Therrien gives ‘drained’ Canadiens day off to regroup
11 games in less than three weeks, plus delayed flight home leave players pooped
The Florida Panthers outplayed the Canadiens on Sunday, but defenceman P.K. Subban had a chance to win the game.
“I thought we showed up to play, but we didn’t do enough to come out with a victory,” Subban said after the Canadiens dropped a 2-1 decision at the Bell Centre. “They capitalized on some mistakes. But we had a 5-on-3 and we had to score, but we didn’t.”
The Canadiens had pulled to within a goal in the third period when Mike Weaver took a charging penalty and Scottie Upshall was called for cross-checking with 35 seconds remaining in Weaver’s penalty.
“You can’t ask for a better opportunity with that much time on the clock,” Subban said. “We have to find a way to put it in. Ultimately, that cost us the game in my opinion.”
The Canadiens didn’t even get a shot on goal during the two-man advantage. The Canadiens rank sixth in the NHL in power-play efficiency, and they did get a power-play goal from Alex Galchenyuk earlier in the third period, but the power play has struggled over the past two weeks. Galchenyuk’s goal ended a fivegame drought for the power play, which has one goal in 17 opportunities over the past six games.
The offence has struggled in general. The Canadiens have four goals in their past four games, which goes a long way toward explaining why they are 1-3-0 in that stretch.
“It’s not like we’re not having chances,” Subban said. “We just have to work a little harder. We have to be that much harder on the puck, a little harder in front of the net. The defence has to focus on getting the puck to the net. Maybe we’re throwing too many pucks down the wall, playing too conservative.”
Galchenyuk is one player who has been putting the puck in the net. He has scored the Canadiens’ last three regulation goals, but the natural hat trick has been spread over five games.
Galchenyuk missed an opportunity during the 5-on-3 and he played the wouldacoulda-shoulda game when it was over.
“I also had a chance in the first period and you look back and you think that if I had scored those goals, we win 3-2,” Galchenyuk said.
The 19-year-old had a ready answer when he was asked what was wrong with the power play. “We’re not scoring goals,” he said.
The Canadiens were playing less than 16 hours after returning from New York, where they beat the Islanders 1-0 in a shootout Friday night. Inclement weather resulted in their charter flight leaving from JFK instead of a private airport closer to Nassau Coliseum. The flight touched down at Dorval at 2:15 a.m.
The players refused to use the quick turnaround as an excuse with Subban saying: “We all have the same schedule; we all have back-to-backs. We’re professionals and it’s part of the game.”
But head coach Michel Therrien was willing to cut his players some slack.
“I’m not there to blame them, because I see and I’m aware of the things that we’re asking of them, which are very, very demanding,” Therrien said.
“We played 11 games in less than three weeks,” he explained. “Energy-wise, I could tell they’re drained. And when you’re drained, there’s no more juice, physically, you’re tired. When you’re physically tired, your execution is not quite there. You make bad decisions mentally. It goes hand in hand. What we’ve been asking of that group in the last three weeks, it’s really demanding.
“They’re human beings. They’re good athletes, but they give what they’ve got. So tomorrow they’re going to have a day off at the rink. They’re going to go visit the young kids in the hospital and we’re going to regroup for our next game (against Phoenix) Tuesday.”