"We've had bad starts, we've had bad periods, we've had bad shifts," forward Andrew Shaw said following a 2-1 loss to the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum on Thursday. "That hunger, that bite, it's not there. It's not where we need to be. We need to be a playoff team right now, and it looks like we're just going out there and playing."
There wasn't one particular area that the Canadiens were using to carry them earlier in the season. It mainly was the excellence of goalie Carey Price and an attention to detail that allowed them to be a winning team despite owning the 30th-ranked power play through Feb. 9 (13.5 percent).
It was enough to raise expectations around the League. The Canadiens became a team that should make the playoffs because they were in position to do so.
"Everyone in the outside world didn't believe in this team at the start of the year; we all did," forward Paul Byron said. "We all set a goal for [making the playoffs], and the way we played we gave ourselves an incredible chance to accomplish that."
The power play has gotten worse, going 2-for-36 in the past 15 games (5.5 percent). The Canadiens are struggling to score at even strength too, averaging 2.47 even-strength goals per game in their past 15 games, including 2.14 in seven games this month.
They scored 2.54 even-strength goals per game in their first 56 games.
"I just think we stopped playing like we had a chip on our shoulder," Shaw said. "We need to get back to that."
Byron said it starts with a keen attention to detail, which arguably was their best quality (other than Price's goaltending) earlier in the season.
That's missing now.
"There are lots of games where we play amazing hockey for 50 minutes, 45 minutes, and the 10 minutes, 15 minutes that we're not playing our best hockey really seem to hurt us a lot," Byron said. "At this point of the year we should all know our roles, know our jobs. We should all know what we have to do and when. Sometimes it's blocking that shot, getting that extra puck out, getting the big clear. These are all things that might not add up to much, but at the end of the game they can make a huge difference."
Their performance against the Islanders on Thursday was perhaps the most frustrating yet.
Despite being outplayed in the first period, Price held the Canadiens in the game and it was 1-1 going into the final three minutes of the third period. Then the avoidable mistake happened.
Defenseman Brett Kulak gambled and pinched deep into the offensive zone, leaving forward Max Domi above him with the puck and defenseman Jeff Petry as the lone player back. Domi fell, lost the puck to New York's Mathew Barzal, and Islanders captain Anders Lee scored on a 2-on-1 break with 2:57 remaining for a 2-1 win.
"It cost us a point, maybe even two," coach Claude Julien said.