If there is one thing the St Louis Blues do not want is a repeat of the 2018-19 season when they were the worst team in the NHL in January of the campaign.
So, a fourth straight loss for the Blues, this tie to the visiting Montreal Canadiens has got to find the club gripping the sticks a little tighter.
Five diffe3rent skaters had strikes for the Habs including Shea Weber, Jordan Weal, Brendan Gallagher, Jonathan Drouin, and Nick Suzuki.
Carey Price made 32 saves for the win, his 325th in the NHL.
“It seems the older I get, the more it happens,” Price said, “but I’m just thankful to have played with a lot of good teams that have helped me win those games.”
Jaden Schwartz and David Perron scored for St Louis who are 0-2-2 in their last four.
“It’s all self-inflicted,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “It’s not a buy-in right now, not enough of a buy-in to team play.
“The bottom line is they’re all self-inflicted goals tonight. That’s just how we look at it.”
Gallagher’s goal came just six seconds inot the middle frame to give the Habs a 2-1 lead.
“I can’t speak about the other team. All I know is it was a good start for us, six seconds in,” Montreal head coach Claude Julien said. “We get the lead, and it just kind of gave us that kind of excitement of playing with the lead again. Those things happen. Happens to every team, and at the end of the day, if that happens to my team, I want them to bounce back and not let that affect them. It was nice to get that quick lead.”
[WATCH:Â All Canadiens vs. Blues highlights]
Jake Allen made 20 saves in the loss.
“I’m going to take a lot of responsibility for that [game] on that goal,” Allen said. “I think it took a lot of wind out of our sails. I thought we had a pretty decent first period … That’s on me for losing that momentum for the boys.
“It hit my stick and somehow hit my shaft and went the other way, but hey, there’s no excuses.”
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