Who would argue that a few days away from hockey would be a bad thing for the Montreal Canadiens right now?

After dropping their fifth game in a row, ninth in their past 10, the Canadiens have dispersed to spend the NHL’s Christmas break with their families.

All of them look like they could use a hug at this point, especially captain Max Pacioretty.

“I don’t know what else to say,” Pacioretty said following Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to Minnesota. “We want to do good things, we want to win, we want to play the right way, we want to play hard, we want to score goals. I mean, we’re not going out there not wanting to score goals.”

The Canadiens have only managed 15 goals in their last 10 games, while allowing 34. What was once an 11-point lead in their division has now been reduced to a one-point edge over the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers.

After leading the NHL standings after 20 games, they are now just four points out of ninth place in the Eastern Conference after 36 games.

The question now is, how can they get back on track?

“When the players have difficulty with their offensive production, they hold their sticks too tight, they’re more nervous,” explained Canadiens coach Michel Therrien in French. “They have to stay concentrated on what they have to do.”

Montreal’s concentration kept them in Tuesday’s game against the Wild. They didn’t allow a one-goal deficit in the first period to deflate them and they didn’t fold after Charlie Coyle scored a beautiful goal 4:55 into the third period to make it 2-0.

Canadiens forward Daniel Carr scored with 7:14 remaining in the third period and his team landed seven shots on net—five of them dangerous ones—in the closing minutes of the game. They got in front of Wild goaltender Darcy Kuemper and they pushed desperately to tie the game.

There were other positives from this one.

When Canadiens defenceman Tom Gilbert suffered a lower-body injury in the first period, the team was forced into playing four defencemen for over 20 minutes of ice-time in the second of back-to-back games. Sixth defenceman Jarred Tinordi, playing in his second game since being scratched from the previous 34, proved to be reliable in over 17 minutes of ice time.

“I thought the [defence] did a pretty good job,” said Pacioretty.

It was another moral victory offering little relief to this reeling group.

Canadiens goaltender Mike Condon could take solace in stopping 20 of 22 shots.

Montreal’s next game is Saturday, against the East-leading Washington Capitals. It is the fourth of eight consecutive games on the road and another in which they’ll be deprived of star-goaltender Carey Price and sparkplug-forward Brendan Gallagher.

The Canadiens are now 10-11-3 without Price and 2-9-1 without Gallagher.

Defencemen Jeff Petry was hurt in last Saturday’s 6-2 loss to the Dallas Stars. He and Gilbert are both questionable to participate this weekend.

The break will be good for the Canadiens. It has to be.