After an intense battle with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night, the Montreal Canadiens hosted the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Bell Centre on Saturday, and the visitors were desperate for a win to keep their playoff hopes alive.

For a third game in a row, veteran Brendan Gallagher was watching the game from the press gallery, joined by sophomore Zach Bolduc for a second game in a row. As for Kaiden Guhle, he remained out of the lineup, meaning that Adam Engstrom, Arber Xhekaj, and Jayden Struble were all still in the lineup.

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Wanting It More

With their playoff lives on the line, the Blue Jackets came out strong and stormed the Canadiens’ zone early on. Less than two minutes in, they were up by one and had four shots on net. Five and a half minutes later, they were up by two and just looked like they wanted it more.

While one might think well, that’s normal since they haven’t booked their playoff spot, it’s a bit worrying. At this stage of the season, teams should be playing playoff-like hockey every day. Montreal did a good job of it against Tampa Bay, but on Saturday night, they looked like they weren’t ready.

A week from now, when the puck drops on the playoffs, every game is going to be a must-win game, and every team will be fighting for its life. Montreal needs to be ready for that right out of the gate, and those last three games against teams fighting for a playoff spot are a perfect rehearsal that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Missing Guhle

With Guhle missing a third game in a row, the fact that the Canadiens are missing him dearly had never been so obvious. Struble had many hard shifts and committed four giveaways through 40 minutes. One of them was particularly costly when he got rid of the puck in a hurry in the defensive zone, even though he was under no pressure to do so whatsoever. Still, he coughed it up to Kent Johnson, who fed it to Sean Monahan, who scored Columbus’ fourth goal in a flash, which was a gut punch for the Canadiens.

To make matters worse, Noah Dobson also left the game after blocking a shot with the inside of his hands, where there isn’t much padding… The Canadiens will hope that it’s not a serious injury with the playoffs right around the corner. Being without him to start the spring dance will be disastrous for the Habs, he plays a lot of minutes and a significant role for the team.

On The Bright Side Of Things…

Cole Caufield scored his 51st goal of the season from an almost impossible angle and, unsurprisingly, Nick Suzuki got an assist on the play, giving him his 99th point of the season. With two games left to play, the captain will have every opportunity to reach the historic milestone and become just the sixth player in Canadiens history to achieve the feat.

There was a worrying moment in the third frame when Zach Werenski checked him by the boards with the puck nowhere near him. The blueliner got a two-minute interference penalty, but the Russian rookie, who crashed into the boards face-first, had to leave the game momentarily. Thankfully, he was able to come back and looked no worse for wear, taking a couple of hard shots in the last few minutes. Still, the Jackets got a 5-2 win, and it was the first time since March 3 that Jakub Dobes allowed five goals or more.

The Canadiens will now take on the New York Islanders on Sunday at 6:00 PM and the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday at 7:00 PM. Both teams are in a race to the finish, battling for the last playoff spot in the East with the Jackets. Meanwhile, the Canadiens find themselves in third place in the Atlantic Division since the Lightning beat the Boston Bruins 2-1 to get to 104 points and have more regulation wins than the Habs.

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