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about last night: no bright side in losing to last-place sharks

rafael harvey-pinard returned to the lineup, but it wasn't enough to lift the habs in a 3-2 loss to the sharks.

by erik leijon, special to montreal gazette

jan 12 2024
read time 3 minute read
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there’s no easier layup in the nhl right now than the san jose sharks, yet the montreal canadiens still found a way to lose 3-2 in regulation to the league’s worst team at the bell centre on thursday night.

the sharks erased a 12-game losing streak with the road win. as for the habs, they followed up a disappointing shootout loss against the flyers two nights ago with an even more disappointing performance last night.

goaltending was once again the lone bright spot: sam montembeault made 32 saves, half of them in the second period.
montreal’s beleaguered forward corps got some much-needed reinforcement in the form of rafaël harvey-pinard, who returned to the lineup after being sidelined for nearly two months.
a rare mistake by rookie jayden struble led to the game’s first goal by luke kunin. to coach martin st. louis’s credit, he sent struble right back out there and he responded with a big hit on william eklund.
stop me if you’ve heard this one before: josh anderson got a breakaway and couldn’t score on mackenzie blackwood.
with 2:35 left in the second, tomas hertl took advantage of defensive zone miscues by the habs to feed fabian zetterlund for the game’s second goal.
just 21 seconds later, brendan gallagher scored his seventh of the season a little further out from his usual scoring spot to put montreal on the board. mike matheson got his 200th career point with an assist on the play.

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the second period might be the worst 20 minutes the habs play all season. they were outshot 17-9 by the sharks. they allowed one goal, letting nikita okhotiuk slip in from the blue line undetected for his first as a shark to give the bad news bears a 3-1 lead.
in the third period, the bell centre boo birds came out, and montreal waited until the goalie was pulled with five minutes left before fighting back. matheson’s point shot was screened in front by anderson, giving the defenceman a two-point night. nick suzuki and cole caufield collected assists in what would otherwise have been consecutive quiet nights for the pair.

the habs pressed in the final two minutes, but it was too late. the sharks snapped their 12-game losing streak, while the habs will go down as the toronto raptors to their detroit pistons. (the pistons recently snapped a historic 28-game losing streak against the raps .)

after 41 games, the habs hit the midway point of the season with a 16-17-6 record, with an 8-11-2 record on home ice. they have a goal differential of -28, which is second worst in the eastern conference, behind only the columbus blue jackets. that might be a greater indicator of where they stand in the league hierarchy than their win-loss record.

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losing to the sharks got the liveblog commenters talking about the overall state of the rebuild. even in a season with modest expectations, getting beat at home to the 32nd place team feels like a step back. more roster churn is imminent, perhaps starting with veterans like monahan and jake allen, and with contenders and pretenders revealing themselves with 41 games to go, the time is ripe for kent hughes to work the phones. montreal needs a new everything, especially some new looks on offence.
 
 

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