ANAHEIM — Claude Julien had a plan for the final two games of the Canadiens’ California road trip.
He would feed backup goaltender Antti Niemi to the Sharks on Thursday and hope that he could steal a point or two against his former team.
Then, he would go all-in with a well-rested Carey Price in Friday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks, who are playing for nothing but pride.
Julien and the Canadiens came up empty om both counts. After losing 5-2 in San Jose, the Canadiens were trounced 8-2 in Anaheim.
“Tonight was one of those nights when we dug ourselves a hole,” said Julien. “There was a big gap between our defence and our forwards and (the Ducks) had a lot of room through the neutral zone. They’re good around the net and they took advantage of those opportunities.
“We had lots of shots and chances but we couldn’t finish,” added Julien. “To me, it was a fairly even game but when they scored that sixth goal, we fell apart and gave them a few more.”
For the record, that sixth goal was scored at 14:08 of the third period, and the Canadiens fell apart long before that.
The game followed the same script as the San Jose game, with the home team taking a 2-0 lead, the Canadiens closing the gap to one goal at 2-1 and 3-2 and then falling flat.
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Price wasn’t very good but neither were his teammates.
“Every time we got the momentum and scored a goal, they scored on the next shift or the shift after,” said captain Shea Weber, who provided one of the few bright spots when he scored a rare power-play goal. “We have to do a better job on those shifts after we score.
“We did a good job in spurts but we had mental lapses and we were leaving our goalie out to dry,” added Weber. “Overall it was okay but we gave up Grade-A chances, where guys were all alone, we left guys in the slot, chances you don’t want to give up. Those are the chances we want to limit.”
This was the third game in four nights for the Canadiens, who have played seven of their last eight games on the road. They completed that stretch with a 3-5 record.
Julien didn’t want to make it an excuse, but he did anyway.
“This it what we have and we have to deal with it,” he said. “Athletes are in great shape (but) that’s not to say it isn’t hard on them. The biggest thing right now is the last couple of weeks, we’ve been on the road. I think it’s a kind of caught up with us. We made a pit stop at home to play Pittsburgh and those kind of trips are hard on you.”
The Canadiens are off until Tuesday when they play the Detroit Red Wing at the Bell Centre. They then face a tough road test against the Islanders before finishing the week against Chicago at home.
It was a critical loss because the Canadiens are in a four-way fight for the final three playoff spots and a win would have put them in the first wild-card spot. Instead, they are tied in points with Carolina, which was thumped by Winnipeg 8-1 Friday. The Hurricanes have an edge because they have played two fewer games. Columbus is two points back with two games in hand.
“There was a lot urgency but we fell behind early,” said Brendan Gallagher. “We can’t dwell on it, we can’t feel sorry for ourselves We have games in to play and we have points in hand. The reality of the situation is this one was disappointing. We’d like to leave this road trip with more than two points but, as a group, we have to find a way to move on.”
from Montreal Gazette https://ift.tt/2TCMWEv
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