one player who has it, Arber Xhekaj, but he isn’t having a great season and, more importantly, the head coach appears to have zero faith in him. Martin St. Louis has never shown any affection for The Sheriff — heck he even tried to tell journalists they shouldn’t even use the nickname Xhekaj likes — and so any possibility for Xhekaj to improve under some diligent coaching was taken off the table.

But it’s not just a matter of the D being tough. It’s about these blue-liners playing strong defensive hockey. Not one of them is all that good at it. Really. You want to understand everything that’s wrong with the Habs defence? Watch the tape of the winning goal by Ducks sniper Cutter Gauthier Sunday night. It’s a master class in the lack of proper defensive play from the entire team.

Both defencemen, Kayden Guhle and Hutson, go to the boards to chase Jeffrey Viel and the puck, and then Viel whips off a brilliant back-pass to Gauthier and suddenly it’s 4-3 Ducks. My beer league team would be furious with that kind of defensive play. First-off, Guhle falls down. But even more key is the fact that Hutson loses all his hockey IQ for a moment and leaves the front of the net open. He has to stay there. End of story. Plus Hutson is slow to get back. Weird. And Caufield also completely blew his defensive game here too. Moving in way too slowly to try to get the puck off of Viel. Just brutal.

St. Louis has been constantly grumbling about the problems the team has when the other side pulls their goalie and it’s six-on-five and he’s right. We were all so excited after that huge win over the Senators last week, but the good guys only got the W in regulation because Jacob Fowler was simply out-of-this-world after Ottawa pulled their goalie. With anyone else in nets, that game goes to OT with the Sens holding all the momentum.

Who is the Habs defenceman who clears the crease? To ask the question is to answer it. You may like the Noah Dobson pickup, but you ain’t paying $9.5 million for his work in his own zone. And am I the only guy frustrated that he’s yet another big Canadiens player who doesn’t play big?

It also wasn’t a good weekend for Montreal’s top line that often gets matched up against the other team’s best trio. Macklin Celebrini, looking very much like the superstar he is, got two goals and an assist Saturday to power the San Jose Sharks to a 4-2 victory over the Canadiens. Sunday, Ducks star Leo Carlsson also had a pair of goals and an assist to lead his team to the win Sunday. As mentioned above, Caufield was at least partly responsible for Gauthier’s winning goal. MSL has often talked about the importance of team defence, but it seems to be faltering at just the wrong moment.

It’s funny because until last week, many thought the Canadiens’ primary problem going into the post-season was going to be between the pipes, but the arrival of Fowler seems to have alleviated a lot of those fears. He was very good again on Sunday. It’s the other guys who aren’t doing their part to keep the puck out of the net and make life tough physically for the other team’s players.

Some are suggesting the solution is to bring up Adam Engstrom or David Reinbacher from Laval. I’d say maybe you could try Engstrom, who looked good before going down with an injury last month, but it seems a bit of a stretch to suddenly try out Reinbacher in this pressure-cooker situation with only 16 games left in the season, for a guy who’s never played a regular-season NHL game.

Suffice it to say that St. Louis and his bosses can’t be thrilled by this state of affairs, as they get set for a crucial week that includes games against two Atlantic Division teams nipping at their heels, the Boston Bruins Tuesday and the Detroit Red Wings Thursday.

bkelly@postmedia.com

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