The wounds associated with last Tuesday’s loss to the Wild remained open for a long time due to the Montreal hockey club’s schedule. The Habs had Wednesday off and then practiced Thursday and Friday.

During the media availability, emphasis was placed on the issues that led to the loss to the Wild, particularly special teams play. Friday’s practice was primarily dedicated to the power play.

On Saturday morning, head coach Martin St-Louis expressed some disappointment that discussions so early in the season revolved around negative rather than positive elements.

He returned to his comments after the Habs’ win over the Capitals.

“It’s hard for me to understand sometimes, focusing on the negative,” St-Louis said. I understand you have a job to do. And for our group, it can be easy to get lost in the negative when you strive for perfection but know it’s impossible to achieve.

“In the last two days it would have been easy not to say anything about certain issues, but I’ll be honest. I try not to lie,” St-Louis added.

The Hockey Hall of Famer also mentioned that he doesn’t know to what extent his players follow what is said about them in the media or on social networks. For his part, veteran Brendan Gallagher recalled that it is the players themselves who determine the atmosphere in the locker room.

“We control it with our attitude when we show up to the rink every day,” Gallagher said. No matter what is said, you are a professional, you show maturity. It’s not all doom and gloom. As a group, we understand when it’s time to push a little harder, when we need to do better. In the last game (against the Wild) our performance wasn’t good enough. We had two good days of practice and then we were ready to work.”

Gallagher praised his coach’s positive approach. And despite this optimistic side, St-Louis remains realistic in his assessment of his group.

For example, although he highlighted the advantage of the power play goal the Canadian scored in the first period against the Capitals, he also admitted that his team made things difficult for themselves by going 0-for-5 on the power play in the third .

“This is hockey. It wasn’t easy, St-Louis recalled. On the other hand, they try to defend themselves. I think there was progress tonight. On the other hand, we often missed the mark when it came to our chances. But at least we created chances to score.”

Against the Capitals, the Canadian lost a two-goal lead towards the end of the third period for the second time in four games this season. Once again, St-Louis showed his optimistic side by answering a question on the topic.

“The other side of the coin is that twice in four games we had a two-goal lead late in the third period. And I like that,” St-Louis said.

However, St-Louis is aware that his team will have to address its shortcomings during development. But once again he preached patience with his group.

“We are trying to correct things over time, but there is a balance to be found,” he said. Sometimes you fix something and then something else starts to fail.

“We don’t have the opportunity to train often during the season and it’s difficult to quickly remedy the situation. Our next training is next Friday and we have four games next week. We know we need to refine our game and want to improve as the season progresses. But we have to pick the little things as they come.”

On Sunday the Canadian traveled to Buffalo, where he will meet the Sabers on Monday. He will return to the Bell Center the next day for a matchup against the New Jersey Devils. It then hosts the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday and the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday before embarking on a first three-game series against teams from the Western Conference.