Canadiens ‘too loose’ in costly loss to Sharks

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Juraj Slafkovsky received the puck on his off wing and instead of using his feet and big frame to protect it and jam it up the wall, he spun and fired a blind backhand pass across his own blue line to Macklin Celebrini.

It didn’t cost Slafkovsky’s Montreal Canadiens a goal, but it did set the tone for a game they had in hand and seemingly gave away before 40 minutes had expired.

They forced passes — and pinches — and fed the San Jose Sharks a 4-2 lead late in the second period after taking a 2-1 lead of their own earlier in the frame. They went down 5-2 early in the third but scored three quick goals to make it 5-5. And then they inexcusably took a too-many-men penalty to give the Sharks a power play with 4:57 to play, got scored on, and lost 7-5, with Adam Gaudette’s empty-netter sealing their fate with four seconds to go.

“We played some good minutes, but not enough of them,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “We shot ourselves in the foot too often and it cost us.”

It cost the Canadiens their first regulation loss in seven games, so that’s not terrible.

What was terrible was that they could’ve won had they played the right way, but instead cost themselves ground in the race towards the top of the Atlantic Division on a night where Boston and Buffalo both won.

That they didn’t play the right way is what should concern them ahead of games in Anaheim and Los Angeles to close the week. Because games at this stage of the season are about attention to detail and consistency, and the Canadiens were severely lacking in both departments against the Sharks — starting with that pass Slafkovsky put on Celebrini’s tape late in the first period.

We spoke with him for less than two minutes, and over that time, he repeatedly used that terminology to describe his team’s play, the play of the penalty kill (which allowed two goals), and his own play, which fell woefully short of his personal standard against the most threatening Shark on the ice.

Sure, Celebrini didn’t score on that gift from Slafkovsky, but the Canadiens gave the young phenom his 30^th goal of the season, plus assists 55, 56 and 57.

And a mix-up between Guhle and Hutson led to that too-many-men penalty that undid their commendable comeback effort.

“It’s not the only mistake we did tonight,” said Phillip Danault, who gave the Canadiens their 2-1 lead before watching as teammate Jayden Struble bobbled the puck at the offensive blue line and then lost a battle in front of his own net on the goal Michael Misa scored to make it 2-2.

The Canadiens compounded mistakes on the goals Celebrini and Alex Wenneberg scored 25 seconds apart to put the Sharks up 5-2 in the 19^th minute of the second period.

They responded with a power-play goal from Ivan Demidov and two goals from Alex Newhook, and, despite their best efforts, couldn’t chase down the lead Keifer Sherwood gave the Sharks with 3:26 to go in regulation.

“We gave up too much quality stuff,” said Newhook. “When you let in six goals, it’s hard to win a game, especially when you get down three late in a game. I thought we showed some character to come back there and gave ourselves a shot, but it was a game that we knew the details needed to be there (against) a young team, the run-and-gun team that they are, and unfortunately, I don’t think (we played) up to our standards, and the results reflected that.”

You’d expect major corrections come Friday in Anaheim, with emphasis on puck management and neutral-zone coverage — areas where the Canadiens were loosest, according to Guhle.

“I don’t think we had many d-zone shifts where we got really hemmed in,” he said. “A lot of their stuff was off the rush or just loose in the neutral zone, so it’s something we’ve got to clean up for sure.”

The Canadiens usually tidy up well after a loss.

This stat from NHL statistician Chris Meaney reflects that.

“Everybody’s got to do their job,” said St. Louis. “It’s to stack up shifts, stack up minutes way more. I think as of late we’ve played a lot of good minutes in games. I felt tonight was probably the lowest that we’ve played good moments comparing to the other games, and it cost us.”