The Montreal Canadiens have looked like a dangerous team for the latter portion of this regular season. Before Sunday's shutout loss to the New Jersey Devils, the Canadiens were on an eight-game winning streak. Tuesday presented Montreal with the chance to get back into the win column.
The Canadiens did just that, defeating the Florida Panthers 4-3 shootout victory. Montreal trailed 3-2 in the closing seconds of regulation, but captain Nick Suzuki scored the tying goal with just 21 seconds left on the clock. Look, a win is a win, and any points a team can get will matter. With this win, the Canadiens are now tied with the Buffalo Sabres and Tampa Bay Lightning for first place in the Atlantic Division.
Even with the win, Suzuki voiced his displeasure about the team's play in the victory, especially his line of himself, Cole Caufield, and Juraj Slafkovsky.
Nick Suzuki voiceds displasure about Canadiens' play vs. Panthers
“We weren’t very good,” Suzuki said, h/t TSN. “To win that is big for the standings, but we know we’ve got to be a lot better the last few games of the regular season... It started with my line. I was pretty brutal all night. A bit too casual. I thought we were kind of soft as a group.”
As the TSN article mentions, Montreal's top line only managed one shot on goal through the first 15 minutes of the game. That's not ideal, especially with how productive the trio had been all year. Not to mention, they can't get into a hole that early in a game once the playoffs arrive, especially when they face either the Sabres, Lightning, or Boston Bruins, depending on their seeding.
The trio did show up after the slow start. Suzuki, obviously, notched the game-tying goal to force overtime. Caufield, meanwhile, scored one of Montreal's two shootout goals to secure the win, and assisted on Ivan Demidov's game-tying goal in the early in the second period. Slafkovsky notched two assists, one on the aforementioned Demidov goal and Suzuki's goal in the closing seconds.
The Canadiens showed not too long ago just how dangerous of a playoff opponent they could be. Given Suzuki's comments, he's going to want to see much more urgency from the team and ensure they don't get off to a slow start in their remaining games. Left on the schedule for the Canadiens in a potential pursuit for the Atlantic Division title include the Lightning (Thursday), Columbus Blue Jackets (Saturday), New York Islanders (Sunday), and Philadelphia Flyers (Tuesday).
Montreal has made major strides since making the playoffs last year. They obviously plan on bringing home their first Stanley Cup title since 1993. But the team captain wants them to clean up their play before the games really matter.