“We can’t take bad penalties. We have to block shots. We have to do the job,” the frustrated coach says after a pounding by the Seattle Kraken at home.
The sun came up Wednesday morning, as usual, despite the Canadiens’ most embarrassing and lopsided defeat the night before.
And we’re only 10 games into the 82-game regular season.
While the two recent blowouts had a distinctly different feel — the Rangers are among the NHL’s elite teams while the Kraken are far from that — Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis would be excused for wondering why his club can’t seem to take the next step in its ascension after weekend victories against St. Louis and Philadelphia.
“We have to stop helping the other team,” St. Louis said following Wednesday’s practice at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard. “We can’t take bad penalties. We have to block shots. We have to do the job.”
The Canadiens have the NHL’s youngest team, with an average age of 25.8 years. That in itself will try St. Louis’s patience on some nights — and perhaps that patience is beginning to wear thin?
Alex Newhook was teamed with Christian Dvorak and Joel Armia, while the Jake Evans-Josh Anderson-Brendan Gallagher triumvirate remains unchanged.
Defensively, the Canadiens announced injured defencemen Kaiden Guhle and Justin Barron will accompany the team on its trip. At the same time, blueliner Logan Mailloux, who has played five games but was a minus-2 against Seattle — and minus-4 overall — has been loaned to their AHL affiliate in Laval.
While Dach was receiving treatment and wasn’t made available to the media, his first-period roughing penalty led to the Kraken’s third goal. He also missed an assignment later, St. Louis said. Dach was minus-3 on the night and is a league-worst minus-12.
“Experienced and mature teams don’t beat themselves,” St. Louis said. “They wait for the other teams to help them. We’re beating ourselves. In some games we get away with it. Since I’ve been here we help the other team too much. New York dominated us and exposed us. They made us focus on our defensive zone. You look at the (Seattle) score and think they dominated you. I didn’t feel that. I just felt we helped them out with some of our early actions. When that happens you’re chasing the game and taking more risks. You’re not your true version.
“It just sucks that we’re in that situation so early in games.”
While the Canadiens’ defensive coverage has been porous at times, first-string goaltender Samuel Montembeault also has been wildly inconsistent lately. He was replaced after allowing four Rangers goals on 10 shots. The same fate befell him after allowing five Seattle goals on 10 shots.
St. Louis didn’t announce his starter against Washington.
The game against the Kraken was particularly demoralizing because the Canadiens trailed 4-1 following the first period yet enjoyed an 11-8 advantage in scoring opportunities, defenceman Mike Matheson noted.
“Hopefully we get to the end of the 82 games and those (against New York and Seattle) were the two and they happened to be close together,” he said. “It’s a very hard league and we’re a very young team. It’s not going to be a perfect line where we one day decide we’re ready to take the next step and the whole league’s going to let us.
“We’re younger this year than we were last year. There’s definitely going to be growing pains. At the same time we need to mature as a team.”
“It’s not a fun feeling leaving the rink,” he said. “But now we get on the road and have a chance to salvage the week. It’s early and we’re still maturing as a group. You’d like to not have to go through the big ups and downs. Consistency is something that the best teams in this league always have. We’re striving to get there.”
If the Canadiens can upset Washington they would emerge from the season’s first month with a .500 record — a positive considering the roller-coaster ride the team has taken its fans on.