The Montreal Canadiens had some reasons for optimism over the past two weeks. Montreal had won three of their past four games entering their matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night, and Patrik Laine had scored three powerplay goals since returning from his knee injury. Fans weren't thinking playoffs by any means, but they were just three points behind the Ottawa Senators for fifth in the Atlantic Division, and a win over the Penguins would've catapulted them to sixth.
The reality is that the Canadiens are still in eighth in the division because the Penguins entered the Bell Centre and absolutely steamrolled them. It was 1-1 after the first period thanks to a Nick Suzuki goal to open the scoring and Rickard Rakell's tying goal two minutes later. However, the game completely got away from the Habs over the next 40 minutes.
Bryan Rust scored back-to-back goals in the second period to take a 3-1 lead, before Joel Armia put the Canadiens back within one to end the second period. The Canadiens hoped it would start a comeback bid in the third period, but that was far from the reality.
Rakell scored four minutes into the period for the Penguins, before Kris Letang, Anthony Beauvillier, Rust, Matt Nieto, and Noel Acciari scored six unanswered goals to give Pittsburgh a 9-2 victory and another embarassing night for Montreal.
Sam Montembeault has been a bright spot for the Canadiens, but even he wasn't immune to an abysmal performance in this game. He allowed six goals on 26 shots, which led to Cayden Primeau entering the game with 11 minutes remaining in the third period. Montreal was trying to protect Primeau after some bad starts, but they had no choice but to get Montembeault out of the net.
The decision could have even more lasting effects than keeping Montembeault in the net. If Montembeault continued to take a beating, it was starting to look like the night Patrick Roy quit on the team in the 1990s. However, the cost of keeping Montembeault happy was destroying Primeau's confidence. He allowed three goals on seven shots, which wasn't what the Canadiens had planned when they gave Montembeault five consecutive starts. The team hoped to rebuild Primeau's confidence through practice to reignite him as a reliable backup.
Where do the Canadiens go from here? It feels like we have been asking that question too many times through the season's first two monts