CAR@MTL: Pendulum swings for Carolina

MONTREAL - On a night in which the Canadiens enjoyed a healthy output of five goals, the focus should've been on their offensive production. Instead, the talk was all about a dismal first period, and about taking the foot off the gas when the pedal should have remained firmly planted to the metal.

There's no other way to describe the Habs' opening frame but flat. Outshot 13-6, the home squad looked nothing like the team that had soundly beaten the streaking Colorado Avalanche two nights before, and went back to the dressing room after 20 minutes down by two.
"We just had to play better. We weren't good enough in the first. They were beating us to loose pucks, winning races, and that's disappointing as players. It's just about compete. We looked at each other and said we needed to be better," outlined Brendan Gallagher. "I thought we did a better job in the last 40, but it wasn't enough."

The Canadiens were indeed a better bunch after the first, with Charles Hudon leading the way and twice reducing the visitors' lead to one, notching the second two-goal game of his young career in the process. But the 23-year-old wasn't in a celebratory mood after the final buzzer, taking responsibility for the Hurricanes goal that would ultimately stand up as the winner.
"It definitely does some good to see that the puck was going in for once, and that rebounds like on [Jeff] Petry's shot - that I wouldn't have had at the start of the year - but there, I was in the right spot," explained Hudon, who also collected an assist by winning the draw on Petry's equalizer late in the second to make it a three-point night. "But yes, it's frustrating. It was my fault on the last goal. I should've been more responsible, staying more in the center and there, it was my guy who scored."
That said, Hudon unleashed a team-leading six shots, added three hits, and won eight of his 14 faceoffs and, with 16:14 of effort, determination and grit on the night, probably could've given himself some more slack.

As a whole, though, the Canadiens let the Hurricanes back after scoring when they would have been better served to keep pressing, and it cost them.
Despite scoring two goals in a span of 39 seconds to even things up in the second, it took Carolina just 19 seconds after that to once again take the lead, and another 29 seconds to once again double it. And after the Petry marker squared the score late in the period, Derek Ryan put the Canes up by one just over a minute later.
"Not coming out ready to play, and not bearing down," said David Schlemko - whose 20:07 of ice time was second only to Petry for Montreal skaters - of his team's effort. "It's a big shift after you score a goal, and we had three times where we gave up a goal on the next shift after we scored. Unacceptable."
Paul Byron extended his points streak to six games with a helper on Hudon's first of the night, and came close to tying it when he hit the post with 1:44 left to play, but was more concerned with his team's lack of consistency than with whatever had gone right for either himself or his club.
"In our position, it's tough to see the positives. The only thing we know is that it takes a 60-minute effort from everyone. We can't be giving leads to our opponents, we can't play a first period like that and expect to win. Everyone knows that to win, it takes a complete game from everyone. When you're not ready to play, this is what happens."

Head coach Claude Julien, for his part, offered up an honest assessment of his charges postgame.
"The mistakes I saw tonight, it was hard to digest. It was like, 'What are we thinking?' It's not about pointing the finger. You win as a team and you lose as a team. But I would expect our players to be ready to play a game and be focused. Some of them were, but a lot of them weren't. That's what we have to get better at. Pro's have to be pro's," he concluded. "We don't babysit; we prepare guys. The other part is, they have to be pro's and say, 'We have to be ready to play here.' That's what good teams do."