MONTREAL— It was a sequence that started with Lane Hutson diving in front of Dougie Hamilton’s shot, and one that ended with Kaiden Guhle launching himself in front of Jonas Siegenthaler’s.
In between those two desperate blocks, which came within 56 seconds of each other late in the third period of a 3-3 game, the Canadiens sacrificed themselves in front of four more within 11 seconds.
It all amounted to six blocks in less than a minute amid 32 total in a game they lost 4-3 in overtime to the New Jersey Devils. You can’t exactly question the Canadiens’ heart after seeing that.
You could accuse them of failing to execute on Saturday, and you’d be well within reason. You could say they were soundly outplayed — just as they had been through a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning to start the week and in a 4-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings more than halfway through it — and you’d be right.
But the Canadiens kept that heart beating strong over a week where you knew it would be pushed beyond its limits, and that was acceptable.
We saw it that way, even if they didn’t.
“It’s disappointing,” said Juraj Slafkovsky. “Overall decent, but not our best.”
But this week was more about survival than anything else for the Canadiens, and survive is exactly what they did to remain in the thick of the unrelenting playoff race that’s developed in the Eastern Conference.
“I’d say it was a week where maybe we didn’t necessarily play to our standards, but we went and got three points in three games,” said head coach Martin St. Louis. “The guys battled to go get those points.”
Did the Canadiens give up some ground? Yes.
But considering the intensity of their schedule since Christmas — it had them traveling through every time zone to play 13 of their 15 games against some of the best teams in the league over 28 days — they could’ve fallen much further behind.
Not that any of the Canadiens took that as a moral victory. Not that any of them used their schedule as an excuse for how they turned a decent start into a bad first period against New Jersey.
And none of them were talking about the schedule after spotting the Devils a 3-1 lead and forcing goaltender Jakub Dobeš to make 40 saves just to have a chance at starting his NHL career with six consecutive wins.
But the reality is that schedule has put the Canadiens through the wringer over the last month, and it was bound to catch up with them.
That reckoning came earlier in the week and lasted through Saturday’s game, but the Canadiens never lay down — unless it was to block a shot.
Perhaps no player better exemplified that than Guhle, who continuously — and courageously — put himself in harm’s way to help the Canadiens earn precious points. We wanted to talk to him after Saturday’s game, but he was one of several players receiving treatment in the team’s infirmary.
Just like he was one of five players receiving treatment instead of practising Wednesday, when the team held its first on-ice workout in nine days.
It’s not an excuse for how the Canadiens couldn’t do much more than survive this week, but it is a reason.
“We weren’t too pleased with our play this week,” said Cole Caufield, who assisted on Montreal’s first goal against the Devils before scoring his 25th of the season late in the second period. “We got one result against Tampa, and against Detroit we got taken care of. We weren’t happy about that. It’s a lack of focus and execution and, without practising, your mind gets away from it a little bit.
“We knew what we had to do today. We needed to bounce forward.
“But we had a tough first period.”
At least the Canadiens battled back to give themselves a chance to win.
They had a couple of good chances at it before Mike Matheson lost the puck in the offensive zone and Jack Hughes put the game away with 55 seconds to go in overtime.
You could see how frustrated the Canadiens defenceman was afterwards, on a night where he was fallible on three of four goals the Devils scored. Matheson holds himself to a high standard, and he fell well short of it in this game despite his best effort.
You could say the same of the Canadiens, who were anything but satisfied with the outcome despite their commendable effort.
The heart they displayed, however, offers hope they’ll push through this and continue collecting enough points to stay in the race between now and the break for the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off.
“It’s a hard league, and I just love the battle level of the guys,” said St. Louis. “To me, I know the guys are in a good place and they understand what’s going on out there because I can hear the guys talk on the bench and they’re hungry. It’s a hungry group, and they know that we didn’t quite play to our standards this week. They’re well aware of it.
“But it’s the standard that they’ve raised. We know what’s in there and we’re going to try to really focus to get that back so that we can continue to give ourselves the best chance to win games.”
