Bottom Six Minutes 60: The best 6-3 loss you’ll ever see

After losing 6-3 to the Arizona Coyotes, Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis told the media that he felt his team deserved better on the night. He added that sometimes you can’t just look at goals or getting key saves, but how the team is playing overall, and that he likes what he’s seeing on that front.

I’d go a step further. I’d say that that was the best 6-3 loss I’ve ever seen.

That may be a bit of an oxymoron, but I think it’s appropriate here since the Habs were the better team in almost every facet of Tuesday night’s game. This was far from Samuel Montembeault’s best outing, and the defensive coverage in front of him left a lot to be desired, but St. Louis was right that overall, they deserved a better result.

Wins don’t even matter at this point. You could argue that losing to the Coyotes and improving their lottery chances is a win in itself, particularly because they gave up the points to one of their main competitors on that front. It was a perfect tank win because they actually managed to look mostly good in the process of losing.

What does matter is seeing the team play better hockey, and seeing some key youngsters take a step forward. They almost managed to mount a comeback from a 5-1 deficit, led by a player who figures to be one of the most important pieces of their rebuild.

Cole Caufield has been dynamite since the coaching change, and most fans would probably be willing to trade quite a few wins in favour of seeing this continue. Improvement from key players and some entertaining hockey is all fans have been asking for since the results went south. We’re seeing both now.

And for old times’ sake, I leave you with one final thought courtesy of EOTP’s former managing editor.

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