‘We weren’t good enough tonight’
Frustrated team holds players-only meeting after fifth consecutive loss
The Canadiens’ frustration could be summed up in one play early in Tuesday’s 4-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks.
The game was a little more than a minute old when Max Pacioretty forced a turnover and took off on a breakaway. As he closed in on goaltender Aaron Dell, he drew his stick back to shoot. He didn’t count on Norris Trophy winner Brent Burns not only catching up to the play, but also reaching out with his stick to disrupt the shot that sailed far wide of the goal.
“I couldn’t believe Burns got his stick on my first shot,” Pacioretty said. “It’s gotta be the world’s longest stick. You don’t even think about him when you go by the other guy (Marc-Édouard Vlasic), but it’s just the way it’s going now.
“In that situation, I have a goto shot, but I second-guessed it and that could be the difference between him getting a stick on it and me scoring a goal. I don’t want to say where I was going to shoot, but where I normally shoot, I close my blade a little bit more and hopefully it doesn’t let him hit my stick.”
In some respects, this was one of Pacioretty’s better games of late. He had seven shots on goal, three other shots were blocked and two were wide of the net. He assisted on the lone Montreal goal by Andrew Shaw.
But the bottom line is, none of that was good enough to prevent the team’s fifth consecutive loss.
None of that was good enough to hide the fact Pacioretty, a perennial 30-goal scorer, is stuck on eight goals and has gone 13 games without scoring, He has scored once in his last 22 games and has 67 shots on goal in that stretch.
But the Canadiens didn’t lose this game because Pacioretty failed to score.
They lost because they didn’t compete hard enough.
Defenceman Jeff Petry said the team’s shortcomings were discussed in a players-only meeting after the loss.
“Guys in here, we had a little talk,” Petry said. “Obviously, we weren’t good enough tonight and we had to clear some things up.”
When asked what had to change, Petry said: “I think our compete level ... definitely tonight wasn’t good enough. It just seems like we’re playing an easy game right now, making it easy on opponents. I don’t know if it’s just mental lapses from our structure or just wanting to do our own thing, but it’s definitely not working and it’s becoming more and more apparent.”
The Canadiens have scored only four goals in their five-game skid and Tuesday’s goal came on a 5-on3 power play.
“We have to generate shots, but we have to generate them from the inside and get bodies there,” said Petry.
“Like I said, I think we’re playing an easy game, whether it’s the D-men net-front making it hard on their forwards and it’s our forwards going to the net and making it hard on their D and their goalie, making them work to make those saves. We see that there’s so many goals being scored right around the crease. It’s just a matter of having that will to get there and generate from there.”
Coach Claude Julien acknowledged the frustration level on the team and said it was leading to players making bad decisions.
“We need to refocus and get back to a game where everybody’s committed to doing the job both ways,” Julien said.
“We gave San Jose some outnumbered situations. We talked before the game about how they have a four-man attack and how they take off quickly and how we had to reload well. We didn’t do it well enough and we have to look at ourselves and accept responsibility and the blame. We’re going to show them again (Wednesday in practice) until we get everybody on board doing things properly.”
Julien noted that the schedule doesn’t get any easier and that’s an understatement. Next up Thursday is the Tampa Bay Lightning with the best record in the NHL. The Canadiens get some time off next week but, a week from Saturday, they begin a stretch of five games in eight nights and three of those games are against the archrival Boston Bruins.
I think our compete level ... definitely tonight wasn’t good enough. It just seems like we’re playing an easy game right now, making it easy on opponents.