The Canadiens lose an important match.

The Montreal Canadiens were at Madison Square Gardens yesterday to face the New York Rangers in an anticipated match up that could've unfolded some of the Eastern conference playoff race.

With only a handfull of games to play, a victory over the Rangers would've qualified the Canadiens into the playoffs. But the story on the ice was a lot different. Only a couple of players played well while the others looked like passengers.

In net, Henrik Lundqvist outplayed Carey Price by quite a margin. Only Mathieu Dandenault was able to beat the Rangers goaltender while Price looked awful on at least one of New York's goal.

Chris Drury scored twice to help the Rangers beat the Habs by the score of 3-1 and close the gap between the two teams to a single point in the standings. The Canadiens are still seventh, the Rangers are eight, only one point behind Montreal while the Florida Panthers, sitting in ninth place, are still three points behind Montreal.

The Canadiens will face the Boston Bruins thursday.

(Picture: Getty Images.)