Humiliation in Boston: every habs mistake was punished

Last night, the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens put on a very good show for two periods, before things turned into a nightmare for Martin St-Louis’ team.

Trailing by just one goal (5-4) after two periods, the Habs showed great tenacity to stay in the game against one of the best teams in the entire National Hockey League.

Even though the Bruins were dominating the shots, the Tricolore found a way to keep themselves in the game.

Unfortunately, the third period was a disaster.

The Bruins scored four unanswered goals to win 9-4, a real thaw.

It wasn’t a pretty sight, and it was a shame after all the hard work in the first two periods.

The chain came completely off the hook, when on the contrary, the Habs should have redoubled their ardour and motivation for the third period, being just one short goal away from equalizing against the mighty Boston Bruins.

In short, what was shaping up to be a solid game for the Habs ended up being a complete humiliation for the Bleu Blanc et Rouge at TD Garden.

The Habs have lost their last seven games in Boston, but this was clearly the worst defeat of all.

It was a humiliating experience for the Tricolore players, who will hopefully take it as a lesson.

Welcome to TD Garden, home of the Bruins, and a house of horrors for the Canadiens this season.

The losses have hurt, and head coach Martin St. Louis called the latest beatdown in Beantown a humbling experience for his group. @EricEngels has the story https://t.co/gWVxrJ6olK

– Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) January 21, 2024

There’s really no other way to look at it.

It’s probably the biggest hockey lesson the Habs have received since the start of their rebuild.

Giving up nine goals is unacceptable, and clearly not the fault of Samuel Montembeault, who was weak on just one Bruins goal in my opinion.

Still, Montembeault took the blame first after the loss.

“It starts with me. I felt like I’d been punched right on the chin. I was hit in the jaw and couldn’t bite after that.” – Samuel Montembeault

It’s worth noting that even after allowing eight goals – one of the worst performances of his career – Montembeault was present in front of the media after the game to answer questions.

In short, hats off to Montembeault, who showed humility, even if in the end, the entire team in front of him is to blame.

Why do you ask?

Because every one of the Bruins’ goals, mainly in the third period, came after a big mistake by a Habs player.

Whether it was Brendan Gallagher’s turnover, Juraj Slafkovsky’s, or Nick Suzuki’s penalty, each of these situations led to a Bruins goal.

On each of these sequences, it was as if a goal was served to the Boston players on a silver platter.

Believe me, the Bruins don’t need such gifts, but if they’re offered them for free like this, they’ll take them gladly, as they proved last night.

In short, mistakes leading to big turnovers sank the Habs yesterday, as they really looked like a pee-wee club in the third period, so ridiculous were the errors.

Let’s hope the Habs can learn some important lessons from this game, which showed us that the Montreal Canadiens are still far from finished rebuilding.

A third-period slump of this magnitude, accompanied by so many errors, is clearly not worthy of a club aspiring to great honors.

Even if it was against a much better club, the Habs can’t afford such a performance, and Martin St-Louis knows it.

In fact, he said he hoped that that horrible third period would take the whole team to a higher peak.

The Habs’ next game is Tuesday night at the Bell Centre, when the Ottawa Senators are the visitors.

Let’s see how the Tricolore bounce back from this thaw.

In a gust

– On a more positive note, here’s Lane Hutson’s 10ᵉ goal of the season scored last night.

– Read more.

– Wow, what a great rebound from the goalie.

– Interesting.

– That would be really great.

So is there any chance we can get a Lions-Bills Super Bowl for the two most deserving fan bases alive?

– Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) January 21, 2024