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Habs Highlights: Canadiens Run Out Of Gas In Carolina

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montreal canadiens screenshot via nhl.com

The Montreal Canadiens were in Carolina on Thursday, facing a talented Hurricanes team that happened to own a fantastic 27-8-1 home record.

The Habs did manage to beat the Hurricanes 4-0 the last time they met at the Bell Centre, giving them a little more confidence as they prepared for a crucial game from a playoff-race standpoint.

It was the second leg of back-to-back games that included travel, but the Canadiens were reenergized when it was announced defenceman Kaiden Guhle would make his long-awaited return to the lineup. The Habs opted to make Joshua Roy a healthy scratch, running with an 11-forward, 7-defenceman lineup.

Unfortunately, that energy provided by Guhle did not last long, as the Hurricanes took over the game early in the first period, leading to a 4-1 loss for the Canadiens.

Let’s dive into the highlights!

Labor Omnia Vincit

Unlike recent first periods, the Canadiens enjoyed a fantastic start thanks to the Voltaren line. Christian Dvorak worked hard on the forecheck, which led to a great pass by Brendan Gallagher, and a Josh Anderson goal just 23 seconds into the game.

Anderson did a fantastic job finding open ice, scoring his 13th goal of the year in the process. Full marks to Anderson, not only is he clearly playing banged up, he’s fully committed to the Gallagherian cult of hockey. He’s playing with reckless abandon, but most importantly, he’s creating chaos in the offensive zone while contributing to the Canadiens positively, which is key to the Gallagherian modus operandi.

Sure, the Hurricanes scored exactly 18 seconds later, but for a brief moment, the Church of Gallagher was right to celebrate the members of the born-again Gallagherian order.

Defessi Milites

There’s no avoiding it, the Habs are running off fumes. If we’re being perfectly honest, the Canadiens shouldn’t still be involved in a playoff race, especially at this point of the rebuild, but the Eastern Conference is front loaded, which means the Habs are slogging it out with several other teams that lack depth.

That’s why I understand Martin St-Louis’ approach, to a certain extent.

He’s running the horses he has, because that’s all he can do, even if he didn’t expect them to run this much.

Ideally, Mike Matheson wouldn’t be among the busiest players in the league, but such is life in a rebuild. Matheson is getting paid No.4 or No.5 money while playing some of the busiest and most difficult minutes in the league. Guhle’s return will help in that case, but even with a healthy Guhle in the lineup, the team doesn’t have enough quality depth to keep up with some of the best teams in the league.

Pyrrhichius

Due to the unexpected playoff race, and the need to play catch-up almost every night, they also don’t have enough energy to keep up with some of the worst teams in the league, as we saw on Friday versus the Flyers.

It’s frustrating for fans, there’s no doubt.

That being said, Matheson is far from the only player who is making curious decisions in recent games. For example, Arber Xhekaj’s timing prior to Carolina’s third goal of the game was brutal. And we could discuss a laundry list of bad reads from almost everyone else in the lineup.

The Canadiens have had to expend way too much energy to even be part of the playoff conversation, and it seems like all those exciting games earlier in the year now have to be qualified as Pyrrhic victories.

The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Sunday. They will face the Panthers in Florida, with the puck drop scheduled for 1 pm ET. All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick. All Latin terms were brazenly stolen from a brief Google Translate session.

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