{"id":203797,"date":"2026-03-04T11:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T11:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/203797\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T11:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T11:52:10","slug":"in-final-game-before-trade-deadline-canadiens-defensive-deficiencies-provide-food-for-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/203797\/","title":{"rendered":"In final game before trade deadline, Canadiens defensive deficiencies provide food for thought"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE, Calif. \u2014 It\u2019s been a long time since we\u2019ve heard Montreal Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis use the phrase \u201cshoot ourselves in the foot\u201d as often as he did Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

That is a testament to how well the Canadiens have played this season, how they have consistently collected points, even in losses, because they\u2019ve been able to stay in games and avoid the careless errors that lead their coach to use that phrase.<\/p>\n

The Canadiens had gone seven straight games without losing in regulation before repeatedly sabotaging themselves in a 7-5 loss to the San Jose Sharks. They overcame an error-filled second period to erase a 5-2 third period deficit and tie the game, only to turn a puck over in the middle of a line change and get called for too many men on the ice. That led to a Kiefer Sherwood goal with 3:26 to play on the ensuing power play.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fine line between winning and losing in this game,\u201d St. Louis said. \u201cYou don\u2019t take that too many men on the ice, you take it to overtime and do you win the game? I don\u2019t know. But I feel like we have a collective game to take over games, to dominate games, to come back in games. But sometimes you just shoot yourself in the foot a little too much during the game, and you probably get what you deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considering how seldom the Canadiens have done so this season \u2014 this was only the 18th time they\u2019ve failed to collect a point in 60 games \u2014 having an off night is not a reason to be overly alarmed.<\/p>\n

And surely, Canadiens management will not put too much emphasis on this one game as they make their final decisions ahead of Friday\u2019s NHL trade deadline. But there is one element of this game that has become a bit of a common occurrence, not necessarily a one-off<\/p>\n

It was exemplified by goaltender Jakub Dobe\u0161 taking his stick and whacking the leg of Sharks forward Adam Gaudette with it after Gaudette bumped into him in the crease. The Canadiens had defencemen Mike Matheson and Kaiden Guhle on the ice at the time, and Guhle is of particular interest here.<\/p>\n

Opposing forwards feeling comfortable in front of the Canadiens\u2019 net has been a theme of late, and it is something Guhle has wanted the Canadiens defence to prevent dating back to the start of the season.<\/p>\n

And yet, it continues happening.<\/p>\n

Before the season, Guhle sat down in the middle of training camp and talked about the nature of the Canadiens defence, how it had a ton of mobility, but maybe a bit less physicality. He wanted to take it upon himself to compensate for that and make life difficult for opposing forwards who ventured in front of the Canadiens\u2019 net.<\/p>\n

He spoke of watching the Canadiens reach the 2021 Stanley Cup final with a big, rugged trio of defencemen led by Shea Weber, and how Weber made life miserable for anyone who dared go anywhere near the Canadiens crease.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the ability to have that type of presence,\u201d Guhle said in September<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s what I want us to do this year, have that presence where when you step on the ice against our team, you know you\u2019re not going to leave the game without some bumps and bruises.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to practice in San Jose on Monday, with the Canadiens coming off two games in which the front of their net was full of traffic. They\u2019d faced two heavy teams: the New York Islanders with Anders Lee, and, more symbolically, the Washington Capitals, who knocked them out of last year\u2019s playoffs and taught them a bit of a lesson in the physicality of playoff hockey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we felt it,\u201d Guhle said Monday. \u201cThat was a veteran team in Washington and they\u2019ve played a lot of playoff games before and I think just how detailed they were, they were finishing every hit. They didn\u2019t have to blow you up, but they were getting in your way, they were making it hard for you to jump in the rush.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you watch our forwards too, and how their D defended our forwards in front of the net, it was just really hard for us to get in front of the net. Their goalie had a good series, and I think that was one of the reasons, they were making it hard for our guys to get to the net \u2026 I don\u2019t think it was fun for our forwards trying to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

That lesson has resonated with Guhle. He still wants the Canadiens defence to understand it months after training camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about it as a group and as a D corps and that\u2019s something we want to be; we want players to come into Montreal, or we go to their city, and they know they\u2019ve got this D corps, and they suck to play against, they\u2019re hard to play against,\u201d Guhle said Monday. \u201cOur forwards have talked about D groups on different teams, I\u2019m not going to tell you who, that these guys are not fun to play against.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s what we want to do, and we\u2019ve talked about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guhle was sitting in the visiting locker room after the loss to the Sharks and wasn\u2019t happy. He and Matheson had the assignment to check Macklin Celebrini all night and Celebrini put up a goal and three assists.<\/p>\n

A day earlier Guhle was talking about how this is what he gets paid to do<\/a>, how he relishes the opportunity to shut down the best players in the game. That is what made Celebrini\u2019s masterful performance so hard for him to swallow.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n The Canadiens had no answer for Macklin Celebrini Tuesday night. (Ezra Shaw \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cNot good enough,\u201d Guhle said. \u201cI think it\u2019s our job to keep those guys off the scoresheet, and we didn\u2019t. Credit to him, he\u2019s a good player, but myself, personally, I\u2019ve got to be better defending those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s Guhle being accountable, which is what he does. He and Matheson have been tasked with checking some of the world\u2019s best several times, and they\u2019ve gotten the job done. This one game does not erase that.<\/p>\n

But the burden Guhle feels to make the Canadiens defence hard to play against, as well as a group opposing forwards dread facing because of the physical toll it will take to get to the front of the net, should not fall on Guhle alone. Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj are the other defencemen who fit that profile, but only one of them is in the lineup at a time, and Struble played a team-low 8:47 against the Sharks.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one game, but it was the Canadiens\u2019 final one before the deadline hits at 3 p.m. ET on Friday. The Canadiens\u2019 entire management team is on this trip, including\u00a0 a number of pro scouts and their head of analytics. Everyone is on hand to make the most clear-eyed decisions ahead of the deadline.<\/p>\n

Should this one game impact their decision-making? No.<\/p>\n

Should the continued trend of not making opposing forwards\u2019 lives difficult enough in front of their net? Perhaps.<\/p>\n

Captain Nick Suzuki and Guhle himself have publicly campaigned for Canadiens management to keep the group intact, and their reasons for doing so are valid. The Canadiens are five points clear of the top non-playoff team in the East and have scored more goals than any team in the conference.<\/p>\n

But they have also allowed more than all but two teams in the East, and outscoring your deficiencies is generally not a formula for playoff success. Allowing seven against the Sharks surely did not alleviate that source of concern for Canadiens management. It definitely didn\u2019t for Guhle.<\/p>\n

The defence corps he has hoped the Canadiens would have since September has yet to materialize.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose games can\u2019t happen,\u201d Guhle said. \u201cYou can\u2019t let in seven and expect to win a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Management is not prepared to be reckless in looking for a solution to what is a short-term problem this week. And they shouldn\u2019t be.<\/p>\n

But the taste of this game will linger through Friday\u2019s deadline, and it is at least worth wondering if that sour taste will spur some action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE, Calif. \u2014 It\u2019s been a long time since we\u2019ve heard Montreal Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[19606,88,90,89],"class_list":{"0":"post-203797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-montreal-canadiens","9":"tag-san-jose","10":"tag-san-jose-headlines","11":"tag-san-jose-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}