Canadiens Game Day: Changing coaches didn’t fix the problems with Habs
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It certainly looks now like Claude Julien wasn’t the problem with the Canadiens.
Or Kirk Muller … or Stéphane Waite.
Those three men all lost their jobs as GM Marc Bergevin tried to put the team back on track after a promising 7-1-2 start to the season that must seem like a very long time ago now to frustrated Canadiens fans.
The Canadiens lost 4-0 to the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series Tuesday night at the Bell Centre. After scoring a grand total of four goals in four games, the Canadiens will be facing elimination Thursday night when they play Game 5 in Toronto (7 p.m., CBC, SN, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).
The Leafs’ William Nylander, who opened the scoring for the Leafs Tuesday night, has now scored as many goals in this series as the entire Canadiens team. Former Canadien Alex Galchenyuk scored an empty-net goal and added two assists for the Leafs in Game 4, picking up more points in one game than any Montreal player has in the entire series.
The Leafs were playing their third straight game without captain John Tavares, who was carried off the ice on a stretcher in Game 1 with a concussion and a knee injury, and their second consecutive game without injured Nick Foligno, a key addition before the NHL trade deadline. Still, the Canadiens were no match for the Leafs.
The Canadiens had a 9-5-4 record when Bergevin fired Julien as head coach and Muller as associate coach, replacing them with Dominique Ducharme and Alex Burrows. The Canadiens went 15-16-7 during the regular season with Ducharme in charge and are now 1-3 in the playoffs. Burrows replaced Muller as the coach in charge of the power play, which is now 0-for-13 in this series against the Leafs.
Waite was fired as goalie coach after the second period of a 3-1 win over the Ottawa Senators at the Bell Centre on March 2 and replaced by Sean Burke.
In an interview with Mitch Melnick on TSN 690 Radio a few days later, Waite explained his firing this way: “(Bergevin) said he felt that Carey (Price) needs a new voice and that for him that was very important that Carey has a good end of season and good playoff because maybe the next time it’s going to be his job. So that’s the reason why.”
Price has been the Canadiens’ best player in this playoff series against the Leafs, but it hasn’t mattered. The team in front of him simply isn’t good enough.
Now a team that was able to win three games in a row only three times during the regular season, needs to do it a fourth time against the Leafs to avoid being eliminated.
At this point, you have to wonder if the Canadiens can score another goal, never mind win another game.
,“I think we’ve all gone through a lot this year, whether it’s injuries, tough stretches throughout the season, and we find a way to get out of them,” Canadiens defenceman Jeff Petry said after Tuesday night’s loss. “I think this is no different. I think our group has to just rally together, believe in each other, believe in ourselves and take it one game at a time, one period at a time.
“It’s not going to happen in the first five minutes of the next game, it’s going to take the full 60 minutes and we have to be prepared to put in the effort because we are playing like it’s our last game,” Petry added. “I think we just have to regroup and make sure that we’re all on the same page, all believing in each other and believing in ourselves.”
At this point, it’s hard to believe the Canadiens’ season won’t come to an end Thursday night in Toronto.
A slow start
The Canadiens got off to a slow start Tuesday night with Price having to stop Jason Spezza on a breakaway two minutes in, followed a minute later with a big pad save on Mitch Marner from in close.
The Canadiens didn’t get their first shot on goal until the 5:11 mark and it came from Cole Caufield. The Leafs outshot the Canadiens 9-6 in the first period, but the score was 0-0 heading into the intermission.
The Leafs got three goals in the second period from Nylander, Spezza and Joe Thornton to put this game away. The Leafs have outscored the Canadiens 8-1 in the second period in this series. Galchenyuk added his empty-netter at 16:29 of the third period.
“I’m not sure how to explain that,” the Canadiens’ Phillip Danault said about his team’s struggles in the second period. “We just got to regroup and play harder in the second. It should be our goal for the next game.”
“I think our second period wasn’t great tonight and that’s something we talked about,” Petry added. “We have to find a way to string together 60 minutes, a complete game. There’s going to be ups and downs, they’re going to score goals, but we have to find a way to just put together a solid 60 minutes. We got to take it one game at a time. We obviously know the position we’re in and I don’t think anyone’s given up. We still believe in our group and I think we just have to reset and get ready.”
Where’s the offence?
Ducharme was asked after the game if he could explain the reason for the Canadiens’ lack of offence in this series.
“They’re doing a good job defensively, that’s for sure,” the coach said. “I thought we created enough to score tonight. We had some good looks, but sometimes guys think about it and they’re squeezing their stick, missing at times that chance. Confidence is a big thing when you talk about scoring goals. We are always looking to find ways to produce more chances and then at one point we got to finish when the chance is there.
“It’s a combination of many things, but once you have one or a couple going in you can see it in any goal-scorer,” Ducharme added. “Sometimes he goes through a drought and gets one and then he’s going to score five goals in five games. So it’s a little bit the same as a team. So we got to dig deep and go and find a way to get one and a couple and confidence can go from there.”
Danault said he’s confident the Canadiens can find a way to score enough goals to win Game 5.
“We had the capacity to score all year, find a way,” he said. “We just need to be more gritty in front of the net and more screens, more aggressive. We got to do this all together. It’s not about one guy, it’s everyone.”
If the Canadiens can win Game 5, it would force Game 6 Saturday night in front of 2,500 fans at the Bell Centre.
“I think we should all be really hungry next game and come back in front of our fans,” Danault said.
Some stats
The Canadiens outshot Toronto 32-28, won 56 per cent of the faceoffs and outhit the Leafs 40-16.
The Canadiens went 0-for-4 on the power play and the Leafs went 1-for-2.
Nick Suzuki led the Canadiens in ice time with 20:56, followed by Petry with 20:48, Tyler Toffoli with 19:41 and Caufield with 19:33.
Suzuki also had a team-leading five shots, while Joel Armia had four and Joel Edmundson had three. Josh Anderson had a team-leading seven hits, while Suzuki had six and Tomas Tatar had five.
Petry finished the game minus-3
Eric Staal went 6-2 on faceoffs (75 per cent), Jesperi Kotkaniemi went 5-5 (50 per cent), while Suzuki and Danault both went 8-9 (47 per cent).
The schedule
Here’s the rest of the schedule for the Canadiens-Leafs first-round series. All games will be televised on CBC, Sportsnet, TVA Sports and will be available on radio on TSN 690 and 98.5 FM:
Game 5: Thursday, May 27, 7 p.m., at Toronto
Game 6: Saturday, May 29, time TBD, at Montreal, if necessary
Game 7: Monday, May 31, time TBD, at Toronto, if necessary
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