‘WE’RE STILL IN THE RACE’

Habs can bounce back: Julien

A week ago, the Canadiens WINNIPEG faced an uphill slog toward a playoff berth. Today, they’re looking at Mount Everest. The Canadiens are outside a playoff spot as they head into Saturday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets (7 p.m., SN360, SNE, City, TVA Sports, TSN-690 Radio) and there’s a reason why the geeks at sportsclubstats.com give the Canadiens only a 26.3-per cent chance of making the post-season. That number took a big hit Thursday after the Canadiens dropped a must-win game against the Blue Jackets in Columbus. The result left Columbus and Montreal tied in points with 90, but the Blue Jackets hold the second wild-card spot because they have played one game less. The Hurricanes hold the first wild-card position with 91 points and they also have a game in hand on Montreal. The Canadiens find themselves in a precarious situation because they lost to both Columbus and Carolina this week and they face a Murderers’ Row of opponents in their final four games. After playing the Jets, the Canadiens have a home game against Presidents’ Trophy winner Tampa Bay on Tuesday; travel to Washington to face the Metropolitan Division-leading Capitals Thursday and finish with a home game next Saturday against Toronto. By comparison, Carolina and Columbus have easier schedules. Carolina plays playoff teams Pittsburgh and Toronto, but also has two games against Philadelphia and one against New Jersey. Columbus has back-to-back games this weekend at Nashville and Buffalo, a toughie at home against Boston and finishes with road games against the Rangers and Ottawa. The Canadiens did a lot of skating at practice Friday and there was a lot of talk about bouncing back after the disappointment in Columbus. “We needed to play a great game yesterday and we didn’t,” coach Claude Julien said. “We had a great start and, as the game went on, we sort of collapsed. We shot ourselves in the foot with some of the goals we gave them with the (bad) decisions and turnovers. At the same time, we’re in a playoff race and we have to bounce back from a loss. We have to park that one yesterday. We’re not eliminated, we’re still in the race. We have four tough games starting tomorrow and we can only win them one at a time.” The Canadiens have a 7-6-1 record in March, but they are 1-4-1 against teams that are currently in the playoffs. Goaltender Carey Price summed up the Canadiens’ situation when he said: “We haven’t made things easy for ourselves all season, why should we start now?” Winnipeg received some good news Friday when defenceman Dustin Byfuglien was cleared to play after missing 18 games with an ankle injury.