A week off for the Montreal Canadiens can’t seem to come soon enough.
Montreal lost their third straight game by a score of 4-1 to the Ottawa Senators Tuesday night at the Bell Centre.
The team looks like they have nothing left in the tank and are getting to their bye week on fumes.
“We just lost our confidence a little bit, I would say a little fragile giving up that first goal like that, I think it hurt us,” said head coach Martin St Louis about the shorthanded goal allowed to start the game.
It was a carbon copy of the previous couple games, let’s get to what stood out from the NHL most Dr Jekyll and Mr hyde type team.
Pluses:
- It was nice to see Arber Xhekaj back in the lineup, although he looks rusty and tentative.
- Cole Caufield picked up another point and the offensive numbers have been impressive since the turn of the calendar year.
- Johnathan Kovacevic gets back into the lineup and scores a goal from the point. Hopefully scouts were watching, and there were a lot of scouts in the building on Tuesday.
Minuses:
- The team is dead tired. Many will think they look they aren’t trying and have no heart or passion… That’s not it, they use their top players too much and have to grind out games to have any chance at winning. The miles are catching up.
- Why would you further complicate your life and play with only three centers?
- Defensive structure out the window.
- To get a spark in the third period, St Louis took Juraj Slafkovsky off the top line… Why does this have to be the default solution?
- Beaten by Ottawa twice in three games by a score of 10-3. To makes things worse, the Sens players saluted their mothers in the seats after the game.
Things only get crazier for the Montreal Canadiens when they host Patrick Roy’s New York Islanders on Thursday night at the Bell Centre.
thehabsblog.com 
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