'Fragile' Canadiens have lessons to learn after ugly loss to Lightning

MONTREAL— It was an ugly loss, but one the Montreal Canadiens should review thoroughly before moving on to their next game. Because these are the ones you learn the most from; the ones where mistakes are so glaring the lessons to take from them should come easily.

Martin St. Louis knows what they are. The coach may have said the words “I don’t know” a few times in response to some pointed questions about the how the Canadiens spotted the Tampa Bay Lightning a 4-0 lead before 14 minutes of Tuesday’s game had expired, but he was definitely able to pinpoint why they lost 5-3.

“We’re a little fragile at the moment,” St. Louis said.

Knowing is half the battle.

The other half is harder to fight.

Even if St. Louis can precisely identify the root issues that have led the Canadiens to a point of fragility, coming off four consecutive losses—the last three of them coming as a rested team playing against teams on the second leg of a back-to-back—he can’t fix them for the players.

The coach always likes to say the players are responsible for their own confidence, and right now several of the Canadiens are searching for theirs.

That’s as obvious in Josh Anderson’s case—a goal scorer still searching for his first goal after 12 games—as it is in Mike Matheson’s.

Matheson is Montreal’s no. 1 defenceman. He logs the most minutes on the team, takes on the toughest assignments night after night and, with the most efficient and fastest skating stride, takes on a leading role in setting the pace the Canadiens want to play at.

As an assistant captain, Matheson also has the responsibility of leading the Canadiens to play with the poise they need to give themselves a chance to win, and that’s something that will only be reinforced to him as he reviews Tuesday’s loss.

After being on the ice for four goals against in a 6-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues Saturday, Matheson was on for the four the Lightning scored to start this one. And when St. Louis said afterwards, “We get scored on early and try to come back on one play instead of staying patient and not augmenting our risk just because we’re down a goal,” it was a pretty accurate description of what Matheson is struggling most with.

“For sure, Mike would be the first to tell you he’s not playing at his standard right now,” the coach said. “Every player who gets on the ice as much as he does goes through that at a point during the season, and we know what he’s able to do and, personally, I know that he’s trying to find that and give us better right now. We’ll continue to try to help him because we need the player we know he can be…”

But it’ll mainly be up to Matheson to self-correct, to manage the risks more appropriately and make better decisions.

When Matheson and the Canadiens watch video of the whole game against Tampa, and not just the first period, they’re going to get a strong sense of what—and what not—to do.

The focus going into the second and third period, according to defenceman Kaiden Guhle, was tightening up play in the neutral zone to limit Tampa's speed and space off the rush, and the Canadiens managed to do that. Michael Pezzetta, who scored the second of Montreal’s three goals, said getting the puck in deep in the offensive zone and simplifying the game was also a point of emphasis, and it turned out to be a factor in outscoring Tampa through those final two frames.

St. Louis said he’s hoping all that carries over to Thursday’s game against the Red Wings in Detroit.

But the Canadiens are going to have to find a way to start that one with more urgency, and they’re going to have to avoid panicking if that urgency doesn’t get them the first lead of the game.

“We have to be patient,” said St. Louis. “When we’re fragile, I feel we lose our patience and do things that we don’t (normally) do. When we’re playing our best, we’re patient and we know it’s not one play that’s going to win us a game. It’s the whole game, how we manage the game line by line, the decisions we make. We have to manage our risk thinking, “What are we gaining taking this risk?”

The tape will also reveal what the Canadiens are losing by taking needless ones, like Arber Xhekaj’s four-minute roughing penalty on Tanner Jeannot, which came just seconds after his teammates had scored two quick goals to finally put the Lightning on their heels with 12:36 to play in the third period.

“I didn’t like Xhekaj’s penalty,” said St. Louis.

Xhekaj can’t like it either if he’s going to make the necessary adjustments moving forward.

Adjusting quickly—even with the answers staring Xhekaj and the Canadiens in the face—is still going to be a challenge, though. Confidence rarely goes from fragile to solidified instantaneously. It took a week to devolve to this point, and it’ll have to be rebuilt brick by brick.

But the foundation, as defenceman Jordan Harris said, can be laid in the video room on Wednesday. And the lessons should jump out at the Canadiens.