What Did We Learn From the Canadiens’ 6-4 Loss to Carolina?

The Montreal Canadiens' home opener didn't go as expected. The Habs scored four goals. Zachary Bolduc scored twice. Nick Suzuki scored and added an assist. Juraj Slafkovsky scored. There were some pretty good offensive moments. And they still lost 6-4 to the Carolina Hurricanes.

That's probably the first thing we learned: this Canadiens team can create offence, but against a good team, it doesn't take much for a game to start slipping away.

We Learned That the Canadiens Can Score.

Fans left this game thinking there was plenty to like about Montreal’s offence. The Canadiens didn't look intimidated by the Hurricanes. Bolduc was particularly interesting. He scored twice, including a power-play goal, and looked ready to capitalize on opportunities.

Suzuki did what Suzuki does. He scored a nice goal and added an assist. Slafkovsky stayed with a rebound and got Montreal back within one late in the third period. The Canadiens weren't sitting around waiting for somebody else to make something happen. They created chances, got to rebounds, and found ways to score.

But there's another lesson here.

We Learned That the Margin for Error Is Still Pretty Small.

Carolina is a good hockey team. Montreal knows that better than most after losing to the Hurricanes in the playoffs last spring. What struck me about this game was how quickly little mistakes became big ones. The Canadiens turned the puck over in front of their own net on Carolina's opening goal. Noah Dobson's giveaway led directly to Jankowski's second-period goal.

Those things happen. Hockey is full of mistakes. But against a team like Carolina, you don't always get away with them. That's probably part of Montreal's growth process. The Canadiens have young players who will make mistakes. They also have enough offensive talent to overcome them sometimes.

The trick will be making fewer of those mistakes as the season goes on.

What Did We Learn? The Bottom Line.

Maybe the biggest thing is that this isn't a Canadiens team that needs to be afraid of anybody. They need to learn how to play these games a little better.

The offence is encouraging. Bolduc's night was encouraging. Slafkovsky finding the net was encouraging. Suzuki continues to look like the player Montreal can build around. But the Canadiens won't outscore every problem. They'll have nights when they score four and still lose.

The next step is figuring out how to turn some of those four-goal nights into wins. That's not a terrible lesson to learn in October.