Canadiens hold players only meeting after fourth straight loss

The Montreal Canadiens may have hit rock bottom with a feeble performance on Hockey Night in Canada against the Washington Capitals. The Canadiens have now lost four games in a row, and have been outscored 19-5 over that span of games.

Following Saturday night's stinker, the Canadiens held a players only meeting and took a long time to open the locker room doors to the media. When they did, Daniel Briere admitted the club was "embarrassed" by their performance on Saturday. They probably should be.

Here's a shot attempt chart, showing how the Canadiens performed on Saturday (in terms of controlling the flow of play). You might notice how the Canadiens' share of shot attempts completely flat-lines in the second period, as the Capitals hemmed Montreal's club in their own end for much of the period while building a four goal lead:

[Courtesy Extraskater.com]

When the Canadiens finally registered their first shot of the second frame, the Montreal faithful rewarded the club with a large bronx cheer.

The problem for the Canadiens is that their atrocious play at even-strength is part of a larger structural problem facing the team at the moment. Or put more simply, what occurred on Saturday  night is part a larger and pernicious trend impacting the club. Here's how the Canadiens' ability to control unblocked shot attempts has cratered over the past couple of months:

[Courtesy Extraskater.com]

Essentially as the Canadiens' grip on a payoff spot in the East is steadily eroding, the club's performance is trending into Buffalo Sabres territory...

The team's poor play isn't going unnoticed in the hockey mad Montreal market. In fact, it would seem that the mood of the fanbase is matching the performance of the club pretty closely: