COLUMBUS — The Canadiens were looking pretty good after two periods Tuesday night at Nationwide Arena, tied 2-2 with the Blue Jackets after getting goals from Artturi Lehkonen and Joel Armia.
Then the Blue Jackets’ Emil Bemstrom missed the net with a backhander that bounced off the glass and hit goalie Carey Price before going in the net at 6:54 of the third period and the wheels fell off en route to a 5-2 loss.
What was the big difference in the game?
“Us not being able to capitalize on our chances,” Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. “I thought we played a really decent road game. Second period was basically we controlled it. I think they had maybe three chances — we had six, seven good chances. We didn’t bury our opportunities. That was the difference. You got three breakaways, you got nothing to show for it. You have be able to, when you get those opportunities — especially on the road — you got to be able to capitalize on those.”
Did the bad-bounce goal knock the wind out of his team?
“Not really because, again, we come back, we got a breakaway,” Julien said about Armia getting a great chance shortly after the Blue Jackets went up 3-2. “We could have tied it right back up again and we didn’t. So it didn’t knock the wind out of us.”
What did knock the wind out of the Canadiens was an interference penalty Max Domi took at 10:46 of the third period that resulted in a power-play goal by Boone Jenner to put the Blue Jackets up 4-2.
“I just thought there was a tough call against us in a critical time of the game there,” Julien said. “Whatever you want to call it, the guy dumps it, turns to go toward his bench, runs into our guy, who was entitled to his ice. There’s hardly any contact to start with it, so I didn’t like that. They score on it and make it 4-2 and I think that right there kind of decided the outcome of the game.”
Phillip Danault agreed with his coach’s assessment after the Canadiens outshot the Blue Jackets 32-26.
“I don’t think we played bad,” Danault said. “I think it’s just the fact that we didn’t capitalize on our chances. I thought we had way more than they had and I think they were more opportunistic tonight.”
As for the bad-bounce goal, Danault said: “It’s also a part of the game we don’t control … those bounces off the boards and shin pads right to them. But what we can control is that we can capitalize on our chances and tighten up defensively as well.”
Domi has now gone eight games without a goal and has only one in the last 16. He also took a costly unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty in the third period of Saturday’s 4-3 OT loss to the New Jersey Devils that resulted in the tying goal.
Does Julien sense some frustration in Domi, who has been moved to left wing on a line with Nick Suzuki at centre and Armia on the right?
“No. Not at all,” the coach said. “I though he played decently tonight.
“The fact that it’s their second game together, they’re trying to build some chemistry, which I thought they did tonight compared to the first game,” Julien added about Domi and Suzuki. “They were better. Hopefully tomorrow night they’re even better than that. So you got to give them an opportunity here. Max has played a whole year at centre. We’re moving him to the wing, so there’s some adjustments that have to be made by all of those guys. I think it’s heading in the right direction.”
The Ottawa Senators will be at the Bell Centre Wednesday (7:30 p.m., SN, RDS, TSN 690 Radio).
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