Canadiens' deviation in process a bigger disappointment than loss to lowly Sharks

MONTREAL— Don’t get caught up in the result, even if it’s hard to turn away from a 3-2 loss to the basement-dwelling San Jose Sharks, who came to the Bell Centre after having failed to record a single point in any of their previous 12 games.

I know, it’s hard to ignore that this is who the Montreal Canadiens lost to on Thursday.

But the more relevant story is how they lost.

It was pretty similar to how they lost to the Philadelphia Flyers Wednesday, and watching the Canadiens fail so glaringly on consecutive nights in the areas in which they had established so much progress on their way to mid-season was watching them take a considerable step back in their process.

Their breakout, which had become so connected and had led to so much more fluidity through the neutral zone from early December through early January, appeared shattered against the Flyers Wednesday, and the Canadiens couldn’t put it back together against the Sharks Thursday. The balance in their positioning established in the offensive zone for all those games was nowhere to be found over the last two. And the cohesion of their group suffered considerably as a result.

So for as much as coach Martin St. Louis would’ve liked for the Canadiens to have achieved a different outcome against the NHL’s 32^nd-ranked team, it’s certainly not what he was focused on after the game.

“Even if we had found a way to have won that game tonight, it really wouldn’t be progress,” he said. “I think we’re a very honest group. We know how we’re playing right now, we’re going to attack that. We can talk about defensive zone, we’ll tighten it up, we’ll talk about it. Our execution, it’s gotta be better.”

Once it is, only then can St. Louis push this team closer to where he wants it to go.

And I’m not referring to the playoffs, even if that’s the (unrealistic) destination of choice for him and his team this season. Where St. Louis really wants the Canadiens to go is just forward, knowing they’ve already taken one considerable step in that direction from October until now.

Not that he’s ever been under the illusion the path would be perfectly straight. He’s said all along progress is linear, and that deviations are to be expected.

But after experiencing some this season—despite the incredible adversity of losing Kirby Dach in the second game and losing Alex Newhook and Christian Dvorak to long-term injuries thereafter—you can’t blame St. Louis for expecting more immediately.

He’s not alone.

“We need to make some growth,” said Brendan Gallagher, who scored Montreal’s first goal Thursday. “If you want to be in meaningful games at the end of the year, you have to start winning a couple of games in a row and carrying that forward. You can’t go up and down, up and down; it’s just a matter of consistently bringing that effort. And when you get that going, it’s hard to stop when you get that momentum going within your group…

“I think you can look since Marty’s been here, we’ve made strides and made strides. We have taken a step forward this year, it’s just a matter of not being satisfied. I think there’s more within our group. But, for us as players, we have to be very, very desperate and hungry to take that jump.”

The departure point is finding a way to stay within one’s established identity, regardless of results.

That’s what St. Louis is pushing the Canadiens towards more than anything, and he doesn’t care who they win or lose against on the way there.

“To me it’s just being able to know what works and being able to hit that repeat button every game, to know what we’re going to get every game,” said St. Louis. “I said it before, we’re chasing consistency. To me, that’s what’s next for this group is: How consistent can we be in the details of the game?

“There’s a lot that has to go into a win, and if you just in your mind say, ‘Gotta win, gotta win, gotta win,’ you’re losing focus on the process and what it takes to win. And (the process) still doesn’t guarantee you a win because you still need to put the puck in the net, still need to be opportunistic on your chances, still need to get some saves. But, to me, it's consistently doing the thing that helps you win…”

It's fair to ask if this depleted group, which already started behind in the talent department, has that within it.

The Canadiens are halfway through the season and have yet to string three consecutive wins together. As Gallagher noted, their dips haven’t lasted anywhere near as long as the ones the Sharks have experienced—they’ve had two four-game winless streaks and one three-gamer—but there have still been too many of them.

The only way to change that is to keep the process from volleying between soaring and faltering without any middle ground.

Gallagher said he believes the Canadiens can do that.

Mike Matheson, who assisted on Josh Anderson’s goal Thursday, believes it too.

And St. Louis won’t allow injuries to be an excuse for the Canadiens not continuing in the direction he set them on.

“I definitely push that aside,” he said. “It’s definitely possible. I’ve seen this group go through a big stretch here of playing the game. And I feel we’ve gotten away a little bit from playing the game, but we’ll get back to playing the game.”