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In Hainsight: Good Fight, Expected Result |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
After an abysmal performance against the Panthers, the Canadiens offered a much better effort against the Lightning. Through 40 minutes, they had the lead and looked like they may just get the 2 points, but John Cooper’s side wasn’t going to let that happen. Steven Stamkos got the game-tying goal and Brandon Hagel got a pair of goals (including one in an empty net) to complete his hat trick, final score 5-3 Tampa.
Thanks to their multitude of losses in the last couple of weeks, the Canadiens are now 28th in the standings, Philadelphia is now two points ahead of them and they have a game in hand while the Coyotes are 5 points clear of the Habs having played the same number of games. As a result, Montreal now has an 8.5% chance of winning the lottery, but the season is not over. With 12 games to go, Montreal is four points ahead of the Ducks who have 13 games left, it’s still possible that they could catch-up to the Canadiens.
Samuel Montembeault was in net last night, for a third consecutive game and he made 36 saves on 40 shots in the loss. There’s not much to say about this game aside from the fact that Kaiden Guhle’s injury allowed Chris Wideman to come back in the line-up and Jonathan Drouin to be dressed even if he turned up 2 minutes late for a team meeting. Had the Habs had enough healthy player, he would have been an healthy scratch. St-Louis admitted that he dressed him as an insurance policy in case someone else got injured but he didn’t intend to use him and the Quebecer didn’t get a single second of ice-time.
The coach gave credit to Drouin for taking him punishment on the chin and handling himself very well on the bench encouraging his teammates at all times. As for Drouin, he explained after the game that he didn’t hear his alarm clock and that’s why he was late to the meeting. Some may say that the punishment far exceeded the crime, but I for one believe that St-Louis is right to have strict rules and not allow them to be broken, that’s how you build a winning culture and that’s exactly what the head coach said, before confirming that Drouin had now served his time and that the page was turned on that chapter.
The Canadiens are now headed home and will be back in action Tuesday night against the Lightning before heading to Boston to take on the Bruins on Thursday in one of their two games left against the best team in the league.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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