MONTREAL — Just when the Montreal Canadiens seemed to be gaining some momentum, they were brought up short in a 6-2 loss at home to the Vegas Golden Knights.
After winning three of four games, including a 3-0 shutout of the Edmonton Oilers earlier in the week, the Canadiens took a step backwards in giving up five unanswered goals in the second period to Vegas.
Montreal head coach Martin St. Louis expects growing pains, but not like that.
"We’re a young team and that comes with the territory, but the guys know that games like this are unacceptable for where we’re at," St. Louis said.
"I don’t think it was a work ethic thing. It was bad decision-making and a lot of individual mistakes, but we deserved those boos."
Montreal hasn't beaten the Golden Knights since Game 6 of the 2021 Stanley Cup semifinals to advance to the final. After that, it's been seven straight losses.
After Saturday's scoreless first period, the second period was a microcosm the Canadiens' struggles on both sides of the puck.
Montreal was exposed a number of times in the defensive zone as four of the five goals conceded were with the slot left wide open
“We went back to the way we were playing a couple games ago. They were waiting for us, and they made us pay for it,” said goaltender Samuel Montembeault, who was pulled after conceding five goals on 25 shots.
"We turned the puck over and made some mistakes in coverage in our own end. We’re the ones that caused this by playing badly in the second and it’s a shame because I think I was doing well in the first period.”
Montreal gave up the majority of shots from inside the face-off dots and rushing to get back on the offensive played into the Golden Knights' hands.
"We just lost our patience, so to speak," St. Louis said.
Vegas forechecked relentlessly, secured the puck with speed and transitioned to a counterattack seamlessly.
Their five goals in the second period started by either winning the puck deep in the Canadiens’ zone or forcing a turnover at the blue line which made Montreal vulnerable.
"We know that we have success when we limit turnovers and we don’t give teams anything to take advantage of,” said Canadiens defenceman David Savard.
"When we create momentum, we’re going to get our scoring chances, but we didn’t do that. We tried to cheat and get everything back immediately and they made us hurt.”
Montreal mustered just two shots on net in the second period.
Cole Caufield’s chance in-close was the only sniff at a goal as the Canadiens spent the rest of the period having their break-ins interrupted, their cycling in the zone defended comfortably, and their forecheck played through constantly.
Montreal showed more attacking potential in the third period, but the game's fate was largely sealed by then.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 23, 2024.
Elias Grigoriadis, The Canadian Press
