Martin St-Louis won’t talk about his defensive system (which floundered yesterday)
Credit: Getty Images

The man-to-man system, where each player takes his man in defensive territory, doesn't always work super well with the Canadiens.

And in yesterday's loss to the Sens, it didn't work so well.

When you looked at the results on the ice, you could see that some guys were behind and just couldn't get it done. It was hard to watch.

Martin St-Louis, who decided to blame certain players who didn't have it in them defensively, didn't choose to blame himself last night. He blamed the players.

In his eyes, his system wasn't the problem. What wasn't working was that the players weren't alert and weren't playing the right way on the ice.

Nick Suzuki, meanwhile, said the guys couldn't afford to make mental mistakes with the man-to-man system in place.

But mistakes do happen…

It's all well and good to say that the powerplay worked well or that Slaf played a big one, but the fact remains that the Habs have a lot of issues to deal with.

Staying focused is one of them.

The Habs aren't allowed to go out like that at home, but it's becoming a nasty habit anyway. And it's not really normal.

Will things change?


extension

– We have to note this game yesterday.

– The second period is part of the game…

– 21 shots is too few.

– It's going to take a win tonight on the heels of the Andrei Markov tribute. And in the standings, it would make all the difference.

(Credit: NHL.com)