Another game, another loss for the Canadiens

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The Canadiens lost Saturday night, losing a 4-1 decision to the Blues in St. Louis.

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What else is new?

Montreal saw their record drop to 6-20-3 and now they are winless in their last six games (0-5-1), scoring just eight goals during that span. His injured list also continues to grow with Jake Evans the last player added on Saturday, while the team also announced that Tyler Toffoli will be out for eight weeks after undergoing hand surgery earlier this week.

Painful is the best word to describe this season.

The Canadiens rank 31st out of 32 teams in the NHL’s overall rankings, just ahead of the Arizona Coyotes, who struggle just to pay their taxes.

Pavel Buchnevich, Dakota Joshua, Ivan Barbashev and Torey Krug all scored for the Blues, who improved to 15-8-4 and extended their winning streak at home to seven games. Alexander Romanov scored for the Canadiens, who are 2-10-2 on the road.

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For the second time this season, Montreal lost to one of its former backup goalkeepers when Charlie Lindgren stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced after being called up by the AHL Springfield Thunderbirds last week. Lindgren has now won all three games he has played for the Blues after spending last season on the Canadiens’ taxi squad, never playing a game.

On November 26 in Buffalo, Dustin Tokarski stopped 24 of the 25 shots he faced when the Sabers defeated the Canadiens 4-1. In 2014, Tokarski became the Canadiens’ number one goalkeeper in the playoffs after Carey Price suffered a knee injury.

Saturday’s game was the first against St. Louis for Canadiens goalkeeper Jake Allen since he was traded for the Blues on September 2, 2020. He got off to a bad start when Allen misplayed the puck behind his net, which led to Buchnevich’s first goal. only 1:03 in the game.

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The Blues played a video paying tribute to Allen during the first time off television and received a standing ovation from St. Louis fans. Allen spent seven seasons in St. Louis and was part of the Blues team that won the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in 2019.

Cole Caufield, who only has one goal this season, hit the post at 2:30 in the first period, but the Canadiens didn’t get their first official shot on goal until Nick Suzuki’s 6:57 mark. Joel Armia, who also has just one goal this season for the Canadiens, fanned into a perfect Jonathan Drouin setup with an empty net in front of him in the final minute of the first period, which ended with the Blues beating Montreal 12-6. .

Joshua made it 2-0 for the Blues at 8:52 in the second period. Shots were 19-6 at the time with the Canadiens still looking for their first shot of the period.

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Suzuki finally got the Canadiens’ first shot in the second period at the 12:29 mark before Barbashev made it 3-0 with a power goal at the 15:20 mark.

Romanov put the Canadiens on the board with his second goal of the season at 1:57 of the third period. Krug scored the second goal of the Blues’ power play at 10:16 to seal the victory.

The Canadiens have now scored two goals or less in 21 of their 29 games this season. Can you say boring?

If you’re a Montreal fan this season, you certainly can.

There are only 53 more games left.

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