17 goals allowed in three games: no team has done worse than the Canadiens

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
17 goals allowed in three games: no team has done worse than the Canadiens
Credit: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

The Canadiens deserved better.

That's what Martin St-Louis told reporters who were there to get his postgame comments following the 5-2 loss to the Nashville Predators.

It was the special teams that let the team down.

Martin St-Louis is more focused on the process than the fans are. He's able to find the positives in a loss and the negatives in a win for his team.

And it's true that yesterday, the better team on the ice wasn't Nashville.

But in an NHL where points are awarded for wins and losses in overtime, this marks the second time the Habs have failed to pick up a point in a home game.

And that's true whether they deserve it (like yesterday) or don't deserve it (like Tuesday), based on a visual assessment.

It's clear that by constantly shooting themselves in the foot—giving up goals by the bucketful—in recent games, the Canadiens aren't helping themselves get back on the winning track.

For the third straight game, they've allowed at least five goals. That's 17 goals allowed over three games, which is the worst mark in the NHL since October 2.

You can't win when you're giving up five or six goals (even if there are empty-net goals mixed in) per game. At best, you can hope to scrape together a point here and there, as was the case last Saturday.

But in the long run, that's not sustainable.

We can all agree that the performance of the special teams, as Martin St-Louis pointed out, is at the heart of the problem. The Canadiens gave up two goals on five power-play opportunities to the Predators.

And they failed to capitalize when they had the man advantage.

Over the past three games—that is, since the start of the losing streak—the Habs are at 9.1% on the power play and 64.3% effective when killing penalties.

That's part of the problem.

Yesterday, Jacob Fowler (who played well) allowed only one goal at even strength. He gave up two while shorthanded, and the last two were scored into an empty net.

But he wasn't put in an easy position, largely because of another unnecessary penalty by Mike Matheson.

Tony Marinaro is right: ultimately, the Canadiens deserved to lose. When the Habs win after coming from behind, we don't say it happened by luck…

The NHL remains a results-driven league. Holding onto a lead is part of the game.

It's not all bad, since the Habs controlled part of the game and the Canadiens' new lines performed well, but they're going to need wins. They'll have to close out games when they're ahead.

Because even if you can't win your division in October, you can certainly lose it.


Overtime

The Canadiens will be back on the ice at 11:30 a.m. this morning in Brossard. The goal? To prepare for the Red Wings' visit tomorrow night at the Bell Centre.

Will Oliver Kapanen be on the ice this morning? If so, will he be able to step in for Kirby Dach tomorrow night?

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