In the Habs room: ‘We’re not playing as a team,’ says frustrated Jeff Petry

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PITTSBURGH – The Canadiens lost a 5-2 decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night, but Dominique Ducharme tried to put a positive spin on the team’s seventh straight loss.

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“I don’t think the score reflects the game, I thought we were competitive most of the night,” Ducharme said.

In fact, the Canadiens were outscored by a wide margin in the second period and were fortunate to enter the third period with a 3-2 deficit. But the score was close only because Jesse Ylönen scored his first NHL goal on a sight shot with three seconds left in the period.

That should have given the Canadiens a boost before the third, but it took Brian Dumoulin just 28 seconds to restore the Penguins’ two-goal lead.

Ducharme said Dumoulin’s goal was disappointing, particularly since Nick Suzuki won two meetings against Sidney Crosby to start the period.

“Scoring a goal late in the second was big for us and it gave us a chance to go out there and win the third period and then they scored early and it looks like it deflated things,” said defender Jeff Petry, who returned to the lineup after failing. . four games with an upper body injury.

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Petry wasn’t impressed with the Canadiens’ performance and sounded like he sensed there was a problem with Ducharme’s system.

“It’s frustrating,” he said. “They are the same things over and over. We do not play as a team, we do not play in a group. It’s like you’re looking to find where the people are. There seems to be no structure out there. “

Petry said he didn’t like what he saw when he watched the game from the press gallery while injured.

“You sit on it and there are times when you’re scratching your head,” said Petry. “It seems like everyone knows where they should be, but they don’t go to those places. We don’t make it easier for anyone on the ice except the other team ”.

The Canadiens continue to play the longest list of injured players in the NHL, but Petry refused to use that as an excuse.

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“Injuries are a big part, but I think everyone who wears that jersey should come out and act, whether you’re proving yourself in this league and showing you want to stay or you’re a veteran.”

One player in the promising category is Ylönen.

“It has been three games in a row and I feel more comfortable from one game to the next,” Ylönen said. “It’s a different game than AHL and it takes a while to adapt. I think players play games better and if you make a mistake the puck will often end up in the back of the net. You have to be better at handling your discs and your battles. “

The line of Ylönen, Jonathan Drouin and Laurent Dauphin was the best trio of the Canadiens by far. Drouin had a goal and an assist and it was Dauphin’s hard work across the boards that established his goal. The line accounted for 10 of Montreal’s 30 shots.

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Jake Allen couldn’t duplicate the magic he displayed here on November 27, when he made 47 saves in a 6-3 win over the Penguins.

Pittsburgh won the special teams battle with one goal five times, though the Canadiens looked good as they killed a two-man lead 1:43 early in the second period. The Canadiens went 0-for-2 with the extra man, which isn’t surprising, because Montreal is ranked 30th in the power play and the Penguins have killed 32 penalties in a row.

The Canadiens are back at the Bell Center to play Philadelphia on Thursday and the Boston Bruins on Saturday.

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