It was nothing to be embarrassed about, which you might consider a step forward for a Montreal Canadiens team that virtually stumbled backwards into an oncoming bus on Thursday.
Still, despite a strong bid on Saturday to restore some of the dignity sacrificed two days prior in the 9-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Canadiens once again beat themselves.
This time, it was a 4-2 loss to the NHL-leading Winnipeg Jets, who got as far ahead with six seconds remaining, when Vladislav Namestnikov fired the puck into an empty net. But the Canadiens essentially put the dagger in front of their own heart before it was plunged straight through by the Jets.
You can’t help but wonder how destructive this pattern might be in the long run for a team approaching the halfway mark of a rebuild. To keep losing the same way — with so many actions to help the opposition and so few to help themselves — must be traumatic to a degree. Especially when efforts and intentions are in the right place.
They were there again at Canada Life Centre on Saturday. Right from the start, with the Canadiens notching 18 of the first 26 shot attempts and grabbing the lead 7:48 into the first period on Lane Hutson’s first NHL goal.
This should’ve been a galvanizing one. Just looking at the reactions from the bench — even from head coach Martin St. Louis — made you feel like it would be.
But then Kirby Dach put the league’s best power play at home to work with a needless high-sticking penalty 150 feet from his own net a little less than six minutes later, and he was barely warming his seat in the box when the Canadiens’ kill broke down to Gabe Vilardi’s benefit.
Two minutes and seven seconds later, the Canadiens’ first line got caught on an extended shift and ended up watching as six-foot-five Jets captain Adam Lowry took advantage of the mismatch with Hutson in front of the net to make it 2-1.
If Dach’s undiscipline was costly, Cole Caufield’s and Christian Dvorak’s to give the Jets a five-on-three advantage in the fifth minute of the second period proved deadly.
Kyle Connor made sure of it.
At least the Canadiens didn’t quit right then and there, like they did when Thursday’s game turned on the goal that made it 4-2 Penguins.
It’s just that they’d have given themselves a much better chance to come back and beat the Jets had they not taken three more penalties over the final 25 minutes of play.
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The Canadiens knew that was the difference.
“We knew they had a really good power play,” Mike Matheson said to reporters on site after the game. “We gave them too many chances.”
Josh Anderson, who offered up one late in the second, scored a big goal to narrow the gap with 12 minutes to play in the third.
The Canadiens took momentum from it and generated two of nine scoring chances they had in the frame.
They looked dangerous at six-on-five near the end, but they only had 1:35 to play with that advantage after Brendan Gallagher took a slashing penalty.
At least the Canadiens kept pushing, leaving St. Louis saying he was encouraged by their response.
Maybe the players were, too, but the frustration of letting another game slip away can’t be easy to deal with.
This was Montreal’s 19th loss of the season, and it came on the heels of a good stretch of hockey that was undone in dramatic fashion in the 18th loss. You’d like to think that because the response to that was reasonably good, another step in the right direction can be taken.
But until the pattern of self-destruction is broken, there’s no betting on it.
Hutson’s first goal a product of his determination
You might see it as skill — and it is when a player reads the faceoff play the way Huston did, quickly corralling a pass and handling the puck once before firing it post-and-in on the NHL’s top candidate for the Vezina Trophy — but there’s another reason this goal was scored as it was.
Practice makes perfect.
For weeks, Hutson has stepped on the ice ahead of practice with Canadiens director of development Adam Nicholas to work on shots from that exact location (among others). Saturday’s goal was the fruit of that labour. He put in the extra time and got rewarded for it on Saturday.
The goal came in Hutson’s 32nd NHL game, and it’ll be the first of many he scores in this league — even if he said afterwards, “You never know when it’s going to be your last goal or your first goal.”
Considering that, the 20-year-old’s celebration was relatively subdued, as he twirled his stick down into the imaginary holster like Tiger Woods twirls his driver after slapping the ball 300 yards down the fairway.
But everyone around Hutson was overjoyed.
Matheson and Caufield raced to get the puck out of Connor Hellebuyck’s net. St. Louis was leading the fist-pumping brigade on the Canadiens’ bench.
How did that make Hutson feel?
“These guys have accepted me right from the start,” he said, “been nothing but great to me.”
It’s not just because of Hutson’s game-breaking talent; it’s mostly because he aims to make a difference on every single shift and puts everything he has into his preparation so that he can actually make the difference on any single one of them.
“He plays a big role, and he brings a lot,” said St. Louis, who’s played Hutson nearly 23 minutes per game in his rookie season.
“I think it’s been a while that everyone’s been talking about (him not scoring),” St. Louis added, “but I had no doubt Lane Hutson was going to score goals in this league. It was fun to see him get one tonight.”
It was no accident.
That determination Hutson had to make it happen sooner than later is the type you want all young players to have.
The Canadiens can only hope it rubs off on everyone around him.
