Canadiens trending upward despite recent loss to Rangers
NEW YORK >> One day removed from an impressive comeback win over the Metropolitan Divisionleading Islanders at Barclays Center, a visit to Madison Square Garden was set serve as the coronation of the Montreal Canadiens as a surprise, legitimate playoff contender in the National Hockey League’s competitive Eastern Conference.
Instead, it just raised more questions.
Facing a rebuilding, yet resurgent Rangers team, Montreal turned a 3-1 third period lead into a 5-3 loss; defenseman Neal Pionk scored the game-winner on a dramatic end-to-end rush to beat Carey Price late in regulation, snatching a win from a Canadiens team that entered the night in the top wild card spot in the East.
“We obviously lost two points that should be ours,” said Tomas Tatar, who scored two of Montreal’s three goals.
After a run of having made the playoffs in seven of the last eight years, the Canadiens have missed advancing to the postseason in two out of their last three seasons; a first-round exit at the hands of the Rangers in 2017 is all they have to show for themselves since 201516.
But with a new infusion of talent like Tatar and Max Domi — both of whom were acquired in off-season trades — to go along with a core group like Brendan Gallagher and last year’s big acquisition, Jonathan Drouin, this season seems like it could be different.
However, the signs of a relatively young (26.8 average age) team that’s still meshing together were certainly evident over their back-to-back set against the Islanders on Monday and then against the Rangers the next night.
Most notable was too many men penalties in both games in similar situations; Montreal took one with less than a minute to go in a 3-3 game in Brooklyn, but managed to get away with it and win on Joel Armia’s shootout goal. However, in Manhattan, the Canadiens were again caught with six skaters with just 3:50 remaining in a 3-3 game, and although Jimmy Vesey’s penalty shortly thereafter evened the manpower at four skaters per side, it also created the open ice that Pionk needed to complete his exceptional coastto-coast goal.
“It’s hard to put your finger on it,” Gallagher said. “That all can be settled with some communication, but obviously it shouldn’t happen — we understand how to make a line change — but it does. That’s on us as players. We’ve got to talk to each other better. It’s as simple as that.”
Head coach Claude Julien seemed to agree, dismissing that it was a potential sign of a young group still learning how to play with each other.
“Those things happen with every team,” he said. “A lot of times, it’s just a player not being sharp and taking the right person or not watching if the person he’s supposed to take is coming off…everybody’s clear on who they have to take before they even get to the bench. Those are penalties are unnecessary, and we’ve got to get better in that area.”