Resilient Canadians must quickly go from defeat to the Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS – The Montreal Canadiens' hopes for the playoffs may have been seriously undermined by the 6-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets Thursday, but they have not been destroyed yet. .

That's what fans of the Canadiens have to remember after a game that their team controlled, but it blew up in an unusual way, giving the Blue Jackets five goals after taking a 2-1 lead with less than half of the time remaining. This team was counted several times – and there is a little over a week, while she had 11 defeats in 16 games – but she bounced back each time.

The Canadiens reacted last week by taking nine of the 10 points available against the Philadelphia Flyers, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabers, Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers. They reacted all year bouncing after heavy losses and returning to the image of the playoffs.

That's what Montreal needs to do now. With four games to play, they are in the bubble, tied with Columbus (90) for the second wild card and one point behind the Carolina Hurricanes for the first game of the Eastern Conference. The mandate is to immediately forget Thursday's result and focus on Saturday's game in Winnipeg against the Jets.

"Even if this defeat hurts, we have characters in this locker room," said Canadiens coach Claude Julien. "They are players of character who care about the situation, who want to do well and as a coach, you like to see that.I have a lot of young people but I also have veterans and a good mix, so I'm confident we'll go to Winnipeg and we'll be ready to play. "

The Canadians were ready to play in Columbus, but they were perplexed to see how unprepared they were for two first attempts at victory.

They came out of the door scoring a goal in the second minute of the game and allowed the Blue Jackets to score without scoring in the bottom of the first 10.

In the second period, the wheels fell off the Canadiens' bus. Artturi Lehkonen, Max Domi and Andrew Shaw have changed their style of play. The Blue Jackets have scored five times out of two, completing a tic-tac-toe by David Savard to tie the match 1-1.

A few minutes after Jeff Petry won the Canadians 2-1, Oliver Bjorkstrand slipped into the loose blanket of Montreal to reverse Seth Jones. Matt Duchene took advantage of the Canadians 'turnaround in the offensive zone to rush to the ice, defeat Victor Mete and place Artemi Panarin for Columbus' third goal.

Goal four was a gift to Jesperi Kotkaniemi's Montreal ice center, which Riley Nash took for a breakaway. The Blue Jackets striker got his own rebound and put him around Carey Price.

The fifth goal was reached after Petry realized what he later called "forced play" in the offensive zone. On this one, Bjorkstrand managed to get a two-by-one pbad from Jones.

And the sixth was a net from Brandon Dubinsky, scored at 4:49 of the third period.

The Canadians did not explain why things were not going well, they just had to resign to explain their role in the defeat and want to leave them behind immediately.

"We certainly cracked first," said Canadiens' badistant captain Brendan Gallagher. "We made a lot of mistakes. It's a good hockey team, we do not need to make it easy for them. [but] we made it easy for them to get those chances and then score goals. It's about us. At the same time, we move on to something else. We are getting ready for our next game in Winnipeg, we are finding a way to win this game and things can turn out fast. "

They have repeatedly for the Canadiens this season. The team started in October with a big loss in Toronto and went on to win six of their next nine games. They lost a record in November and rebounded with a mark of 10-5-0 in December. It's after losing three of their first five games in January that they have won five of their next six games to close the month. And then, there was their last run, which led them to Columbus on Thursday with a chance to move to the first wild-card position.

The Canadians have not been able to seize this opportunity and their quest for the playoffs has become much more difficult to achieve. The chances are not in their favor, as Columbus and Carolina each have a game in hand, as well as much less demanding schedules.

For Montreal, it's the Tampa Bay Lightning, leader of the NHL next Tuesday, in Washington against the Washington Capitals of the Metropolitan Division next Thursday, and his return home to end the season against a team Toronto Maple Leafs who beat them three times out of three. since October.

Their next game, against a Jets team that leads the center division and is already qualifying for the playoffs, is the only one in mind with the loss to Columbus.

"[Thursday’s outcome] does not matter, "said Julien." I think that in the end, it could have been a rewarding learning experience for young guys, but as a team we know we have to be better than that, again we had a tough game in one of those games that was really important, but for the moment, as I told the guys, we have to stick to that and focus on Winnipeg, because we have to go to Winnipeg and win the hockey game.That's where all our energy has to start right now. "