Josh Anderson did not hide after the Canadiens' 5-4 overtime loss to the Jets on Tuesday night, and the locker room followed his lead.
Montreal led 4-0 with 2:40 left and still lost, which Eric Engels says is the latest four-goal comeback in NHL history. It was also the first loss in six games without Nick Suzuki.
Anderson put it on himself first, saying he didn't play well and that "It's part of my job to lead and be a driver on this team and I didn't do that tonight."
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He didn't stop there. According to HabsOnReddit, Anderson said a lot of guys have to look in the mirror, himself included, and called the result "unacceptable."
Cole Caufield scored twice on the night, yet he had no explanation to offer. Asked how to explain the loss, he said "you don't... I guess we thought the game was over... yeah."
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Kaiden Guhle chose to look ahead. "The sun comes up tomorrow... get ready for Thursday," he said.
Martin St-Louis was the harshest of the group. The coach said "We got what we deserved," and called it "one of our worst games 5-on-5."
According to HabsOnReddit, he also said Winnipeg was the better team once you forget the score, and that he's never been part of anything like it.
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Will Suzuki be back to stop a slide against Utah?
Engels sees a strong chance the captain returns Thursday against Utah. The latest injury report still lists Suzuki as day-to-day, with an estimate of at least Nov. 18, so the timeline is not settled. Here is Martin St-Louis keeping Nick Suzuki out against the Jets for how the lineup got here.
HabsChronicle calls the Utah game a test of the team's character, and it's hard to argue. The Mammoth won on Tuesday in Toronto and arrive in Montreal with a 10-6-0 record.
The standings still favor the Canadiens, who are 9-3-3 and second in the Atlantic Division. A loss like this one can be a blip, or it can be the start of something uglier, and the room clearly knows which one it is afraid of.
Thursday against Utah is the first chance to show it was only a blip. For a team that just lost a four-goal lead, the standings matter far less than what the players do with the first period.
