In the Habs’ Room: ‘We were slow out of the gate,’ Ben Chiarot says

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As the Canadiens attempt to gain traction for the playoffs, there’s another reason for concern after the team’s top defensive forward, Phil Danault, left Thursday night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs with an upper-body injury.

Coach Dominique Ducharme said Danault has been dealing with a lingering problem, but he said there was no indication that Danault would have to leave Thursday’s game midway through the first period.

A quick look at the statistics would indicate that this was not one of Danault’s better games. He was on the ice for the first three Toronto goals and lost his only two faceoffs.

While Ducharme said he wasn’t sure of the extent of Danault’s upper-body injury, the Canadiens can’t afford to lose him with the playoffs around the corner. While Tomas Tatar returned to the lineup Thursday after missing five games with a lower-body injury, defenceman Shea Weber, forwards Brendan Gallagher and Paul Byron, and goaltender Carey Price are still going through various stages of the rehabilitation process.

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The assumption is that the Canadiens will make the playoffs, but they missed another opportunity to go in through the front door when the fell behind 4-0 in the first period Thursday and dropped a 5-2 decision to the Leafs, who are the leaders in the all-Canadian North Division.

Ducharme decided  to give the overworked Jake Allen a rest and he started rookie Cayden Primeau in goal. While his teammates went to great lengths not to hang the loss on the rookie, Ducharme said he made the decision to yank Primeau after he gave up his third goal, but waited until the end of the period.

“With Carey injured, I didn’t want to do it in the middle of the period and have Jake go in cold and risk another injury,” Ducharme said. “My decision was taken midway through the first period, but I wanted (Primeau) to battle though the end of the first.”

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“It wasn’t  his fault,” defenceman Ben Chiarot said. “We were flat in front of him. With a young goalie like that, we have to be sharp and let him find his groove and we didn’t do that.”

Any hopes of a quick start for Montreal ended when former Canadien Alex Galchenyuk scored 16 seconds into  the game.

“They jumped all over us,” Chiarot said.  “We were slow out of the gate. We spotted them a couple of goals and it was uphill from there an, on a back-to-back, that’s not easy.”

Allen, who stopped 19 of the 20 shots he faced — he gave up Auston Matthews’s 40th goal — said he offered Primeau some words of encouragement.

“It’s a bump in the road for him.” Allen said. “I can tell how good of a goalie he is, how good of a kid he is. Once Pricer’s legacy goes on, this guy’s going to be the guy here. You’ve got to fail to succeed in anything. I think that’s the way I look at it. I’m sure he’s going to take it hard, like all young guys do, and I would’ve done the same thing. But he’s going to move on, get back, and be ready to go for us. We’re going to need him again.”

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With another game against the Leafs coming up on Saturday, Ducharme decided not to hold a full practice Friday and the team changed its plans for Price who has been out since April 19 with a concussion.

Price was scheduled to join the team in Toronto, but he remained in Montreal where he will take some shots Friday. The Canadiens remain hopeful that he will be able to start at least one the two season-ending games against Edmonton next week.

phickey@postmedia.com

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