Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (87) celebrates his goal against Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price (31) with teammates during the second period at Bell Centre.Jean-Yves Ahern
Hard truths are plentiful in the NHL, but there's one with particular resonance in this case: patience with mistakes, especially youthful ones, is not a luxury coaches can afford.
Well, not if they enjoy being employed.
The leash tightens when 21-year-old Montreal Canadiens defenceman Nathan Beaulieu threads a careless pass across his defensive zone and, because of the resulting interception, the puck ends up in his own net, as happened in the first period of Tuesday's showdown with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Beaulieu's status has been cast into doubt since the arrival of veteran Sergei Gonchar via trade last week, but Mike Weaver's last-minute upper-body problem guaranteed him a regular shift against the Pens.
It didn't go well.
Beaulieu also found himself on the ice for Pittsburgh's second goal, although that one, scored by agitator Steve Downie, had more to do with a bad bounce and feeble P.A. Parenteau back-check than anything Beaulieu did.
Beaulieu played only two more shifts in the period, four more in the second, and seven in the third of a game that by then was beyond the Habs' reach and ended 4-0.
Montreal head coach Michel Therrien is notoriously intolerant of newbie mistakes, which are often in the eye of the beholder – Beaulieu's pass in the first was ill-advised, but if teammate Dale Weise had managed to tip or kick it away, the Pittsburgh scoring chance may never have developed.
Therrien has a stock saying: The NHL isn't a development league. Fair enough, but that statement could benefit from a little nuance.
A player might not be made into an NHLer in the big league, but he obviously can become a better one.
There's an upside to being patient. Consider the Penguins' Beau Bennett and Olli Maatta as just two examples. Bennett, a 22-year-old Californian forward, was drafted the year before Beaulieu (2010) and has been brought along slowly. In fairness, injuries also slowed his development, and there's been a wholesale overhaul of the Pittsburgh front office since he was drafted.
It was Bennett, funnily enough, who pounced on Beaulieu's first period turnover on Tuesday and rifled an unstoppable shot into the top corner over Carey Price's blocker.
He chipped in two assists before the game was out – the pick of the lot was a sweet pass to a trailing Brandon Sutter at the beginning of the second period – the Habs were mostly able to contain Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, evidently the game-plan had nothing specific to say about Bennett.
As it turns out, his contribution was more than enough to salt away the game. Crosby did find the scoresheet on a power play late in the second, but by then the Pens were up 3-0.
There's a temptation to say the Habs, first overall heading into the night's action, were exposed as an inferior team to Pittsburgh, and that may be true when the dust settles on the season.
But in the first period, Montreal flew out of the traps. On the first shift of the game, 20-year-old Alex Galchenyuk found himself on a partial breakaway and inexplicably decided to make a spin-around pass to the trailer (some errors in judgment are more easily tolerated, although Galchenyuk has spent his share of time in Therrien's dog house).
Czech forward Jiri Sekac has been a revelation since emerging from a seven-game stint in the press box, and he could easily have opened the scoring when he swooped in off the right wing a few moments later; Marc-Andre Fleury, who has had considerable trouble playing in his home province, made a marvelous toe save.
Indeed, Fleury was the story in the third period as well denying Max Pacioretty from in tight and repelling an increasingly desperate Habs squad.
He was also somewhat fortunate in having Galchenyuk and Sekac find iron rather than net, but these are the kinds of breaks in-form goalies tend to get enroute to a 27-shot shutout.
By definition, winning streaks are temporary. That the Habs' longest string of wins in four years ended at the hands of the Pens, who also had a brutal ending to a seven-game streak earlier this year in New York, is no kind of embarrassment.
They may not be the top team in the NHL standings for long, but there are sunny days ahead for the Habs and their youngsters – providing they don't exceed their coach's tolerance for miscues.