The Montreal Canadiens’ next opponent will travel to the city for their game on Saturday with high morale and above all want to quickly forget a poor performance on Thursday.

If the Los Angeles Kings were inflexible in Tuesday’s 5-2 win at the expense of the Ottawa Senators, it was very different two days later against the Toronto Maple Leafs, who beat them 5-0 in the heart unanswered by Mitch Marner after a points streak of 21 games and his accomplices, the crowd left Scotiabank Arena largely unsatisfied. And the Habs have an interest in putting up an insatiable resistance this weekend.

“If the mental aspect isn’t there, you can’t rely on the physical aspect either,” head coach Todd McLellan lamented on NHL.com after his failure. I think we were slow and soft in the first half. We didn’t win a race for the puck and we didn’t even come close to winning one. We were casual with our sticks, very bad in terms of position on the ice. That went on all night.”

“I’m disappointed because we haven’t used the words slow and soft to describe our training for a long time,” he added. We’ve had a couple of difficult nights where we made mistakes, but that’s unusual for us and a bit worrying.

Difficult sequence for Danault

Canadiens fans will see Phillip Danault back in action on Saturday and he’s been in trouble these days. After averaging 19 points in 29 games this season, he has settled for one assist in his last six games. The Quebecer, who played his 500th regular-season game of his career on Thursday, also maintained a -7 difference during that series.

The California team will train at the Bell Center on Saturday morning after canceling their session scheduled for Friday. Following her visit to Montreal, which will be broadcast on TVA Sports, she meets the Blue Jackets in Columbus on Sunday.