This wasn’t the result the Montreal Canadiens were hoping to earn in Calgary on Saturday night, with Martin St. Louis absent from their bench after taking indefinite leave from the team “for family reasons.”
They were aggressive — peppering Flames goaltender Dustin Wolf with 15 shots in the first period alone — but far too loose throughout the game to expect to win it.
From down 3-0, the Canadiens scored two goals and made it tight going to the third.
But then they surrendered two goals in the first four minutes of that frame and virtually nullified any chance they had at a comeback.
It was the team’s 10th loss in their last 13 games, but it didn’t quite resemble the others — seven of which were settled by a single goal.
In those games, the Canadiens were well organized throughout, sharp to start and finish periods, and strong on special teams. In this one, they were disorganized in key moments, they allowed goals on the first shift in two of three periods, and their streak of 19 straight penalty kills was broken with two power-play goals against, while their own power play was blanked on all three of its opportunities.
Goaltending, which had largely been a strength throughout their recent run of play, wasn’t quite on par on this night, with Cayden Primeau failing to match his outstanding performance from earlier in the week, when he turned aside 41 shots in a shutout win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
It wasn’t all bad for the Canadiens. They outshot the Flames in all three periods, they out-chanced them 35-22 (according to naturalstattrick.com) and forced goaltender Dustin Wolf to be at his very best, and they didn’t stop pushing despite giving up 3-0 and 5-2 leads.
Cole Caufield also broke a 12-game slump to score his 20th goal of the season.
He had seven of Montreal’s 38 shots and probably should’ve had another goal or two, which certainly would’ve given the game a bit of a different complexion in the end.
As Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki told reporters at the Saddledome after the game, he and his teammates weren’t quite as opportunistic as they felt they should’ve been and felt that was as big a factor as any as to why the result went Calgary’s way.
But he also hit the nail on the head when he said, “You can’t have as big ups and downs in a game and expect to win.”
Perhaps the big downs would’ve been reduced, or at least mitigated, had the circumstances around the team been different.
But assistant coach Trevor Letowski said after the game that it was “an emotional 24 hours” for everyone, with St. Louis departing for what he termed “a private family matter.”
“We tried to rally around that as a group,” Letowski said after serving as head coach in St. Louis’s place, “but we just fell short tonight.”
Still, the intentions were in the right place, with the Canadiens wanting to deliver a win for their biggest leader.
“There’s a lot of care in that room, and we talked a little bit about how our culture is growing and how much as a staff were proud of the team because of how much they care about each other,” said Letowski. “And I think they showed it when we went through this over the last 24 hours—how much they really care about Marty and everybody. It wasn’t from lack of effort, that’s for sure tonight.”
The Canadiens aim to at least maintain their effort while cleaning up their execution in Edmonton, when they play the Oilers on Tuesday.
We don’t know if St. Louis will be back with them by then, and neither do they.
“Obviously, we’re missing him and wishing the best for Marty and his family,” said Suzuki.
So are we.
