The Canadiens knew how important this game was.
Claude Julien pointed to it as a potential turning point for their season. That’s all.
The city was enraged to the point of near apathy, seemingly fully resigned to this season being an utter failure less than three weeks in. A team never wants the consequences of a Tuesday night home game on Oct. 24 to be this dire, this severe, but that was the reality when the Canadiens took the ice against the Florida Panthers with a 1-6-1 record.
That hope of creating a turning point, of taking a stand, of showing the Canadiens will not lie down and will dig their way out of the substantial hole they dug for themselves, all of it could have been squashed in 10 seconds.