Playing in back-to-back games has been a nightmare for the Montreal Canadiens this season. Their record isn’t great in the opening games, and it is pitiful when they have to follow those up the next night. This trend continued in earnest against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night, with an embarrassing effort leading to a 6-2 loss at the hands of the worst team in the Eastern conference.
It is tempting to simply chalk this up to the team not being very good. After all, they currently sit outside of the playoff picture, and would be the 25th-ranked team in the NHL were the season to end today. But that explanation rings quite hollow when they drop an ugly loss to the currently 29th-ranked Senators, and begs the question of why they can’t simply string two decent efforts together.
There was simply no life in that game. By the time the Senators made it 2-0, shots were 15-2 in their favour, and Cayden Primeau was hung out to dry. He had far from his best game in a Canadiens uniform, and let in some goals that he should have stopped, but there is no hanging that loss on his play. If he came with the best effort of his life, it probably wouldn’t have been enough to get the Habs a win. Much has been made of the goalie steals this year, but they didn’t even do enough for a steal to be within the realm of possibility this time.
And the Senators aren’t the only basement-dwellers the Habs have done this against recently. Try as one may, it is difficult to forget the January 11 debacle that was their effort against the 32nd-ranked San Jose Sharks. It doesn’t matter who the Habs play, when they have a back-to-back, you can bet the house that the second game will be devoid of watchable hockey from them.
If this is simply fatigue, the strength and conditioning staff need to get on that immediately. Players who can’t manage two games in two nights should perhaps be moved down in the lineup, or to the press box if they can’t bring up their conditioning. Every team in the league has to play back-to-backs, and if you don’t have the conditioning for it, then one must seriously question whether you should be earning NHL money at all.
Nobody cares if they keep losing games, but they can at least show some pride and effort along the way.
Click the play button below to listen to your full Bottom Six Minutes, also available wherever you get your podcasts. Games aren’t getting any easier, as we’ll be back following this Saturday’s tilt with the league-leading Boston Bruins.
