Canadiens' trend of beating themselves continues with loss to Bruins

BOSTON — It took 70 seconds for the Montreal Canadiens to step back from where they got to a day prior, following the pattern of their season and further revealing who they are.

The Canadiens are the second-youngest team in the NHL. This we have acknowledged many times since the season started.

But after beating themselves once again on Sunday — which is something they’ve done more often than not through 24 games — the Canadiens did nothing to undo the perception they’re not just young, they’re bad.

Bad teams give up clusters of goals in seconds, like the Canadiens did in the first period of Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Boston Bruins. Bad teams undo their own progress religiously, like the Canadiens have done twice within the span of eight days — after seemingly fixing what ailed them in October to start November before reverting right back to bad habits to end November and start December. And bad teams don’t go 8-13-3 solely because of bad performances from young, inexperienced players.

This loss to the Bruins, who were celebrating their 100^th birthday, sunk the Canadiens to that number with one of their most experienced players playing anything but his best hockey.

In fact, while we were off to the side of the Canadiens’ room speaking with Cole Caufield after the game, 30-year-old Mike Matheson was near the entrance telling three French reporters who were scrumming him, “It was for sure one of the worst games I’ve ever played.”

He was arguably their best player in Saturday’s game — a 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers that would’ve at least netted the Canadiens a point if not for some highly questionable officiating — but the minus-four he wore at the end of Sunday’s game suited him.

Coming off a lower-body injury that kept him out of two games, Matheson could do no wrong with the puck against the Rangers. Against the Bruins, he couldn’t do anything right with it until it was too late.

But this game wasn’t purely lost because of his actions. Still, that type of inconsistency is a window into why the Canadiens can’t seem to climb their way out of the league’s basement.

If you want another view of it, take Cayden Primeau.

The goaltender started Sunday’s game appearing calm and in control of every movement before he completely overcommitted to Charlie McAvoy’s rush down the right wing, slid way past his post, and left himself with no chance to stop the wraparound that made it 1-0 Bruins.

Primeau allowed two more goals over the next 70 seconds before allowing two more over the course of the game.

On McAvoy’s second — a shorthanded breakaway from his own zone after Matheson passed the puck right to him — Primeau said, “I read (the move), I just didn’t execute.”

We couldn’t really blame him for that one.

But Primeau didn’t read the next one — which Charlie Coyle scored to make it 5-1 with 19:19 to play in the third period — and he certainly didn’t execute on it, either.

Caufield consoled him before leaving the room, and he was at a loss to explain to us how the Canadiens could be so up and down from period to period and from game to game.

“It just happened again where we had a couple of miscues, and we allowed three in a row,” he said. “I don’t think we stopped playing, but another tough one that killed our momentum at the start of the third. We kept fighting, but still…”

We’ll finish the thought for Caufield, who scored two goals to bring his total to 16 of the season: It’s an unwinnable battle when you hurt yourself as much as the Canadiens did.

They’re losing the war by hurting themselves as much as they have since the season started.

It’s why they’re so far down the standings — and now eight points behind a Bruins team that has struggled so much it recently fired coach Jim Montgomery and replaced him with Joe Sacco.

“They’re not a team on the other side that does a lot of actions to help you,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “We made too many of those today.”

It’s a trend, not a one-off.

The trend has been less pervasive over the last month than it was over the first one, but it’s still too pervasive to not be treated with urgency.

“It’s for me to keep hammering that home — I’m not going back,” said St. Louis, who was explaining he wanted to stop the bleeding immediately.

His challenge will be to not only do that, but also take the team forward over the remaining 58 games of the season.

St. Louis and his players believe they’re better than this, that they have what it takes to be more consistent.

But Sunday’s performance shows just how far they must come to prove it.