Canadiens leave Columbus one step closer to busting slump

It was a step in the right direction, just not the leap the Montreal Canadiens were hoping for.

But thatâ€s the thing about deep funks and losing streaks — you donâ€t just jump out of them; you dig your way out one foot at a time.

And so it made sense that when the cameras hit Montrealâ€s room, after Kirill Marchenko scored his fourth goal on his fourth shootout attempt of the season and Jet Greaves made the stop on Ivan Demidov that secured a 4-3 win for the Columbus Blue Jackets, they captured Canadiens players in relatively good spirits.

“I thought we played well tonight,†Josh Anderson, the former Blue Jacket who scored one of two third-period goals to get the Canadiens back into the game from down 3-1, told reporters at Nationwide Arena. He was right.

Down Patrik Laine, Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook and Kaiden Guhle — four regulars out long-term — the Canadiens controlled play for most of the game.

They withstood the Blue Jackets’ charge in the opening minutes and took over the second half of the first period. From down 1-0, they connected on the type of play theyâ€d regularly botched in three straight losses prior to this one, with Juraj Slafkovsky feeding Ivan Demidov, who hit Mike Matheson on a high-slot cycle before Matheson crossed up Yegor Chinakov and Sean Monahan to find teammate Oliver Kapanen in the middle of the slot for a goal to the roof of Greaves†net early in the second period. And from down 3-1 in the third, they produced shot attempts at a two-to-one ratio, dominated scoring chances 12-3, and found the back of the net by creating chaos and traffic in front of it.

The Canadiens lost five of six games coming into this one not doing enough of that stuff, and they had every reason to feel dejected after outshooting the Blue Jackets 6-0 in overtime and getting beat in a breakaway competition in the end.

But the step they took was towards resembling their better selves, and it was important they recognized it so they can finally take the one thatâ€ll get them out of this hole.

“There were a lot of things we did tonight that were very encouraging,†said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “I liked our collective game, we didnâ€t give up much, and in the third we looked like ourselves. The only disappointing thing tonight was not getting the result. We played to our standard.â€

“Weâ€re chasing standards, not the scoreboard,†he added moments later. “Itâ€ll take care of itself if we bring those intentions and play to the standard, and weâ€ll be fine.â€

At 10-6-3 on the season, tied with Detroit for the best points percentage (.605) in an extremely competitive Atlantic Division (and tied with them for the fourth-best points percentage in the league), the Canadiens already are fine.

Had they come into Columbus and played well beneath the standard they set for themselves through a 9-3-0 start to the season, it wouldâ€ve been a step towards being anything but fine, no matter the result.

Things couldnâ€t continue the way they went in a 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, a 7-0 loss to the Dallas Stars and a 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins last week.

Not that the Canadiens were as bad as the combined scoreline suggested. They just werenâ€t nearly good enough, and the process reflected it.

The process looked different enough against the Blue Jackets for the Canadiens to rightfully believe they took a step in the right direction.

That step was a step towards each other, towards leaning more on the collective game in the absence of the injured. It was a step taken thanks to some line juggling and strategy tweaks that sparked some much-needed offence. And that step found solid ground with the cohesion the Canadiens found at the most critical point in the game—on their only man-advantage, with 1:51 remaining.

It didnâ€t happen on a power play seeking redemption after 17 straight misses, including seven against Boston, and thatâ€s because the Canadiens didnâ€t get a single power-play opportunity against Columbus.

But they pulled goaltender Jakub Dobes with just under two minutes remaining in regulation, went six-on-five, and everyone did their job away from the puck to enable Lane Hutson to do his with it.

Hutsonâ€s second goal of the season, scored at 18:41 of the third period, extended momentum the Canadiens came so close to capitalizing on in overtime.

“Thought we gave ourselves a really good chance to win,†said Nick Suzuki afterwards.

He talked about Hutson and the other defencemen getting pucks to the net, about the forwards getting themselves there, and about how the Canadiens were generally in control.

Control was what they hadnâ€t particularly had over the last two weeks of losing hockey, so the most important thing for them was to start wrestling it back.

Now itâ€ll be critical to keep it against the Washington Capitals Thursday. Itâ€s the step thatâ€ll lead the Canadiens back to the win column.

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