In Montreal, Adin Hill made 21 saves on Tuesday and the San Jose Sharks handed the Canadiens a 5-0 loss, their fourth straight to open the season.
“He’s come up with some big saves,” Sharks head coach Bob Boughner said. “And what I love about it, he’s into the game, on the bench and TV timeouts, he’s worried about getting everybody else going. He’s a leader in his own right.”
The Sharks opened the game with a three-goal first period to set the tone.
“We’ve played two excellent hockey games,” Hill said. “Both games, we’ve outshot the other team, outchanced them and outplayed them. We deserved two out of two wins, and we do, so hopefully we can keep it rolling against Ottawa (Senators on Thursday).”
San Jose’s Jonathan Dahlen struck twice for a 2-0 lead. The two goals were his first NHL markers.
Erik Karlsson scored the third goal of the frame.
Montreal has scored three goals in the four-game skid.
“I think every guy in here knows that this is not good enough,” the Canadiens’ Jeff Petry said. “So if it comes down to [having a players-only meeting] and we have to do that, we shouldn’t be in that situation four games into the year.”
Timo Meier added to the Habs’ misery with a power-play goal in the second period for a 4-0 lead.
“We beat ourselves in the first period,” Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme said. “We lost races coming back into our zone, we blew coverage, we gave them too many chances and they took advantage of them.”
Kevin Labanc added insult to injury with a second power-play strike in the third period for the 5-0 final.
Jake Allen made 20 saves in the loss.
“I think we need to get back to the basics,” Petry said. “I think we need to put in the effort and make sure that we’re supporting each other. There are so many times where we’re skating away from the puck, we’re leaving guys out to dry, and we’re not playing as a unit of five. And we’re going to go nowhere playing like that.”
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