Canadiens’ defence brutal in loss to Devils
Tired team missing captain Weber
After Ottawa missed the playoffs last season with an even worse record than the Canadiens, Senators GM Pierre Dorion said: “‘Rest is a weapon’ — if I hear that one more time I’ll go crazy.” It’s going to take a lot more than rest to fix what’s wrong with the Canadiens’ defence this season after Wednesday night’s 5-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center. What little hair Canadiens coach Claude Julien has left on his head might have been pulled out during this game. The Canadiens and their fans are counting the days until Shea Weber returns to the lineup after off-season knee surgery, but he alone might not be enough to fix this defence. The Canadiens had problems getting the puck out of their own zone right from the start against the Devils, who took full advantage — getting two goals from Pavel Zacha and singles from Kyle Palmieri, Nico Hischier and Taylor Hall. Jonathan Drouin and Max Domi scored for the Canadiens. Carey Price allowed five goals on 28 shots, but had almost no help defensively as the Canadiens saw their record fall to 11-7-4. Julien tried to use rest as a weapon when he cancelled a scheduled practice Tuesday in Brossard and made it a travel day only with the Canadiens flying to New Jersey. “It’s actually tough because we really wish we could have more practice time because we could certainly use it,” Julien said after the team’s morning skate Wednesday. “But then you have to weigh what’s more important: practice or a day off and travel. Coming back from out west, even the Monday game (a 5-4 OT loss to the Washington Capitals at the Bell Centre) you could see as the game went on we kind of wore off a little bit. If you feel it as a coach — which we did as coaches — you know the players are feeling it. So we thought yesterday was better to just use it as a travel day, give a chance to recover some more, because we’re talking about four games in six nights. You have to pick your poison and sometimes rest trumps the practice.” It didn’t this time. The Canadiens’ defence needs all the practice it can get. The Devils’ first goal came after the Canadiens couldn’t get the puck out of their own zone — a sign of things to come — and Palmieri deflected a point shot past Price at 6:26 of the first period. Drouin tied it up only 24 seconds later with his eighth goal of the season, but the Devils took the lead before the end of the first period and then added three unanswered goals in the second. Domi scored the only goal of the third period, extending his point streak to 11 games. After the game, the Canadiens flew to Buffalo, where they will face the Sabres Friday afternoon (4 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio). It’s a good bet the Canadiens will be practising Thursday in Buffalo.