Entering last night's contest, they were holding down the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, with several teams on their tail. The team needed the two points from their visit to St. Louis to start a difficult back-to-back set versus two of the top teams in the Central Division off on the right foot.
Thirty-four seconds into the game, that task got much more difficult, as Robby Fabbri pounced on a rebound and put it by a backward-facing Mike Condon. Michel Therrien used his challenge in an attempt to get the goal disallowed on grounds of goaltender interference, but the evidence did not support the claim, and the Habs were down 1-0 just as the game got underway.