The Canadians lose in St. Louis, must fix bad habits to keep the hopes of the NHL playoffs alive

ST. Louis – Tuesday’s match between Montreal Canadiens and St. Louis Blues has been invoiced as a matchup of two teams that are an image mirroring each other.

They are two of the most popular teams of the NHL that come out of the 4 nations. Two teams that make an unlikely push for the playoffs and retain the last Jolly point in their conferences. Two teams led by the star centers, Nick Suzuki and Robert Thomas, who were left outside the Canada team and left that break showing what they deserved to do it. Two teams that have been successful despite having lost important defenders in Kaiden Guhle and Colton Parayko.

The similarities were apparently infinite.

But under the hood, the Canadians and blue were not so similar. The blues were trying to extend a winning six-games series in which they had passed their opposition 28-9. The Canadiens had not lost in the regulation in their previous six games with a record of 3-0-3, but the cumulative score-senza count the “goal” of shootings for the Over the Colorado avalanche on Saturday-era 24-19. Not bad, but not exactly at the same level as the blues, even if St. Louis had some easier opponents in their program.

The series of blues victories is now seven games after managing the Canadiens 6-1 Tuesday, performing their cumulative score at 34-10 on that series. And the Canadiens are left to wonder if it is a turning point in their push to the playoffs.

The Canadiens were in a playoff on January 21 after winning seven of the nine games.

They were out of a playoff on January 22nd, then 1-7-1 from that point to the break of the 4 nations.

Leaving the break, the coach Martin St. Louis mentioned that experimenting that slide prepared him to recognize a similar slide and, ideally, he would have prepared him better to cut him in step.

This loss for the Blues, combined with the loss of shooting at the avalanche on Saturday, seems the right time for St. Louis and the Canadiens to stop the bleeding before he becomes an hemorrhage.

Once again, this was the first loss of canadiens regulation in two weeks. It is not a crisis. And they were helped on Tuesday evening when the New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators have all lost regulation time, so the Canadiens have not lost ground in the playoff race. But in the way they played, they lost ground.

And St. Louis seemed to know him after the game.

“We did not make easy on ourselves tonight,” said St. Louis. “I didn’t like the number of records (Jordan) Binnington.

“A little bit of these, I will take responsibility for how we want to come together because we do not always arrive in the same way; somehow the game plan based on who we are playing.”

Before the game, St. Louis spoke of this: the placement of disk on the Forececk, keeping it away from the goalkeeper. He observed that the way in which the Canadians place records depends at least in some way on the team they are facing and its structure. It is, in other words, a coaching decision.

“Change from a team team and where the boys are on ice,” said St. Louis on Tuesday morning. “You must be calculated with where you are putting the records, and sometimes it is based on where your boys are and sometimes it is based on the knowledge of the tendencies of the other team, and sometimes they are both.”

The management of puck management and risk risk assessment are two principles that define the turnaround reversal of the canadiens this season. Playing low risk hockey becomes increasingly important in this period of the year, especially in the current NHL landscape. The teams become more adverse to risk and feed poor risk management.

It is a drum that St. Louis beat throughout the season and, leaving the break, the Canadiens were good at evaluating the risk and acting accordingly.

“I think you see less and less turnover, play stubborn when there is nothing there,” said St. Louis on Tuesday morning. “The teams are managing their risk much more, so there are more deep records when there is no numerical advantage. Sometimes you still have the turnover of the lack of execution, a bad rebound or something like that, and outside what you could be able to own us to go back.

But against the blues, that discipline seemed to disappear. The turnover that came out of their area, just inside their blue line, seemed particularly annoyed by St. Louis. In the first period, Patrik Laine had one and Alex Newhook had another in consecutive shifts. The Canadiens took over 13 minutes to generate a real shot on goal on Binnington and the lack of risk management was a great reason.

“The first 10 minutes, we committed so many turnover,” said St. Louis. “It is difficult to prevent the other team from entering our area with possession for this. Billing just inside our blue line, trying to go out, being cute, turnover of neutral area, they are all actions that help the other team. And we have done many in advance.”

One of them was to allow the blues to enter the second period with an advantage of 2-1 after allowing a goal with six seconds left in the first.

Holloway blows, Holloway scores. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/ctftub55p

– St. Louis Blues (@stlouisblues) March 26, 2025

St. Louis often speaks that he is able to live with one -off, but says that trends are more problematic. For all the time of St. Louis as head coach, a trend could be defined as several games. Where the canadiens are now, with every important game, a trend would qualify as two games.

Therefore, the inability of the canadiens to correctly manage the disc is now a trend.

“Yes, a little,” said St. Louis. “Above all, the game of Colorado and this game, we will talk about it. I don’t necessarily felt against the islanders or Ottawa, but I certainly felt that against Colorado. The first two lines, both teams, are dangerous. You do it when those guys are on ice, you have to defend a lot and these are guys who can end up on their possibilities.”

Suzuki seemed exasperated after the game. The Canadiens recognized what kind of challenge presented the blues and were not considered. They had their game B, they did not recognize it early enough and did not simplified things to compensate for the fact that their execution was not where it had to be for a second game in a row.

“Yes, I think we needed it for sure,” said Suzuki. “It’s difficult, a long flight. We didn’t skate this morning, trying to save the legs. To go out on the flat, I think we have to simplify in advance, and we did not do it. It was discussed, but we continued to turn the discs and we were not so sharp.

The Canadiens will practice here on Wednesday before flying to Filadelphia to face the Flyers Thursday. It will be a significant practice. It will be a significant game. The Canadiens have put themselves in a situation in which a loser series is something that simply cannot afford. Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers follow this trip. Their playoff possibilities could be hung in the balance and the corrections must be immediate.

“For me, in this period of the year, I feel like – I heard this say the other day – it’s not a failure tonight,” said St. Louis. “For me, it’s fertilizer. Here is what it has to be.”

The goal of the Canadiens this season was to play significant games in March. They reached it. But the reason why it was the goal was that the management acquired information on this team and that the players and coaches benefit from these moments of learning, to experience the urgency of a playoff race and the need to correct you quickly and prevent a slide that alters the season at the bottom of the ranking.

The next game of the Canadiens could be the difference between a slide that alters the season and a sign that this team can correct quickly. It is on the players and the coach to provide positive information to the management in these circumstances because this is all this season.

(Photo by Zack Bolduc (76) and Nick Suzuki (14): Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images)