Canadiens must answer questions about commitment, effort

ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Montreal Canadiens are determined to rebound from a disappointing performance against the Boston Bruins that sparked questions about their commitment with a better effort when they play the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; NHL Network, NBSCWA, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV).
"We definitely need to have a response," defenseman Karl Alzner said after the morning skate at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. "The four games before Boston [a 4-1 loss on Wednesday] we'd been playing really good hockey. The effort was there, the focus was there. That was showing a lot of promise. And then for whatever reason last game, we just looked sleepy. I don't really know exactly what the problem was. Every team has games like that, but unfortunately for us we can't really afford to have too many of those."

The Canadiens (18-21-6) have lost three in a row (0-1-2) and eight of their past 10 games (2-6-2) to fall 11 points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. But they had gotten points in four consecutive games (2-0-2) and thought they were on the right track before their flat loss to the Bruins.
The Canadiens scored on their first shot Wednesday, grabbing a 1-0 lead on Jakub Jerabek's first NHL goal 31 seconds into the game. But the Bruins responded with four unanswered goals, spoiling coach Claude Julien's return to Boston for the first time since he was fired by the Bruins on Feb. 7, 2017, and hired by the Canadiens seven days later. Julien coached the Bruins for 10 seasons, guided them to the Stanley Cup in 2011 and an appearance in the Final in 2013.
When Julien was asked Wednesday if the Canadiens quit against the Bruins, he didn't dismiss the suggestion.
"I think those are questions you guys need to ask the players, not the coach," Julien said. "I can't answer for them. It's important for you guys to ask the right people, that's part of your job. My job is to tell you that we weren't good enough tonight and we need to be better, and I think that's my responsibility. I need to get this team to play better, and no matter what they're thinking they need to change their approach, if that's the case."

After a day off to regroup, Julien tried to put the focus back on the positives from the Canadiens' previous four games. Getting a win against the Capitals (28-14-14), who are in first place in the Metropolitan Division, would help.
"We had played four real solid games before that game against Boston, and it was disappointing the way we played," Julien said. "The best way to rectify that is by coming out tonight and bouncing right back and going back to what you did before and kind of making that look like an off game. So that's on us.
"I think we need to show some character by showing that we're capable of responding, and that's the challenge that we have tonight."
Defenseman Jeff Petry said the Canadiens can start by competing harder than they did Wednesday.
"I don't think we were good enough being first on pucks, winning our puck battles, our board battles," Petry said. "I think overall we got outworked last game. I think if you look at the previous four games, the big thing that stands out is we outworked the opponent. We were hounding pucks. We got pucks in their zone and established a cycle game and made it hard for the other team. So that was the big difference between the previous four and last game."
The Canadiens will turn to backup goaltender Antti Niemi on Friday. It will be Niemi's first appearance since a 4-1 loss at the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 23. Carey Price will start in a rematch against the Bruins at Bell Centre on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NHL Network, SN, TVA Sports, NESN, NHL.TV).
Julien said it shouldn't matter which goaltender starts.
"We seem to want to go back to that last game, which is the closest one to this one, and talk about how we played," Julien said. "But nobody wants to talk about the four games before that that we could've easily won four straight because we played the right way no matter who was in nets. And that's what we've got to do from start to finish."