by Josh Saunders, Staff Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine
On December 4th, the Montreal Canadiens had some reasons to feel good about themselves. They were sitting at the top of the Eastern Conference standings, they escaped the dreaded California road trip with a couple of points (including an afternoon win against a tough Los Angeles Kings team), and the line-up seemed to be firing at all cylinders.
What could possibly go wrong?
It turns out, quite a bit. After an accidental collision with Anze Kopitar, Alex Galchenyuk left the game with a lower body injury. Enter David Desharnais as a replacement in the next game against St. Louis. Desharnais went down after awkwardly trying to make his first hit of the season against Jay Bouwmeester.
By December 7th the Canadiens were quickly down two of their top three centres for six-to-eight weeks. Just a day later it was announced that Greg Pateryn will miss a lengthy amount of time with a fractured foot.
As much as the injuries were a shock to fans, it had to be even more devastating to the players involved. Galchenyuk was on track to have a career year, and had been playing extremely well. Desharnais, in a contract year, had started to find his game.
It was starting to feel like a case of déjà vu, with last year’s injury problems fresh on our minds. What would the Canadiens to do to fill the void? Make a trade? Move someone over to centre for the next two months?
In order for the Habs to keep pace and maintain their position in the standings, they will have to find ways to score without players in the line-up. In my opinion, nothing major will happen until the Canadiens have exhausted internal options. It is probably going to be a painful process of trial and error until things are finally remedied.
Or so I thought. Two games after the injury news, the offense exploded for 15 goals. Michel Therrien wasted no time in stacking one line and temporarily, it looked like the right move.
The trio of Max Pacioretty, Tomas Plekanec, and Alexander Radulov were productively initially. They combined for five goals (four by Pacioretty) in the Canadiens’ 10-1 victory over the Avalanche on Saturday night. They also look like they are having a lot of fun playing together.
Other players have been asked to step up and play a bigger offensive roles, such as Phillip Danault, Paul Byron, and Arturri Lehkonen.
Two great performances at home (against the 17th and 30th place teams) is hardly a precursor of anything to come. It was good to know that this group has the ability to come out firing right away. But as we witnessed against the Bruins on Monday night, things have a way of crashing back to earth quite quickly.
While changes have been made this season, it is essentially the same core group of players that imploded last year after the loss of their star player, Carey Price.
A typical hockey season for any team is full of highs and lows. While the road trip may have fell short of expectations, the Canadiens deserve credit for bouncing back to deliver strong performances in games they were expected to win. As the competition stiffens, it will be interesting to see how the team reacts despite having a few holes in the roster.