Special teams are the nerves of war in the NHL. We had a good example of this at the Bell Center on Tuesday night.

The Canadian was shut out six times on the power play along the way a 4-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks.

This is the second time this has happened in a week. He also bit the dust six times in his crushing loss to the Buffalo Sabers.

That first loss in three games highlighted one of Martin St-Louis’s side’s recent failings since the start of the season. The first unit of the power game starts to get predictable.

Suzuki is the conductor. Caufield prepares for a one-timer shot. The other players try to join Caufield in any way they can to surprise the opponent.

We can say that the element of surprise has faded since a few games.

The other teams have studied their habits and it shows. They’re watching Caufield closely, even though he’s isolated at the rink.

It was even more egregious against the Sharks, who rank first in penalty shootouts in the NHL. The Californians gave the Suzuki-Caufield duo no leeway except for a scoring opportunity in the first period. Their back square was very aggressive towards the puck carrier. He had little time to make his decisions.

Maybe it’s time for powerplay manager Alex Burrows to shake things up. If Sean Monahan is in front of the net, we’d better take advantage of it. It has been his office since the beginning of his career.

“The defenders were very aggressive against me,” said Nick Suzuki. We were trying to get better position when the puck landed at the bottom of the zone. We had enough chances to thread the needle.

Then when they had a pitching opportunity, they had a Sharks player in front of them. With 28 shots saved, including nine by Nick Bonino and Marc-Édouard Vlasic, they managed to annoy the young Canadian strikers.

Stop the music chair

We saw Arber Xhekaj in the press box. The young man doesn’t deserve to be in this place. The same goes for the quality of his game.

Now we have to ask ourselves the following question: is the musical bowel movement coming to an end with the young defenders?

You may not think so. With plenty of travel to do in the coming weeks, Martin St-Louis wants to have all resources on hand in the event of an injury or poor performance.

On the other hand, it’s time to have a little stability by using the same formation for some games.

His replacement, Jordan Harris, didn’t have a bad game. He didn’t play bad enough to lose his first game seat in Western Canada.

big journey

Starting Thursday, the Habs embark on a four-game road trip. They will play in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Seattle.

These four encounters could be decisive for the future. Martin St-Louis would like at least two wins, but it won’t be easy.

To achieve this result, the veterans have to work twice as hard. Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield need offensive help.

Players like Josh Anderson and Brendan Gallagher will need to produce more. In Anderson’s case, he tends to disappear in certain games. As for Gallagher, the effort is there but the luck is a little less.

It will also be interesting to see how St-Louis use goalkeepers. Could we see Samuel Montembault for half the games? It’s not impossible.