Saturday night will be hard to forget. The only hope is that this awful performance becomes a wakeup call for a Montreal Canadiens squad that decides to play to the level of their opponent, or worse, expect easy games and slow down the pace of their play.
Their identity is one of a hard-working group. They score goals off turnovers because they out-work opponents and close off space. That didn’t happen versus the New York Rangers. And not just for half of the game; the first period or so was much closer in terms of scoring chances than the score indicated.