St. Louis: Struggling Canadiens 'can’t kill a penalty right now to save our life'

The Montreal Canadiens saw their winless skid extended to six games on Tuesday with a 6-3 loss to the Nashville Predators.

The Canadiens gave up a power-play goal just over four minutes into the game and were down 3-0 less than 11 minutes in, drawing the ire of head coach Martin St. Louis.

“We shot ourselves in the foot early,” St. Louis said. “We can’t kill a penalty right now to save our life. We’ve got to get better in that department. And I think you end up chasing the game all the time.”

The Predators went two-for-four on the power play Tuesday, dropping the Canadiens' penalty kill success rate on the season to 73.9 per cent - 23rd in the NHL. Montreal has allowed 22 goals over their past three games and been outscored 32-9 over their current skid.

"We've just got to figure out a way to play better defensively," defenceman David Savard said. "We gave up Grade A chances, and those are the ones that hurt. We play good sometimes, and sometimes we miss an assignment or something and give [up] a Grade A chance.

"It's hard on our goalies, it's hard to make those saves when great players are coming down the pipe."

With a 1-8-1 record over their past 10 games, the Canadiens have dropped to second-last in the Eastern Conference, ahead of only the Columbus Blue Jackets. Montreal finished last in the standings a year ago, winning the first overall pick in the draft lottery and selecting Juraj Slafkovský.

Montreal currently sits 27th in the overall league standings, with four Western Conference teams still behind them.