Canadiens lose sixth straight game as power of positive thinking fails

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Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis should be an enormous believer within the energy of optimistic considering.

When St. Louis met with the media in Toronto after Saturday’s morning skate, he stated he appreciated the best way his staff was enjoying defensively.

“I’m pleased since we made some corrections and stuff,” he stated. “I’m pleased with the best way we’re defending. I really feel like we’ve needed to defend much less, which is an effective signal, as a result of I believe we’re killing performs earlier and we don’t give the opponents the chance to arrange their O zone. It begins with the best way we arrive and the best way we perceive what triggers the O zone, so it’s good.”

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Heading into Saturday evening’s recreation in opposition to the Maple Leafs, the Canadiens have been permitting a mean of 4.07 objectives per recreation — essentially the most within the NHL — and so they have been coming off a 5-3 loss to the Devils on Thursday evening in New Jersey.

After shedding 4-1 to the Leafs on Saturday evening, the Canadiens have allowed 4 or extra objectives in 9 of their first 15 video games. They’ve a 4-9-2 document, sitting in final place within the Atlantic Division and so they’re tied with the San Jose Sharks for final within the general NHL standings. The Canadiens have misplaced six straight video games (0-5-1), which is their longest shedding streak since they misplaced seven straight (0-5-2) from March 2-13, 2023, through the first full season of their rebuild with St. Louis as head coach. The Canadiens had one other seven-game shedding streak (0-6-1) earlier that season.

Conor Timmins, William Nylander, Mitch Marner and John Tavares scored for the Leafs, who outshot the Canadiens 27-21. Brendan Gallagher scored for the Canadiens. Samuel Montembeault, making his fourth straight begin in objective for the Canadiens, noticed his document fall to 3-7-1 with a 3.51 goals-against common and a .888 save share.

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Gallagher continues to be one of many few vibrant spots for the Canadiens with seven objectives in 15 video games. The 32-year-old has scored in every of the final three video games and has 5 objectives within the final seven video games. Going again to final season, Gallagher has 12 objectives within the final 20 video games.

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Gallagher’s seven objectives this season match the mixed complete for fellow forwards Juraj Slafkovsky (one), Christian Dvorak (one), Kirby Dach (one), Joel Armia (two) and Josh Anderson (two). Slafkovsky and Armia each didn’t get a shot on objective in opposition to the Leafs, whereas Dvorak and Dach had one every.

The one Canadien with extra objectives than Gallagher is Cole Caufield with 10, however he hasn’t scored within the final 4 video games and had just one shot in opposition to the Leafs. Captain Nick Suzuki leads the staff in scoring with 4-9-13 totals, however has no factors within the final 4 video games — throughout which he’s minus-5 — and had just one shot in opposition to the Leafs.

The Canadiens’ compete stage isn’t the place it ought to be this season and the place it had been since St. Louis took over as head coach.

As soon as once more, the Canadiens obtained off to a sluggish begin in opposition to the Leafs, getting outshot 7-2 within the first interval and so they headed into the intermission down 1-0 on a objective by Timmins. The one two Canadiens pictures within the interval got here from defenceman Kaiden Guhle and so they didn’t get a single shot on objective over the ultimate 15:13 of the interval.

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The Canadiens fell behind 3-0 within the first 8:24 of the second interval after a power-play objective by Nylander and a short-handed objective by Marner, earlier than Gallagher scored at 9:26. However the Leafs took a three-goal lead into the second intermission after Tavares scored one other power-play objective at 12:15.

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The Canadiens outshot Toronto 10-8 within the third interval because the Leafs protected their lead. St. Louis juggled his ahead strains through the remaining 20 minutes, placing Suzuki between Slafkovsky and Dach and Evans between Alex Newhook and Caufield, however nothing labored.

“The temper’s clearly down,” Suzuki instructed reporters in Toronto after the sport. “I believed we had an excellent first interval, unfortunate bounce (on the Toronto objective). Within the second (interval) felt snug after which we hand over two short-handed objectives (with the Leafs on the facility play) after which couldn’t climb again. Had a great third interval, simply couldn’t rating. Weren’t in a position to make that final push.”

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The Leafs prolonged their profitable streak to a few video games and improved their document to 9-5-2. Former Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty, who has 2-4-6 totals in 13 video games and was main the Leafs with 38 hits coming into the sport, left late within the first interval and didn’t return after showing to injure his left hamstring. The 35-year-old had thought he may need to retire after tearing his proper Achilles twice in lower than a 12 months, limiting him to 52 video games during the last two seasons.

The rebuilding pains are getting worse for the Canadiens, who’ve 10 gamers on their roster age 23 or youthful. However St. Louis stored a optimistic spin on issues when he spoke with reporters in Toronto after the sport. The coach stated his gamers missed the online quite a bit, together with on 5 good scoring probabilities from the slot within the first interval, however performed effectively five-on-five. The Canadiens missed on 14 pictures within the recreation.

“I believe we’re a fragile group now that lacks confidence,” St. Louis stated.

That appears to be true.

Nevertheless it’s going to take greater than the facility of optimistic considering to get this staff on a profitable observe.

scowan@postmedia.com

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