The Montreal Canadiens keep finding ways to make life harder than it needs to be, and Martin St-Louis knows exactly where the issue lies.
Even after beating the Buffalo Sabres and collecting two points, Montreal still gave one away. That single point was enough to leave Buffalo in eighth place in the Eastern Conference and the Canadiens ninth.
It’s still early, but the standings wrinkle fits an uncomfortable pattern for Montreal, one that already cost them home-ice advantage last season. The Canadiens finished with 106 points, same as the Tampa Bay Lightning, but regulation wins decided the tiebreaker: Jon Cooper’s club had 40, while Montreal had 34.
That’s the gap St-Louis is watching. His team can play well enough to win, but not always well enough to finish.
Saturday night against the Sabres was another example. Montreal had a 3-1 lead and was on the power play when Jack Quinn cleared the puck deep into the Canadiens’ zone.
Zach Benson beat Dobson to it and got the puck moving before the defenseman could react. From there, it ended up in front of the net, where Quinn got there first and beat Jacob Fowler to the puck, a step ahead of Lane Hutson, who could only watch.
For St-Louis, those are the kind of mistakes that keep turning games back into fights.
“It has to be better than this from that angle: how we behave on the ice. We play good games, but small mental errors creep in at times and hurt us. I’m generally proud of how we play as a team and all that, but those small mental errors…you lead by two; it should be over.”
The Canadiens’ coach also addressed the power play and the repeated failure to seal the game off once Montreal had the lead.
“It was okay, but we’re better than this. […] It would be fun to put the final nail in the coffin.
Buffalo is not an easy team to play with a lead; they play a wide-open game, and you have to be calculated in your actions. Even in the offensive zone, you can’t make a risky incomplete play; they thrive on that.
They’re just waiting for you to try a play and fail, and then they take it the other way. You have to be patient and manage the puck in the offensive zone.
It’s not necessarily about manufacturing a scoring chance, but it’s about managing the puck and forcing them to defend. When you can extend your time in the offensive zone and force them to defend, even if you make a risky play that ends up incomplete, they’re too tired to take advantage of it.
But if you do that early, they pounce on the attack, and it’s not three guys attacking; it’s all hands on deck.”
St-Louis also talked through the balance teams have to strike when they’re trying to finish a game off. There’s a line between being aggressive and being careless, and crossing it can leave a club exposed the other way.
He compared it to boxing: if you swing too hard at the wrong moment, you can get caught by a quick jab. There isn’t a neat shortcut for avoiding that.
It takes experience, and the Canadiens, still young and still building, are learning it on the fly.
That’s part of why these lost points keep showing up, especially against divisional opponents. St-Louis knows they can’t keep letting them slip away.
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