Julien: Habs have to 'figure it out defensively' after blowing 4-goal lead

The Montreal Canadiens looked to be in cruise control on Saturday night.

After Shea Weber's early second-period goal, the Habs had a 4-0 lead against a rebuilding New York Rangers squad that had been blown out by the Ottawa Senators the night before. It looked to be in the bag.

Then the lead evaporated.

The Rangers scored three straight goals over a three-minute stretch in the middle frame to pull within one. After Artturi Lehkonen's third-period marker restored a two-goal lead, it seemed like the Habs had woken up. However, New York scored three unanswered goals to walk away with a 6-5 win in regulation.

Predictably, head coach Claude Julien was not happy postgame.

"Offensively, we're still a good team. But we have to figure it out defensively," Julien said in French, as translated by Sportsnet's Eric Engels. "We're not hard enough, we're not killing plays, and our backcheck wasn't good at all tonight.

"We played against a hungry team, even if they played last night, which is another reason this was unacceptable. After three games without a win, we should have been hungry to the point of not allowing these things from happening. So, it's unacceptable and we'll take control of this, we'll correct this situation."

The Canadiens outshot the Rangers but allowed 15 high-danger scoring chances while only generating 11 of their own, according to Natural Stat Trick.

"Our play without the puck killed us," Julien added, according to TSN's John Lu.

The Habs have now lost four straight games after scoring the opening goal in three of those contests, falling to 11-7-5 on the season.