MONTREAL — The Montreal Canadiens are desperate to fix their dreadful penalty kill.
The Canadiens conceded two power-play goals to Evander Kane in a 4-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.
Montreal's 30th-ranked penalty kill went 1 for 3 and has conceded a league-worst 11 goals on 34 opportunities.
"Special teams have to make the difference," said captain Shea Weber. "It has to be a lot better. We have to find a way to figure it out.
"We want it to be better. We're not sitting here saying that it's good enough. We're going to work on it in practice. We're going to continue going over video. The change will come for the positive."
Weber's first-period hooking penalty led to the equalizer for San Jose after Nick Cousins scored his first Canadiens goal at 16:36 of the opening frame.
Quick passes dizzied the shorthanded Canadiens, who were scrambling in their own zone and unable to get a stick on the puck. Logan Couture's shot ricocheted off Kane's leg and in at 19:05.
A contentious tripping call on Jeff Petry led to Kane's second power-play goal at 4:54 of the second. After Carey Price failed to control a mighty Brent Burns shot, Tomas Hertl poked the loose puck through the crease to Kane for his sixth.
"We'll have to look at the video," said Jonathan Drouin of the penalty kill. "Look at the first one tonight, a total breakdown. The puck was going left and right, and it ends with an empty-netter for Kane. It's tough to fix that.
"We like our PK, but sometimes it's a 15 or 20 seconds at the end where we start to get tired. That might be the difference right there."
San Jose added another two goals to take a 4-1 lead.
An unselfish Hertl passed to an open Kevin Labanc in the crease instead of shooting at 8:08 of the second period. Hertl had three assists on the night.
Melker Karlsson's first of the year, on a smart feed from veteran Joe Thornton along the boards, gave San Jose a three-goal lead with 36 seconds to play in the second.
Price gave up four goals on 23 shots.
The Sharks (4-5-1) have now won nine straight games against the Canadiens (4-4-2) dating back to Mar. 21, 2015.
"It's a work in progress," said Sharks coach Peter DeBoer. "We're defending better than we did early. We're not beating ourselves with reckless turnovers as much. It's getting better.
"Our whole group was good tonight. We came out ready to play. Playing with the lead made a huge difference. Special teams were good again."
Backup goaltender Aaron Dell did his part to snap San Jose's two-game losing skid.
The 38-year-old kept the visitors in the game with a string of key saves in the second period, most notably stopping all nine shots he faced on a Canadiens power play with Burns in the box.
Dell made 35 saves to improve to 2-1-0 on the season.
"Did we get some chances? Absolutely," said Montreal coach Claude Julien. "We had lots of chances, even in the third period. We didn't bury them. They didn't get that many chances but they buried them.
"Sometimes when you need to lift the puck up, we're shooting at their pads. We had some great chances in the slot but we missed the net. It's the little details."
Down 4-1, the Canadiens showed signs of life when they reduced the deficit at 19:46 of the second period on Joel Armia's tip. The Finnish winger leads Montreal with five goals after missing the last two games with a lower-body injury.
Notes: Montreal was on three days rest. … Max Domi extended his point streak to seven games. … Burns played his 600th game in a Sharks jersey.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2019.
Kelsey Patterson, The Canadian Press