Montreal Canadiens Collapse Again, This Time Against Worst Team In League

The Montreal Canadiens blew a third period lead for the second straight game. This time is was against the Detroit Red Wings who are the worst team in the league – except when they face the Canadiens.

The Montreal Canadiens have officially hit rock bottom. How does it get any worse than blowing a third period lead for the second straight game when winning those games would have put you four points back of a playoff spot? Well, you do it against the worst team in the league. The team that you can not beat all season long.

The Canadiens have swapped long streaks of solid play with lengthy losing streaks all year long. Their last stretch of good play ended last Saturday when they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs to win their ninth game of their last 12 and get just close enough to the playoff chase to believe they have a chance.

Then they lost to the Arizona Coyotes by allowing a last minute goal. Then they lost to the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins. They appeared to finally be ready to snap their losing streak at three when they played the Dallas Stars and took a 3-0 lead in the second period.

However, four consecutive goals from the Stars, capped by a Tyler Seguin overtime winner gave the Stars the victory. It is difficult to do any worse than that, but in their very next game the Habs found rock bottom.

The Canadiens entered last night’s game having lost all three prior meetings with the Detroit Red Wings. The Red Wings are the worst team in the league. In fact, they are the worst team we have seen in this league in a very long time. Yet they have no problem beating the Montreal Canadiens.

The Habs made it difficult last night. They took an early lead after Paul Byron made his presence felt after missing three months of hockey. Byron forced a turnover just inside the Red Wings blue line and fed a pass to Nick Cousins. Cousins quickly fed a cross-ice pass across to Nate Thompson who one-timed it how to give the Habs a 1-0 lead.

Jeff Petry extended that lead to 2-0 when he fired a laser home from the blue line on the Canadiens first power play of the game. Robby Fabbri closed the gap to one early in the second period but Nick Suzuki regained the Habs two goal lead finishing off a nice pass from Jordan Weal on the power play.

The Canadiens got some unfortunate news when Victor Mete was injured blocking a shot late in the first period and it was announced he would not be returning the rest of the night. The Habs were just getting healthy as this was Byron’s first game back since November and Shea Weber was supposed to be out for weeks but returned after missing about a week.

Without Mete in the third period, Andreas Athanasiou blew past the Habs defense and lifted a backhander over Carey Price’s shoulder to pull the Red Wings within one again. Five minutes later Mike Green got loose and scored when he fooled Price by fanning on a wrist shot and the puck trickled through the legs of Price.

The Habs finally completed their second straight collapse by allowing another Athanasiou goal with 5:15 to play. And that was it, they officially hit rock bottom with that goal. How does it get less promising or more embarrassing than losing four times in a row to a team that has a record of 11-43-4 against the rest of the National Hockey League.

If the Canadiens were 3-1-0 against the Red Wings this season they would be two points back of a playoff spot. If they swept the Wings they would be in third place in the Atlantic Division right now. But they haven’t been able to even grab a single win against the Wings in four tries.

The good news is the Habs are definitely, officially, 100% for sure going to be sellers at the trade deadline. It is time for the Habs to move out veterans and bring in draft picks and prospects. It is just hard to believe the Canadiens are at this point only because of their record against the worst NHL team in years.

This is it. Rock bottom. It doesn’t sink any lower than this. Of course, the Habs losing streak is only at five right now. If they lose three more and go on their third eight game losing streak of the year, I suppose that would be even lower.