"Aside from a win, of course, what else are you looking for in your first game behind the bench?"
During his short pregame interview with Sportsnet's Kyle Bukauskas, newly-hired Montreal Canadiens head coach Claude Julien replied:
"You want to see the players have fun, they need to find some fun in this game because it's been a tough stretch for them."
After losing to the Winnipeg Jets by a score of 3-1 at the Bell Centre, where the stands were filled with families and their children hoping to take in an entertaining afternoon game, "fun" is certainly not the way anyone would describe this contest.
An enthusiastic and confident voice was seemingly not enough to kickstart the Habs who were playing in their first game since the end of an emotional bye week. Julien made lineup adjustments in order to gauge the chemistry between certain players, notably placing Alex Galchenyuk on the first line with Max Pacioretty and Alexander Radulov though neither of the latter two registered a shot on goal. Despite contributing to Andrei Markov's first period goal, that combination was eventually split in the second period as Galchenyuk would welcome a rotation of wingers for the rest of regulation time.
A dry offense is surprisingly not the most concerning aspect of today's performance. Most blue-liners struggled mightily to shut down Patrik Laine and his hulking teammates, and Pacioretty simply said that the team was "...outplayed, especially in (their) own zone." Perhaps the captain forgot to also mention the neutral zone, where transitional passes hit forwards' skates too many times to count and eventually led to turnovers and scoring chances for their opponents.
Thankfully, Carey Price seemed to have found his form. He stopped 30 shots- many of them in spectacular fashion with his glove- yet even a strong outing by Markov could not help the netminder earn a win.
Call it a lack of "synchronization", which is what the head coach alluded to in his post game comments. "Nervousness" and a "lack of confidence" could also be due to players trying to impress the new coach, who told Amanda Stein of TSN690 that he believes this team is "... a lot better than what we've seen today."
Expect Julien to have a long chat with Nathan Beaulieu over the next two days, where the Habs will practice twice before visiting the New York Rangers on Tuesday. If anybody could use an injection of (the oft-repeated) "confidence", it's number 28.
Beaulieu is not alone, as all of his teammates will benefit from a strong line of communication between the coach and the players. They will get a stronger sense of just how much Julien believes in them sooner than later, and patience will be of utmost importance for everyone to practice in the following weeks.
After all, new systems are not implemented overnight, and while the four other organizations that fired their head coaches replaced them with assistants familiar with the players, Julien will need some time to get to know his.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»