Claude Julien called Tuesday’s 6-2 loss in Edmonton “one of the worst games of the season”. I wonder what he thinks privately about what he saw Thursday night in Calgary.

The 3-2 win at the Saddledome was an act of thievery. The Canadiens were outshot 45-22 including 32-13 through the final two periods. The shots on goal totals were an accurate indication of the way the Canadiens were dominated in this game.

Over the last decade the Canadiens have sent teams of varying ability out for their annual Western Canada swing. Over that time we have seen those Montreal teams play games the quality of which have run gamut from terrible to dreadful. The level of Tuesday night’s 6-2 loss in Edmonton was little different. 

The Canadiens have played six games in the month of November and have given up 26 goals. Over those six games the Canadiens are 3-1-2 thanks to an offence that has produced an equal 26 goals.

Despite giving up ten goals in the last two games the Canadiens have taken three of four points thanks to their forwards.

The transition game has been the watchword for the Canadiens since training camp. When the defence isn’t moving the puck, disaster ensues.

Jonathan Drouin is fast becoming the current version of Alex Kovalev. Love him one game, hate him the next.

Drouin was the Canadiens best player Monday night against the Islanders. Against the Rangers he was awful. His failures were multiple. He was bad on offence; equally bad on defence. It was early in the game, but Jeff Petry’s disgusted reaction after Drouin’s giveaway led to the Rangers first goal said volumes.

Fourteen games into the season the Canadiens still haven’t lost two in a row.

It’s signifcant for a couple of reasons. The Canadiens obviously have shown an ability to bounce back from a loss something that was sorely lacking in last year’s team. But more importantly, they have shown an in-game ability to recover from a bad period to regain competitiveness .

Much is being made of the fact that the Canadiens are one of a handful of teams that have not lost two games in a row this season. It’s nice that they have bounced back after losses, but there’s a harsher reality.

The Canadiens have lost two of their last three, both of them on home ice. Since their 4-1-2 start the Canadiens over the last six games have been in a win-one lose-one pattern – 3-3-0.   That’s .500 hockey and it won’t get you in the playoffs.

Admittedly it’s a low bar, but I think most would agree the this year’s version of the Canadiens is better than the 2017-2018 edition.

But there are still hangovers from last year’s team echoing around the Bell Centre and they came home to roost in Tuesday night’s game against the Dallas Stars.

Familiar issues such as a lack of scoring touch, poor special team results, untimely and bad penalties and a fragile team psyche that lets down at inopportune moments.

Early on in this game as the Bruins were putting on their pressure you had the sense that Carey Price was in the zone. When he is at his best there is a well documented calmness to his net presence. At no time in the game was he out of control which is usually marked by desperate flopping around. He was consistently square to the Boston shooters.

The high point of the Canadiens game in Buffalo Thursday night came in the second minute when Artturi Lehkonen stripping Marco Scandella of the puck and set up Max Domi for the first of his two goals.

The Canadiens survived the first period with their 1-0 lead. After that, although they managed to stay close on the scoreboard, the Sabres owned them by almost every metric.

It’s been Jekyll and Hyde with Jonathan Drouin this season. Fortunately we’re seeing signs that the good version is showing up more often than the one we saw in Ottawa Saturday night. The good version is creative and avoids his tendency to try to do to much on his own. He was all of those things in a two-point night including his third goal of the season.