Saturday's shootout win against the Tampa Bay Lightning hardly broke the excitement meter, but it was an important win against the team the Habs were closest to in the standings, even if they left a point on the table.
Yesterday's loss against the Florida Panthers was thoroughly disappointing for Michel Therrien, for the Canadiens, for the thousands of fans that filled the building in Sunrise, and for the thousands more that watched it at home. And none of it really had a legitimate explanation.
It would've been one thing if the Canadiens got outplayed, but they were completely outworked, failing to generate more than 22 shots in the game, let alone a decent amount of scoring chances.
Brandon Prust's effort was excellent on the night, netting him the Canadiens' only goal. His linemates brought their work ethic too, but not enough of his teammates did.
Therrien's comments afterwards regarding what he thought was a phantom high-stick call on Brian Gionta, as the Canadiens captain set Rene Bourque up for a goal that didn't count, and a clearly missed crosscheck on Alex Galchenyuk on Daniel Briere's disallowed goal seemed to excuse his team's performance.
Gionta admitted the Canadiens didn't put in the appropriate effort to generate a win.
Max Pacioretty was rather listless on the night--at the very least, he was shot-less.
David Desharnais passed away the team's best scoring chances.
Brendan Gallagher's had a very hard time finding the back of the net, and the frustration is palpable.
And when the team finally did convert on a play that would've brought the game within reach with time to spare, an incidental goaltender interference call deprived them of the opportunity. They didn't seem to draw any inspiration from seeing the puck hit the back of the net, even if the goal didn't count.
Speaking of uninspired, the defense core didn't exactly have its strongest performance. Yes, the Florida forecheck was a lot to handle, but the puck moving from the blueliners was weak at best, and the forwards were often there to support the breakout.
The chemistry on the back end seems out of sorts. Alexei Emelin was benched for a large portion of the third after playing most the game next to Markov. It's hard to tell as to whether or not the coaches are putting these two together to shelter Emelin a bit more, or to rekindle some of the chemistry they established through the first half of last season. Either way, the decision seems to be weakening the defense core significantly. Subban and Markov have been one of the league's best pairs for most the season, but since being split, the team has been suffering through some terrible inconsistency, and the puck movement is lacking. Francis Bouillon and Raphael Diaz were hemmed into the Canadiens' end for most the night, with neither of them finding ways to complete passes.
The Habs are now 5-5 in their last 10 games, and the standings are getting tighter. It's back to the drawing board for Therrien and his co-pilots to generate some more cohesion. As for the team, they need to search themselves for a more consistent effort.