HC Martin St. Louis brushes off question about Montreal Canadiens attempting to make playoffs this season

The Montreal Canadiens have fallen on hard times of late, going 1-5-1 in their last seven games. What once seemed like a sure path to their first postseason spot since their Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Final in the shortened 2020-21 NHL season now seems far from guaranteed.

Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis met with reporters following practice on Sunday, ahead of their matinee matchup on Saturday afternoon against the New Jersey Devils.

As St. Louis put it, the team is coming off a “great run” but now needs to find the right formula to get back in the win column.

“I’m not gonna talk about that right now. I get it. We had a great run. It’s a hard league," he said. "It’s very competitive, especially in the Eastern Conference right now. We’re gonna fight. The focus right now is really to get back to a recipe that works.”

It wasn’t long ago that Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki spoke candidly about how his team can’t afford to give away points, especially with how the standings are so tightly packed.

"We have to come out next game and have our best game of the season," Montreal captain Nick Suzuki said before their most recent victory over the San Jose Sharks.

"We can't be losing these games and falling back in the standings, so we really have to find a way to win the next two on this road trip."

The Montreal Canadiens will aim to return to the win column on Saturday afternoon against the Devils and former player Jake Allen. Puck drop is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET at Bell Centre in Montreal.

The Montreal Canadiens are in the tightly packed Atlantic Division

While the good news for the Montreal Canadiens is that they’ve shown they can play winning hockey for long stretches, the bad news is that they’re in one of the most competitive divisions in the NHL.

Only seven points separate the Canadiens, who are in seventh place in the division with 55 points, from third place. Ahead of them are the Tampa Bay Lightning (62 points), Ottawa Senators (62 points), Detroit Red Wings (61 points) and Boston Bruins (60 points).

Their recent winning streak helped push them closer to the middle of the division, but as they’ve found out the hard way, one bad stretch can cause them to slide down several spots.