DAL@MTL: Struggles on special teams hurt big

MONTREAL - The Canadiens paid the price for failing to click on special teams on Tuesday night.

Not only did Claude Julien's contingent come up empty on four opportunities with the man advantage in a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars, but they also surrendered a costly short-handed tally along the way when they were down by just a single goal in the final frame.
That, coupled with a Dallas power play strike earlier in the contest, led to their second defeat on home ice so far this season.
"The power play wasn't good enough. It starts there. We've got to take charge of that thing," said Brendan Gallagher, who scored his team-leading seventh goal of the 2018-19 campaign in the loss. "We've got to get better."

They most definitely do. This marked the third straight game in which the Canadiens failed to find the back of the net on the power play, and it is currently operating at a 16.3% clip.
Julien provided a frank assessment of where the Habs went wrong when a Stars player was in the penalty box.
"We didn't move the puck well. We didn't make good decisions. We didn't have support," explained Julien. "There was a lot of individual play on the power play. Lacking cohesion on our power play really hurt us."

That, and the play of Stars netminder Ben Bishop, according to Carey Price.
"Bishop played a pretty good game. I thought he did a great job of stopping our chances," mentioned Price, referencing Bishop's 21-save effort. "Their best penalty killer was their best penalty killer tonight."
Discipline matters
It goes without saying that being assessed seven minor penalties didn't do the Habs any favors on Tuesday night.
At times, they let their emotions - and a measure of frustration - get the best of them, which resulted in a lack of discipline.
That simply can't happen, according to Gallagher.
"You're going to deal with little bits of adversity throughout the year. You can't let yourself get frustrated. You get frustrated, it's just a wasted emotion," indicated the Canadiens' assistant captain. "You waste way too much energy, you waste way too much thought on stuff that's out of your control. We've got to do a better job of keeping our cool, for sure."

Scherbak is headed to Laval
Following the contest, the Canadiens announced that forward Nikita Scherbak was assigned to the AHL's Laval Rocket for conditioning purposes.
The 22-year-old Russian sniper has yet to suit up for the Habs this season, missing the first 11 games as a healthy scratch.
According to Julien, the move was strictly a matter of getting Scherbak back in the groove again.
"Scherbak needs to go and play. He hasn't played in over a month. I'm not sure it's fair to throw him in the lineup when he hasn't played in a while," said Julien. "It will give him a good conditioning stint, and make sure that when he comes back, he's got some games under his belt. That was the intention behind it. I think it's important for him to find his game and we'll have a better player when we need him."

Congrats, Carey!
The Bell Centre faithful took full advantage of their first opportunity to honor Price for surpassing Patrick Roy over the weekend to take sole possession of second spot on the franchise's all-time wins list.
The six-time All-Star was given a rousing applause for his latest accomplishment, which came when he earned his 290th career victory on Saturday night with a 3-0 win over the Boston Bruins.

"I appreciate that very much," said Price, who was touched by the gesture. "Obviously, it's always a special moment when you get that in our building. I really do appreciate that a lot. It was special to me."