Canadiens pay price for costly turnovers against talented Devils

MONTREAL — It is the NHL’s least reliable stat and, even in this game between the Montreal Canadiens and New Jersey Devils, it didn’t precisely match the eye test.

But one glance at the giveaways column for the Canadiens in this 5-2 loss was still telling. They were credited with 20 — it looked more like 30 — and that’s a high number for any team on any given night, and certainly a high enough one to put this team in the loss column against any opponent.

If you cough the puck up that much to a team like the Devils, you’ll be lucky not to lose royally.

The Canadiens somehow didn’t. They fought hard. They had a great start and pushed the Devils back on their heels with the opening goal off Justin Barron’s stick. They got a strong performance from Cayden Primeau in the goaltender’s first start of the season, and they used that to stay in this one, never really fading away until Tyler Toffoli finally put the puck into the empty net with 26 seconds remaining to complete his hat trick.

But it would be bending the truth to suggest the Canadiens played smart.

This was the second half of a back-to-back situation for them, it was their third game in four nights, and it was taking place after a hard-fought win in Buffalo while the Devils were cooling their heels in Montreal and enjoying their third consecutive idle night. The Canadiens were playing without the anchor of their defence, David Savard, who suffered a fractured left hand against the Sabres and won’t be available for another six-to-eight weeks, and they had to keep things simple to survive and maybe even win.

But the Canadiens complicated things at nearly every turn, and they did it against a team that arguably counterattacks better than any other in the NHL.

The Devils served up a lesson, and the Canadiens need to learn from it.

The Canadiens may want to possess the puck in all three zones and make plays all over the ice, but that’s too dangerous a game to play under the circumstances they were faced with and against this opponent.

“Sometimes you gotta punt the ball,” acknowledged Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis, and he was right.

It’s certainly a better strategy than putting it right in the hands of the most dangerous player on the other team and watching him stuff it down your throat.

“The way (Jack Hughes) can just take over a game and make small little plays and back guys off,” said Toffoli, “it makes the game so much easier for myself and everyone on the team.”

The Canadiens fed Hughes the puck, and he fed his teammates — picking up four assists, three of which were directly borne of turnovers the Canadiens made trying to force passes in their own zone rather than just clear the puck out of it.

They also didn’t help themselves by putting New Jersey’s lethal power play (which came into the game clicking at 42 per cent) to work four times.

Alexander Holtz made the Canadiens pay the first time they took a penalty. His goal didn’t count as a power-play goal for the Devils, but it may as well have with Johnathan Kovacevic stepping out of the box and hitting the ice right as the puck hit the back of the net.

The Devils pushed two more shots on the man-advantage past a helpless Primeau, who still made 33 saves on the night and was praised by St. Louis for “playing really well.”

The coach appreciated the effort the Canadiens put in, as well, but he knew they hurt themselves too much with all the turnovers they committed.

It wasn’t just their young players.

Mike Matheson, 29, scored on a beautiful end-to-end rush in the third period to keep the Canadiens in the game. It was one of five shots he recorded.

But he was also credited with four turnovers, which was a conservative count in his case.

Captain Nick Suzuki had four, too.

Both he and Matheson are two of Montreal’s best playmakers, but they’re also the appointed leaders. They should have been leading the way in simplifying a game that required simplification.

“It’s easier to learn to punt than to possess, so we’re going to keep finding that balance,” St. Louis said.

“But we showed that we can possess,” he added, and that was fair.

The Canadiens, who are now 3-2-1 this season, have shown they can make plays all over the ice, and they’re building up a possession game that will cause other teams that don’t manage the puck well the same problems the Devils caused them on Tuesday.

But this game required more restraint, as will the next one this team has to play under similar circumstances against a rested and dangerous opponent.