'This was an ass-kicking. We had it coming,' says Habs' Gallagher

Friday was Montreal Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien's 53rd birthday. He got the worst gift of all from his team: a 10-0 shelling at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The good news: The boys are all saying the right things after hanging their poor goalie Al Montoya out to dry.

"You don't ever forget one like that," forward Brendan Gallagher said, according to The Columbus Dispatch's Aaron Portzline. "We got taught a lesson. This was an ass-kicking. We had it coming."

Therrien agreed with Gallagher's last point.

"It's a tough game," he said. "But the coaching staff, we saw it coming. We saw it coming like a big curveball."

As far as captain Max Pacioretty's concerned, the Canadiens are going to learn a lot about themselves after Friday's loss.

"We got the outcome we deserved tonight," Pacioretty told reporters. "The good news is we turn around and play again (Saturday) at home. So it's tough to shake it off when you get scored on that many times, but we'll see what type of group we have when we lace 'em up (Saturday).

"It's frustrating. We've done a lot of good things recently. It hasn't been perfect. I think the reason why we've won so many games is because we've stuck together and played for one another. And tonight we just left (Montoya) out to dry and that's what's frustrating, because we pride ourselves on being such a close group, and to leave our goalie out to dry like that is very frustrating."

Montoya stopped 30 of 40 shots.

"It was really tough to leave him in there," Therrien said of putting Montoya back in the crease to start the third period when it was already 8-0, according to Pro Hockey Talk's Cam Tucker. "That was a really tough decision to make."

Canadiens goalie coach Stephane Waite spoke with Montoya after 40 minutes, Tucker adds, presumably about the mop-up role he was going to be used in for the rest of the game.

Carey Price will be in the crease Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers.