Punchless Canadiens shut out again in grim run

The bottom line: The Canadiens’ offensive woes continued Thursday night as they dropped a 3-0 decision to the New York Islanders at the Bell Centre. Thomas Greiss made 24 saves for his third shutout of the season. The Canadiens have scored only 20 goals in their last 12 games and have been shut out four times in their last eight games. They are 0-4-1 at the Bell Centre in February.

Welcome home: Sorel native Anthony Beauvillier scored the only goal in the first period at 5:28. He took a pass from Brock Nelson on the left wing and beat Carey Price with a shot to the far post. It was Beauvillier’s sixth goal of the season. The Canadiens had another slow start and were outshot 13-8 in the period.

Where’s the defence?: The Canadiens’ defence was caught flatfooted as Anders Lee scored his 23rd goal of the season to put the Islanders up 2-0 at 5:58 of the second period. Lee slipped in behind a snoozing Alexei Emelin and was alone when Josh Bailey threaded a pass between Shea Weber and Emelin.

That set up a 1-on-1 duel between Lee and Price and Lee won by lifting the puck on Price’s glove side. John Tavares scored an empty-net goal for his 23rd goal.

High turns to low: The Canadiens thought they had a goal at 6:50 of the third period when Paul Byron deflected Weber’s blast from the point. The goal was immediately waved off by referee Wes McCauley and the video replay confirmed that Byron’s stick was well above the crossbar when he made contact with the puck.

Déjà vu all over again: The Canadiens had a second goal disallowed at 7:46. Greiss made a save on Artturi Lehkonen, who then punched the puck into the net.

The PK is working: If you’re grasping for straws trying to find a positive in this mess, the Montreal penalty-killing unit is perfect since Claude Julien replaced Michel Therrien.

The Islanders went 0-for-2 on the power play and the Canadiens are a perfect 9-for-9 in killing penalties over the past three games.

The Canadiens had one power play and, while they had some looks, they failed to score. The power play is 1-for-8 under Julien. Julien honoured for 1,000 games:

This was Julien’s 1,000th game as an NHL coach but, at the coach’s request, the Canadiens didn’t make a big deal of it.

He said he didn’t want to go on the ice before the game and the milestone was marked during the first TV timeout with a video showing team owner Geoff Molson and general manager Marc Bergevin presenting the coach with a hunk of silver.

Rivalry resumes in Toronto: Next stop for the Canadiens is Toronto, where they will meet the Maple Leafs Saturday (7 p.m., CBC, TVA Sports, TSN-690 Radio). This game has significance for both teams, with the Leafs creeping up on the first-place Canadiens in the Atlantic Division. The Canadiens move on to New Jersey Monday and return to the Bell Centre Tuesday to play Columbus in the final game before Wednesday’s trade deadline.