Oh well. The game started in such promising fashion for the Canadiens Tuesday, with the Habs playing probably their best first period of the season. But they came out of the first frame in a scoreless tie with the Calgary Flames and then the CH weren’t nearly as good after that, with the Flames out-shooting them 26-8 after the first.
That’s fairly embarrassing and they paid for that lack of spark in the late going, allowing Calgary to tie the game with less than three minutes to go and then to add insult to injury, Matt Coronato – the guy who tied it up – scored just seven seconds into overtime. The OT was a spit-show. First-off the face-off was taken by Christian Dvorak, which he lost, and then Coronato waltzed in and blasted one past Samuel Montembeault, putting the puck top shelf. Montreal looked like they were just getting ready to begin the overtime when it was already over.
I know the coach loves to put a positive spin on things but at a certain point you can’t deny what’s happening — with the loss Tuesday, the Canadiens have now won two of their last 10 games. It’s an absolute disaster.
Yet there was Martin St. Louis at the post-game press conference talking about what he liked in the game.
“It was our best first period,” the coach said, and he’s right.
Then he talked about how much he likes Brendan Gallagher’s play, and he’s right about that, too. This season, Gallagher might be the only player not named Lane Hutson who gives it all every shift every night. Next up was the praise for Dvorak, and it was a good game for Dvorak, until overtime, when it became a very bad game for Dvorak.
But — and it’s a gigantic but — your team lost again tonight and you have a grand total of four wins all season. After a while, seeing positives in every loss is going to test the patience of even the most patient fans.
That first period was inspiring. They played hard. They showed skill, grit, the goaltending was great. But they couldn’t keep it up for 60 minutes. So why underline only the positives? We saw the game. Sure it wasn’t anywhere near as terrible as the blowouts versus the Rangers and the Kraken, but it wasn’t good enough.
The coach shouldn’t be sugarcoating it.
The two teams were tied up at 0-0 after one but then Connor Zary scored, with a bit of a fluky bounce bringing the puck right to him in the slot.
There was a beautiful goal from Brendan Gallagher to open the scoring for the Canadiens in the second. He waits out Calgary goalie Dustin Wolf, then puts it five-hole. Also kudos to Joel Armia and Oliver Kapanen for doing the heavy lifting along the board to get the puck to Gally.
Montreal took the lead in the third with a shorthanded goal from Armia on a perfect pass from Jake Evans, to make it 2-1.
But then it all came crashing down with Coronato’s two goals, one late in the third to tie it 2-2 and then his second just seconds into overtime to win it for Calgary.
“I want them to leave this game hungry,” said St. Louis.
Well he should know that at this exact moment, with the Habs in second to last place in the Eastern conference, the fans are downright famished. The phrase “in the mix” is but a distant memory at this point.