FLA@MTL: Blanked again by the Cats

MONTREAL - In a tight, one-goal game, it's amazing how much of a difference one bounce can make in determining one's fate.

After going down 1-0 to Florida late in the first period on Aaron Ekblad's 15th of the season, the Habs thought they had that very bounce - and just 17 seconds later to boot.
Artturi Lehkonen came around from behind the net and finished off a wraparound attempt with an excellent backhand pass to Jacob de la Rose, who put the puck past Panthers netminder Roberto Luongo in what the Canadiens thought was the equalizer. But Florida challenged the goal and it was overturned when it was determined that Montreal was offside earlier on the play.
So it goes.
"It's frustrating. I'm trying to grab every point I can," said de la Rose. "That would've been good for us, to get back into the game.
"It was a good play by both Chucky [Alex Galchenyuk] and Lehky there," the Swedish pivot said of his linemates, who were both involved in the sequence. "I was just trying to drive the net. It's too bad it wasn't allowed."

Unfortunately, the hosts had trouble generating much in the way of scoring chances - disallowed goal aside - and had to rely on another spectacular effort from goaltender Antti Niemi to keep them alive.
"Niem-o played a heck of a game. We should've won this for him," lamented de la Rose on behalf of Niemi, who improved his goals-against average and save percentage with the Habs to 2.41 and .932, respectively. "He kept us in the game, but we couldn't create enough offense."
The Finnish backstop was nothing short of stellar on Monday night. He stopped 19 shots in the second period alone, turning away flurries of Panthers shots as the period went along to keep things close. But the Panthers, doing their utmost to keep their playoff hopes alive, added an insurance marker with under 14 minutes to play to seal the deal.
Despite going down in defeat, Niemi felt his squad could've come out on the winning side if the playing field was tilted just a little bit more in their favor.
"We got a few chances in the end we could've scored on," said Niemi, who earned third-star honors for his efforts. "We were always just a couple of bounces away.
"It was a tough game, tough to lose again. I felt OK about the way I played. I was able to get ready for the game."

Still, with the Canadiens unable to deliver and enduring their second straight shutout - and their third straight blanking at the hands of the Panthers - it became clear after the game that losing was becoming a pill ever more difficult for them to swallow.
"We don't play this game to lose. There are 10 games left; we're not just going to sit in here and lose the last 10 and then go home and smile about it," outlined defenseman Jordie Benn. "We're pissed off. We're athletes, and we're not bred to lose."

For his part, head coach Claude Julien reminded reporters that a lineup depleted of most of its top players for large chunks of the season - Carey Price, Shea Weber, Max Pacioretty, Andrew Shaw, Phillip Danault, and Victor Mete among them - was a lineup doing what it could to soldier on despite difficult circumstances.
"For me, it's obvious. We don't have our team here, we have players who don't have experience and, at the moment, are not completely ready and we're relying on a relatively small core," he explained. "At this moment, we're not a good team, but it's not because the players aren't good; it's because we have a lot of injuries, we have young players playing roles they're not ready for, and we even have some veterans who are seeing more ice time than they would if everyone was healthy. So this is the situation we're in. It's frustrating, and we don't have a choice. We have to keep moving forward.

"I look at the second period again and it wasn't a good second, a bit like in Toronto. Don't think we're satisfied with that," Julien concluded, "but you also have to look at the situation we're in."