LOS ANGELES — When the Montreal Canadiens took off on March 1 for this three-game swing through California, it felt like it would be a significant road trip largely because the NHL trade deadline would fall in the middle of it.
As it turns out, the deadline was not all that significant, even if the Canadiens were hoping it would be. But the trip was significant, as a young team trying to gear up for a playoff run learned how difficult it will be, especially with its primary division rivals finding ways to improve at the deadline while the Canadiens did not.
The Canadiens are not lacking players or talent; they are lacking experience. The side effect of that is a lack of details in their game, which this trip exemplified more than at any other point this season.
“For me at this time of the season, obviously effort’s always going to be a big part, and compete, but it’s also you have to have some details at this time of the season, I find,” coach Martin St. Louis said before the Canadiens left for California. “I feel like there’s been a lot of conversation throughout the season, and we’re at a stage of our season where things are pretty clear. Now it’s to have some consistency with your details.
“And if you lack some, we’ve got healthy bodies and good players, so sometimes you get steered in making decisions as a coach. It’s more than just one thing, but I feel with how competitive the rest of the season’s going to be and playoffs, we have to be a group that values playing with details.”
Viewed through that lens, this trip could be seen as a failure. The Canadiens collected three out of a possible six points after beating the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 in regulation Saturday, but it was not a convincing victory, nor did it erase everything else this trip revealed.
The Canadiens lacked details at a time of year when they should be honing them, which led to them allowing 16 goals in three games. They scored 14 goals in that three-game span and came away with only one win. That is not a recipe for success at any time of year, let alone this one.
If anything, it suggested the Canadiens’ attention to detail was slipping — something, frankly, there was no way for management to address at the trade deadline. Adding one or even two mature, detailed players would not fix what is happening with a team that hopes to do more than exit the playoffs in five games this season.
The Canadiens’ first practice in California was a fascinating demonstration of how the details get taught. Their previous loss against the New York Islanders came in a five-on-six situation, an area of the game that has haunted the Canadiens all season.
Toward the end of practice, St. Louis held an extended session on five-on-six defence. At one point, the attacking team scored off an open shot from the point through traffic. St. Louis stopped the drill to ask the group what happened.
The emphasis was on when to pressure the puck, and when to collapse into their structure to defend the house and be in position to challenge the point shot that wound up going in. There are grey areas, but the practice was meant to eliminate them, while establishing parameters for when to pressure and when to sit back.
There was a dialogue, and at the end, St. Louis asked the group, “Is this confusing to anyone? No? Good.”
The next day, the Canadiens lost to the San Jose Sharks 7-5. They lacked detail up and down, despite erasing a three-goal third-period deficit to tie the game at 5 before blowing it late. That was followed by a day off in Orange County, then a practice Thursday and a game against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday, a few hours after the trade deadline.
The Canadiens played terribly in Anaheim, with zero detail, but still found themselves in a position to win, erasing a two-goal third-period deficit to take a 5-4 lead with a little under seven minutes left thanks to Cole Caufield’s second goal of the period.
However, when the Ducks pulled their goalie late, Jacob Trouba was left alone for a shot from the point, and it was tipped in front by Chris Kreider in the final minute of regulation to tie the game. The Canadiens blew a full power play in overtime and lost in a shootout.
Trouba’s shot was almost exactly the same situation St. Louis had stopped practice in San Jose to discuss. In hindsight, it apparently was confusing.
Afterward, Caufield was livid at the lack of detail in Montreal’s game.
“Obviously we’ve had this group for a while now, and we’ve all been building this up together and we all know the details and the stuff that we need to do and execute,” he said. “(When) we don’t do that, we look sloppy, we don’t look like ourselves and it’s pretty evident that way. (When) we’re not doing those things, we’re an average team. It’s pretty frustrating right now to be getting these results.”
One night later, the Canadiens got the result they wanted, despite the lack of details in their game.
The Canadiens entered the third period against the Kings tied 2-2, in position to win a game they did not particularly deserve to win. With a defensive zone faceoff early in the third, St. Louis had his top guys on the ice: Caufield, Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovský, Mike Matheson and Kaiden Guhle.
Suzuki did not lose the faceoff, but he did not win it, either. And how the Canadiens reacted to that scramble faceoff left something to be desired. It lacked detail.
“It was kind of a scrambled draw and (the puck) was just kind of hanging out in the middle,” Suzuki said. “And then my centre kind of went to the far side and we kind of got mixed up on which guy, who had who. They got a shot through and my guy, I thought he was going backdoor and instead he went right to the slot. I was just a bit late. … It was a scrambly play right off the bat, but then we sorted it and I just mishandled my box out there.
“Luckily, we got it back.”
Slafkovský scored his second of the game on a power play and Caufield made an elite defensive play to recover a puck in the offensive zone. That allowed Suzuki to score the game winner on a one-timer off a Slafkovský feed less than a minute after Slafkovský tied it.
That led to another five-on-six situation, with the Kings able to take multiple open shots from the point. Those were ultimately blocked, but they were still open.
The Canadiens held on and won the game, salvaging the trip from a results standpoint but failing to do so from a process standpoint.
“Los Angeles, to me, was the best team on the ice tonight,” St. Louis said. “But on a back-to-back, we went and got a gutsy win. The execution wasn’t excellent, but our attitude was there, our effort was there considering it was a back-to-back. And if you look at the last two or three games, you can say we left some points on the table, but tonight we went and got two that we might not have deserved.”
The Canadiens return home Sunday with no new additions via trade. They sit in third place in the Atlantic Division and have a lot of work to do. This trip was significant in an unexpected way because it revealed the Canadiens’ vulnerability entering the home stretch. Their competitors improved at the deadline, while they need to improve organically after leaking goals at a rate that rarely leads to playoff success.
“I think at this time of the season, we’re in a results business,” St. Louis said. “So after the game, you’ve got to take advantage of the emotional wave that you get from a big win. But tomorrow’s another day. Tomorrow’s a travel day, but Monday we’ll get to work again, and we’ll talk about the truth of what really went on.”