Julien: 'There's still something missing'

PHILADELPHIA - There was only so much rallying the Canadiens could do on Thursday night.

After erasing a pair of one-goal deficits to begin the third period on equal footing with the Flyers, Jakub Voracek and Travis Konecny put Dave Hakstol's contingent up by a pair before the frame was even 90 seconds old.
That, unfortunately, proved to be the difference in a 5-3 loss at Wells Fargo Center, snapping the Habs' win streak at two games.
It's not as if the Canadiens didn't fight back after that, though, as Brendan Gallagher pulled them to within a goal with 2:54 remaining in regulation time. But, the comeback stopped there as Ivan Provorov later sealed the deal with an empty-netter.

"They were able to convert on more chances than us," said captain Max Pacioretty, following Thursday's nice defeat. "I thought there were times there where we engaged ourselves, put our foot on the gas and gave ourselves a chance to win the game, but we just weren't able to."
Leading the charge offensively for Philadelphia was captain Claude Giroux, who Carey Price singled out as the man primarily responsible for turning the contest in the Flyers' favor with a goal and two assists.
"He played a pretty good game. I think he was the difference-maker," said Price, who turned aside 24 of 28 shots against. "He's definitely got great vision. He's pretty shifty out there and he always seems to be in a good position to make a play to multiple players."

Giroux - along with fellow sniper Jakub Voracek - both found the back of the net on the power play as the Canadiens got themselves in penalty trouble at times, giving the Flyers four opportunities with the man advantage.
"We know they have a lethal power play. A lot of their top offensive guys make a living off the power play," mentioned Pacioretty. "I think once they get a point or get some good looks, they're going to start feeling it at even-strength. That's kind of what happened."
During his postgame press conference, head coach Claude Julien expressed a measure of disappointment in his group's failure to stay out of the box.
"Those penalties hurt us. Their power play seemed to be clicking and our penalty kill wasn't good enough," explained Julien. "At even-strength, we were good and we were competitive. We had chances. But, those penalties were costly."
In short, Julien didn't mince words when it came to evaluating the Canadiens' overall effort in the City of Brotherly Love.
"We made mistakes, especially on special teams. We could have been better short-handed," insisted Julien. "There's still something missing and there are games where a mistake here and there becomes costly. We have to limit those mistakes and correct them… It takes a lot to win on the road. We were close, but not good enough."