The Montreal Canadiens saw their winless skid extended to eight on Thursday night as they blew a two-goal lead in a 4-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.

The Canadiens have picked up just one point over the eight-game stretch and now sit nine points back of the Philadelphia Flyers for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

"We can't give up," head coach Claude Julien said after Thursday's loss. "We can't hang our heads. We're paid to do a job and we have to keep doing it. We're running out of answers.

"We haven't thrown the towel in as individuals or as a team. We show up every game and compete. A mistake here and there ends up in our net. An opportunity we should have buried doesn't go in. Those are the challenges we have."

Canadiens captain Shea Weber, who has two points and a minus-5 rating over the skid, admitted that the losses are beginning to take a toll on the team.

"Every little bounce seems to be going the wrong way," Weber said. "At the other end, bounces don't seem to be going in. And I don't know, it's one of those snowball effects. It's not easy to explain, but it just happens, and you've got to find a way to correct it."

The Canadiens are dealing with a rash of injuries, but got forward Brendan Gallagher back in the lineup for Thursday's loss after he missed their previous four games with a concussion.

"It's a mental battle right now, it's the psychology of it," Gallagher said after his first game back. "There's probably a little 'poor me' going through us right now, when really we're in control. It shouldn't matter what's happened in the past. You have to put that behind you and find a way to win a hockey game."

Montreal will try to turn things around Saturday when they visit the Ottawa Senators, who are winless in their past five. The Canadiens defeated the Senators in overtime when the teams last met on Dec. 11.