The Montreal Canadiens lost 4-2 to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night, which gave them a 2-4 record in pre-season competition. They won their first two contests and then dropped their last four against rivals the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators.
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Unlike their previous encounter on Tuesday, the Canadiens fell behind 2-0 early and could never overcome a tame Senators team, with Shane Pinto scoring a hat trick.
Montreal has three days off to make final roster adjustments and prepare for Wednesday night’s season opener against the Maple Leafs.
Related: Revisiting Canadiens’ Recent Fines & Suspensions
Here are some takeaways from the pre-season finale against the Senators.
Montreal’s Power Play is Atrocious
The Canadiens finished the pre-season with no power-play goals and went 0-for-30 on the man advantage in their six games.
During the offseason, Alex Burrows stepped away from his coaching duties and handed the power-play responsibilities to head coach Martin St-Louis. As a Hall of Famer who netted 317 points on the man advantage, it seemed his talking over would inject life into the special teams.
However, after 18 periods of hockey, the power play is one of the worst aspects of the Canadiens’ game. Until they score a goal and build confidence, every opportunity they get will hamper their ability to keep the flow going.
There’s an argument to be made that the power play went out of wack when Patrik Laine went down or that Montreal iced a different lineup every night, so there was no opportunity to build chemistry.
However, when the top guys played, they still didn’t score, and when the games start for real, if this team can’t find a way to improve with extra skaters on the ice, this will be a long season.
Xhekaj’s Continues to Play on the Edge
Arber Xhekaj has made more headlines this pre-season, not for his offensive contributions but for the body-crushing hits, whether questionable or not.
Of course, with these hits, retaliation happens, and for the third straight game, Xhekaj threw his gloves down and served a five-minute fighting major. At least on Saturday night, he didn’t get tossed from the game, despite the extent to which he went to lay a cross-check.