"I think we lacked a bit of jump," defenseman Jackson LaCombe said. "We started out well and I think we had moments where we played well, but we just got sloppy in the second there. Couldn't catch up.
"We want to end on a good note [before the break]. For us to get a few more points and have some momentum going into the break is huge. That's what we need to do."
The loss dropped the Ducks to 21-24-8 on the season, nine points back of a Western Conference Wild Card spot.
"You've got to win every game regardless of whether you're chasing or not," Vatrano said. "It's the NHL. Every night's going to be a hard game. We know [Calgary was] a team in front of us and the points are a little more important, but you have to win every game."
The Ducks now welcome the Habs to town for season's second meeting, after Montreal claimed a 3-2 shootout win in December at Bell Centre. Anaheim owns a 12-6-2 all-time mark against Montreal on home ice, with points in nine of the last 10 games.
This season, Montreal finds itself right in the thick of a competitive Eastern Conference playoff race, trying to shake off three consecutive losses to keep pace with the streaking Red Wings and Islanders. The Canadiens were shut out 4-0 on Wednesday in veteran goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury's likely final start against his childhood team.
“It wasn’t a game where either side had a lot of scoring chances,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis told NHL.com's Sean Farrell. “But I felt like we didn’t have enough juice tonight. It wasn’t about effort but it felt like we lacked juice. [Minnesota is] a team that plays well defensively and doesn’t give you a lot of opportunities, but we didn’t give them many either. They were opportunistic.”
Montreal did announce two new additions to its roster Saturday with the recall of top prospects Owen Beck and Logan Mailloux. Beck has appeared in two NHL games this year, and owns 27 points in 41 AHL games with the Laval Rocket. Mailloux, a 2021 first-round pick, has earned points in three of his five NHL appearances this season.
The Canadiens (24-22-5, 53 points) sit seventh in the Atlantic Division, five points back of a Wild Card position.
