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Bottom Six Minutes: At least they showed some fire

The Montreal Canadiens delivered a stinker for their home crowd on Monday night — a 4-0 shutout loss to the Seattle Kraken. They looked to be sleepwalking for the first 20 minutes of the game, and though things got a little better in the next 40, they still weren’t giving their fans much to cheer about. It was quite hard to try and come up with something positive to write about that effort.

But I did notice that at the very least, the team showed like they cared that they weren’t performing well.

This fire was, in my opinion, what was missing from this team last season when things got tough. Rather than hang their heads after a brutal opening period, they brought their level of play up in the next two, and while it was far from perfect, it was nice to see them show that they care.

Cole Caufield barely missed a good chance in the third period, and looked furious with himself on the bench. He’s the one player who has been consistently scoring this season, and thus the last who should be upset with himself, and still, he really wanted that one. It likely wouldn’t have changed the outcome, but man, did he ever want it.

Jake Evans was tolerating absolutely no late incursions into the crease, which likely would have been met with apathy last year.

This is all likely cold comfort to those of us who sat through an altogether sloppy effort from the Habs, but it is one small positive difference from last year. They may be losing a lot of games, but at least there is some passion in behind that losing that can hopefully drive them to success in future years as they build around exciting players like Caufield and Nick Suzuki.

Losing is fine, but being apathetic about losing is another thing altogether. At least, they don’t appear to be apathetic this time around.

Click the play button below to listen to your full Bottom Six Minutes, also available wherever you get your podcasts. WE have a two day break, and will return this Thursday when the Canadiens will honour PK Subban before they host the Nashville Predators.

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