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The Montreal Canadiens faced the Ottawa Senators on Friday night. The mission for Cole Caufield and his teammates was quite simple. A win clinches the franchise's first Stanley Cup Playoff berth in an 82-game season since 2017. Unfortunately, they could not pull off the victory.
The Senators scored just 28 seconds into the game on Friday night. Forward Shane Pinto opened the scoring with the first of two goals. His performance helped Ottawa claim a 5-2 victory at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
The Canadiens are still in good shape despite the loss. Montreal is six points ahead of the Detroit Red Wings for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. However, the Red Wings defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night. The Habs have a sizeable cushion, but Detroit is not the only contender. The New York Rangers and Columbus Blue Jackets remain alive, as well.
Caufield spoke with the media following his team's loss. The Canadiens forward pointed to one specific detail the team needs to address. And he would like to see this flaw corrected sooner rather than later.
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“We’ve got to dial in our starts and start on time,” Caufield said, via NHL.com's Callum Fraser. “We can’t always come back all the time. It’s not any sort of panic button, but it’s for sure something that we’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror and face head on.”
Head coach Martin St. Louis echoed a similar sentiment. Can we bend not break in the first period? We haven’t been able to do that. Fortunately, I felt like we stopped the bleeding at 2-0; I just wanted to get out of that period down 2-0. But some nights, it’s just too big of a hole,” the Canadiens coach said, via Fraser.
The Canadiens have a chance to quickly bounce back. Montreal is in action again on Saturday night when they take on the Toronto Maple Leafs. A loss against Toronto certainly won't sink the Habs, either. However, a loss combined with wins from those behind them would make the final week of the regular season extremely interesting.
