The Montreal Canadiens know they’re close to beating the Washington Capitals, but Juraj Slafkovsky believes anything short of their very best won’t be enough.
“There’s always something lacking. We always talk about today was this, tomorrow it’s something,” said the visibly upset Canadiens forward. “We just can’t have that. We gotta have an almost perfect game to win.”
Connor McMichael scored twice — including an empty-net goal — as the Capitals hung on for a 3-1 victory in Game 2 at the Capital One Arena on Wednesday night.
Martin St. Louis’s group fell down 2-0 in their first-round series and now faces a steep climb, needing wins in four of the next five games to advance.
“Washington is a really good team. They make it hard to attack. They defend really well,” the Canadiens head coach said. “We had pockets where we did attack. We didn’t capitalize, but we generated.”
“The margin of error is so slim.”
Christian Dvorak opened the scoring after just over a minute into the second period to give Montreal its first lead of the series, but it was short-lived. McMichael and Dylan Strome struck with back-to-back goals a minute apart in the third and fourth minutes.
“Just a couple of bad shifts in a row and it cost us,” captain Nick Suzuki said.
“We need to go home and regroup and really bear down in these next couple of games at home.”
The Canadiens dropped the series opener 3-2 in overtime despite rallying from a two-goal deficit. Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin, who broke Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal record last month, scored his second of the game in the extra period.
Washington dominated the second period Wednesday with an 18-8 shots advantage while imposing the same physical play that propelled them to victory on Monday.
For the second game in a row, the Canadiens controlled the third period, outshooting Washington 14-5 in the frame, but Capitals goalie Logan Thompson denied Josh Anderson on a partial breakaway before showing off his reflexes with a pad save on Dvorak’s deflection with four minutes remaining.
While the Canadiens poured it on in search of an equalizer, struggling winger Patrik Laine didn’t see the ice.
St. Louis shortened his bench in the third period and Laine — who makes a team-high US$8.7 million — was the only player not to play a shift. That remained the case even when the Canadiens needed just one shot to tie with an extra attacker in the dying minutes.
“They’re decisions you make as a coach,” St. Louis said. “I went with the nine or 10 players who I thought could help the cause.”
Laine has scored once in his past 11 games. The former 44-goal scorer caught fire at times during the regular season, burying 15 power-play markers to rank fourth in the NHL despite playing 52 games.
His wicked one-timer, however, hasn’t resulted in a goal in quite some time. It wasn’t a factor as the Canadiens went 0-for-2 with the man advantage Wednesday.
“The guys that I leaned on in the third, I thought they did a great job,” St. Louis said. “As a coach you make those decisions, you have a gut feeling. I felt like the group responded when we shortened the bench. I felt like it gave us a chance.”
The series shifts to Montreal for Games 3 and 4 at the Bell Centre, where the Canadiens will play before a full house in the playoffs for the first time since 2017. Montreal reached the Stanley Cup final in the pandemic-shortened 2021 season.
“Everyone in here has got to be better, it starts with me and then everyone else,” Slafkovsky said. “We gotta to show a different type of energy, a different type of game Friday at home.”
There were two other playoff matchups on Wednesday. The L.A. Kings cruised to a 6-2 win and a 2-0 series lead against the Edmonton Oilers, while the Dallas Stars scored a 2-1 overtime win and 2-1 series advantage over the Colorado Avalanche.
The Washington Capitals have done their best to make Canadiens rookie sensation Lane Hutson uncomfortable.
Hutson, a shifty five-foot-nine defenceman, led all rookies with 66 points this season. Capitals forward Andrew Magiapane sucker punched him in a scrum in a chippy Game 1 and the physicality continued in Game 2.
Hutson had two assists Monday, but was out of position during Ovechkin’s overtime winner and took the blame post-game.
“I don’t think he should be hard on himself,” Guhle said of his partner Wednesday morning.
“First playoff experience, guys are trying to run him and take his head off. Probably hasn’t really seen that much in his career, especially men coming after him.”
