Blame Carey Price’s injury, regression or any number of factors, but the Montreal Canadiens are struggling ... and it could get awfully messy to end 2015.
Montreal dropped a 3-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, a defeat that can at least partially be chalked up to a great performance by Jonathan Quick.
It was nearly historic:
.@JonathanQuick32's 45 saves mark 2nd-highest total by @LAKings goalie in a shutout - he set record Dec 13, 2010 at DET (51 SV) @EliasSports
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 18, 2015
Even so, Montreal’s hurting in more ways than one. They’ve now lost six of seen games are are just 2-6-1 in their past nine contests.
Have they always been lousy? No, but it sort of feels like they’re paying for earlier bounces, maybe even with interest.
This doesn't happen often to the Kings. The tough part for Habs in this stretch is that #process is generally good. pic.twitter.com/YmCWay0Wrh
— Arpon Basu (@ArponBasu) December 18, 2015
If Canadiens fans hope for a light at the end of the tunnel, the truth is that it seems pretty far off into the distance right now. Montreal begins a harrowing eight-game road trip on Saturday, a run that ends in Philadelphia on Jan. 5.
When Price went down and things were going smoothly, it all felt like a valuable test for a team that was on an absolute roll. Now they’ll truly be tested, even if they get key players back along the way.