A day after a shootout thriller in Toronto, the Montreal Canadiens were right back in action, this time against the St. Louis Blues at the Bell Centre. With two-straight shootout wins on the books, they had a chance to stretch their win streak to three, but came up short with a disappointing 4-3 loss in front of their home crowd.
Earlier in the day we found out that Samuel Montembeault would miss the game due to illness. With how inconsistent the Habs were defensively, one could easily wonder if that illness had hit the rest of the team as well.
Defence-optional shift from the Habs. Tie game. pic.twitter.com/wSm4yLGtsP
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) December 8, 2025
This was the kind of chance Jakub Dobes had to face on every goal scored against him. It was either an odd-man rush, or a man left completely alone in front. Goaltending has been an issue for this team throughout the season, but they can’t even start to blame goaltending for this loss. Prime Carey Price may have won that game for them, but this team is supposed to be past the need for those kind of heroics.
It was incredibly frustrating to watch just a day after they had closed off the slot almost entirely against the Toronto Maple Leafs. They went from allowing next to nothing in front of the net, to several lapses that led to players having enough time to brew a coffee under Dobes’s nose.
In the first period, they looked like the far better team. Sleepwalking their way through the first few minutes of the second, they watched a one-goal lead turn into a one-goal deficit. They also seemed largely disinterested for the better part of the third period, and by the time they turned it back on, it was too little, too late. The old adage of playing a full 60 minutes may be tired, but figuring out how to do precisely that is the next great battle for this team.
Had they simply kept playing their first period game for 40 more minutes, they’d have taken two points in regulation. They have to figure out a way to achieve some consistency.
Click the play button below to listen to your full Bottom Six Minutes, also available wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll be back on Tuesday night, when the Habs will take on the division-leading Tampa Bay Lightning at the Bell Centre.
