Canadiens show growth despite loss to Golden Knights: 'Best game from start to finish'

LAS VEGAS — It always evens out in the end. 

The Montreal Canadiens came to Las Vegas after bad beating the Winnipeg Jets to extend their record to 5-2-1 on the season. They allowed 45 shots on net in that game, forced Jake Allen to be otherworldly and they stole two points in the standings from their Canadian rivals.

The Canadiens are now leaving Sin City having left a point on the board, despite dominating the reigning Stanley Cup champions for long portions of Monday’s game.

But from a process standpoint, this experience was exponentially richer than one gained Saturday against the Jets, even if the results suggest otherwise. Coach Martin St. Louis always says he doesn’t want the outcomes to blur reality and that his team should remain honest in its self-assessment regardless of the outcome, and if the Canadiens are being honest with themselves about the last two games, there was more for them to build on in this 3-2 shootout loss to the Vegas Golden Knights than there was in the win over the Jets.

The Canadiens went toe-to-toe with the Golden Knights through the first 20 minutes and then knocked them on their heels through the next 20 — holding them to just one shot on goal until Keegan Kolesar put a harmless-looking one onto Samuel Montembeault from 37 feet away at the 15:09 mark of the frame. 

They came into the third down a goal after William Carrier scored with six Golden Knights skaters on the ice as Montreal was attempting to kill a delayed penalty on a questionable goaltender interference call on Tanner Pearson.

But the Canadiens didn’t let that fluster them.

By the time former Golden Knight and current Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki tied the game — his 300^th in the NHL — with less than five minutes to go in the third period, Montreal had completely taken over. The Canadiens went into overtime having out-shot the Golden Knights 27-8 over the final two periods, and they came out of it with a chance to win in the shootout.

It didn’t happen, but that didn’t dull the feeling of having accomplished something afterward.

“I think it’s the best game we’ve played from start to finish since I took the job,” said St. Louis.

“Those are games that — even if you don’t get the result — it was a game where we raised our standard. It was the guys who did it, not the coach who raised the standard. We try to give them the right direction, but it’s up to them, and that’s what they did tonight.”

That’s what matters most in the end for the Canadiens, especially with where they’re at in their rebuild. 

The Golden Knights are on the other side of the spectrum.

One of their best players in the game, Paul Cotter, said the Canadiens “took it to us.”

But the result fell on Vegas’ side, and when coach Bruce Cassidy was asked to push aside the result and assess the performance, he refused to do that.

“I’m not just pushing aside the points,” Cassidy said of his team, which is now 9-0-1 to start the season.  “We got 19 in 20.”

The Canadiens probably shouldn’t have collected 10 of 16 points through their first eight games, but they definitely deserved more than one on this night. 

But their growth from the experience is more valuable to them.

It was apparent in the collective game, in the cohesiveness and connection the Canadiens displayed, and absolutely so in their ability to not shrink in the face of some bad calls and even worse luck.

They gave the Golden Knights next to nothing in the second period before Carrier took advantage of that questionable call on Pearson. They hit the post three times in the third period before Suzuki tied the game. 

All the while, the Canadiens never allowed frustration to set in.

“The one thing for sure that I can take from this game is we were emotionally challenged tonight with some of the calls, and we knew we were playing well, but it just felt like we were swimming against the current sometimes,” St. Louis said. “I feel in the past we would’ve lost ourselves with that emotional challenge, and we talked about it, too. Tonight, we had to regulate. We had no chance in the third if we didn’t. Just like a thermostat, we had to regulate. You can’t just be a thermometer. It’s something we talk about a lot because I feel like we let games slip away because we just can’t regulate.”

The Canadiens will be challenged to do that again, and it’ll take time for them to consistently handle things as they did against the Golden Knights. 

But this experience is in the bank, and it’s certainly more valuable than the one they had on Saturday against the Jets.

Sean Monahan, who scored the Canadiens’ first goal of the game, agreed.

“I think so,” he said. “I thought it was our most complete game of the year. Start to finish, I don’t think we were playing desperate or making hope plays; we were playing a team game, trying to do the right things.”

Suzuki, who scored Montreal’s only goal in the shootout, was encouraged.

He felt this was a game that showed what kind of team the Canadiens are becoming.

“I think just the way we can play is a lot of fun to play,” Suzuki said. “We’ve got a really bright future, and guys are stepping up and young guys are playing really well, and it’s fun to watch.”