After getting blown out 8-4 by the Washington Capitals Thursday night at the Bell Centre, the Canadiens held a practice Friday morning in Brossard that lasted less than 30 minutes.
Head coach Martin St. Louis said it was the most intense practice he has held this season — and not an easy one — even if it was short.
After practice, St. Louis held a team meeting to discuss what has gone wrong over the last five games, with the Canadiens posting an 0-4-1 record while getting outscored 27-10.
The Canadiens have a 10-7-3 record and were in sixth place in a very tight Atlantic Division after Thursday’s loss — only two points behind the first-place Detroit Red Wings (12-8-1). The Canadiens will be back in action Saturday, when the Toronto Maple Leafs visit the Bell Centre (7 p.m., CBC, SN, TVA Sports).
When asked who his starting goalie will be against the Leafs, St. Louis answered: “I don’t know.”
Jake Evans, who was knocked out of Thursday’s game after a huge second-period hit by the Capitals’ Tom Wilson, didn’t practise Friday, taking what the team called a therapy day. Evans has a history of concussions and the Canadiens said they will be able to provide an update on his condition Saturday morning. On Friday evening, the Canadiens called forward Florian Xhekaj up from the AHL’s Laval Bulldogs, where he had 2-2-4 totals and 44 penalty minutes in 16 games.
Samuel Montembeault allowed three goals on 10 shots against the Capitals before getting pulled at 3:38 of the second period. Jakub Dobes allowed four goals on 25 shots, with the Capitals adding an empty-netter. Montembeault has a 4-5-1 record with a 3.71 goals-against average and an .852 save percentage, while Dobes is 6-2-2 with a 2.96 GAA and an .892 save percentage.
Dobes was named the NHL’s third star of the month for October after posting a 6-0 record with a 1.97 GAA and a .930 save percentage. But St. Louis made it clear at that point he wanted Montembeault to be his No. 1 goalie and started him in four of the first five games in November. Dobes played only one game in the first 12 days of the month, allowing four goals on 28 shots in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Devils in New Jersey on Nov. 6 that left him in tears afterward. He hasn’t been able to regain his form from October, with an .820 save percentage in five November appearances.
Now St. Louis has two goalies who are struggling.
Goaltending might be the biggest problem with the Canadiens, but it’s not the only one. They allowed 13 high-danger scoring chances against the Capitals and had only five of their own, according to Natural Stat Trick.
“It’s not on them,” defenceman Lane Hutson said about the goaltenders. “It’s all of us. We just got to be sharper in front of them and help them out like they help us out.”
Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki, left, and Cole Caufield confer during first period against the Washington Capitals in Montreal on Thursday night.
St. Louis was asked if there’s one major problem that has stood out during the last five games.
“I don’t know if there’s a major problem,” he said. “But I saw things yesterday that (need) to stop now and … it’s the actions that help the other team.
“I pulled Monty yesterday and, to me, the next shift is just momentum,” the coach added. “Let’s just go get momentum and we didn’t. We turned it over, we couldn’t get it out. Dobes had a tough first couple of minutes to come in. To me, it’s just maturity, it’s knowing where we are, what we need to do. It’s probably simple. Momentum to me is a deep game and it’s not necessarily a chipped puck. If you have room, take it, but it’s got to get deep. We can’t just hope for a rush game at that point. The rush game, to me, it usually comes from the other team making mistakes or turning pucks over. Then you get a rush game. I feel like when we’re going, we understand that and we’ve gotten away from it.”
What was St. Louis’s message to his players during the post-practice meeting?
“The answer’s in the mirror,” Cole Caufield said. “You got to find yourself and hold yourself accountable and do the things that you know can help the group and do them the right way. He says they’re not always fun and that’s the only way to do those things is do the things that aren’t easy and do them like you love them.”
The Canadiens are the youngest team in the NHL and it has started to show during the last five games. Long-term injuries to forwards Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook and Patrik Laine, along with defenceman Kaiden Guhle, haven’t helped. Evans might be added to that list.
St. Louis, however, refuses to use the injuries as an excuse.
On the bright side, the Canadiens are seven points ahead of their pace from last season, when they were 7-11-2 after 20 games and were still able to make the playoffs.
Veteran defenceman Mike Matheson was asked if he could put things in perspective for his younger teammates after Thursday’s loss.
“I think it’s easy to feel like the world’s crashing down,” he said. “When you’re in it and you care so much, it really does feel that way. But whether it’s going to a different place, where you kind of realize how lucky you are to be in this opportunity and play for a team like this and have the support that we have.
“Pretty lucky to be able to get to do this for a living,” he added. “So if that’s a way to put it in perspective, give you a boost of energy, because that’s kind of the only thing you can do at this point is turn the page, learn from what we’re doing and get ready for Saturday.”
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