The Montreal Canadiens are comfortable after falling behind in games because they have gained confidence with their ability to rally.
That is not the preferred route to victories, so the Canadiens would not mind altering the formula when they visit the Carolina Hurricanes for Thursday night’s game at Raleigh, N.C.
“I think the resolution for the new year should be to get the lead first,” Montreal winger Cole Caufield said. “(You should) remember that you’re always in it and it’s a good place to learn from. … You want to get the lead, but it’s nice to come back.”
The Canadiens played beyond regulation in three of their past four games, including Tuesday night’s 3-2 overtime triumph at Florida. It has been more than two weeks since Montreal lost in regulation.
The Canadiens needed to wipe out a 2-0 deficit in the last five minutes of regulation before Nick Suzuki’s winning goal against the Panthers. They pushed the Tampa Bay Lightning to a shootout Sunday by erasing a late 4-1 deficit on Juraj Slafkovsky’s equalizer with four seconds left.
“We don’t want to put ourselves in that position all the time, but we’ve got the pieces to do it,” Suzuki said.
While the Hurricanes are atop the Metropolitan Division, the Canadiens are just one point out of first place in the Atlantic Division. With 21 victories, the Canadiens have their most success in a season entering January in seven years.
Carolina lost four of its last six games, including 5-1 on Tuesday night at Pittsburgh. The Hurricanes trailed for more than 56 minutes.
“We were behind the eight ball and never got rolling,” coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “It was tough sledding. It was not a good effort, that’s clear. You can’t play and win in the NHL like that. We needed to get off to a better start.”
Slow starts have caught up to the Hurricanes at times.
“That’s on all of us in the locker room,” winger Mark Jankowski said. “We’ve got to do a better job.”
The Hurricanes will have rookie goalie Brandon Bussi back in net as he aims to improve on his 13-1-1 record.
Brind’Amour has generally praised the Hurricanes for their play recently, but he also has identified glitches.
“It is a mindset,” he said. “You’ve got to get ready to play. It’s a hard game you have to play to be successful, certainly our team. It’s not like we’re going to go up and down and score 10 goals. You have to do it the right way.”
With injuries impacting Carolina’s lineup on a regular basis, the grind of the schedule has not been kind. Thursday will mark the team’s fourth game in six nights.
“Every single team in this league is going through the same thing as us,” Jankowski said. “It’s not just us. You can say the schedule is hard, there’s travel, this and that, but every single team is doing the same thing.”
This will be Montreal’s fifth consecutive road game, and the third since the Christmas break.
–Field Level Media
