Beacons of Light | Three Stars of the Week, NHL, Habs, Montreal Canadiens, Alexander Romanov, Tyler Toffoli, Joel Armia
ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA — Hello there, folks! Back again for another edition of my weekly column here where I take a look back at the week of action for the Canadiens and award my three stars!
Players will earn points each time they appear as a star in this column and at the end of the year, I will award my three stars of the season.
The Canadiens have lost five consecutive games, so awarding three stars is a little bit difficult right now, but there were still some individual performances worthy of praise this week for the Montreal Canadiens.
☆ THIRD STAR: Alexander Romanov
When things are not going well for a team, the natural thing to do is to find some comfort in appreciating the play of the younger players who will be around for many years and become very good NHL players. Alexander Romanov had a lot of hype surrounding him entering this season and for the most part he has delivered.
He had a bit of a stretch where he was trying to do a little too much, but this week, we saw him settle his game down a little bit. The unfortunate part for Romanov is he has played primarily with Brett Kulak and Victor Mete who have been struggling as of late, which puts a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of the 21-year-old Russian to elevate that third pair.
But this week, in the first game of the Dominique Ducharme era, Romanov threaded a beautiful pass to Joel Armia, getting the Canadiens out and running in that game. It should have been expected that Romanov would have a stretch where he got a little anxious with the puck and make some poor decisions, he is a rookie after all, but the Canadiens need his puck movement and as of late that anxiousness has dissipated. For the most part, there is purpose to the things he does.
Romanov entered this season with a lot of praise from members of the Canadiens organization, which perhaps raised expectations higher than they should have been. He has lived up to them, but there will be stretches where he struggles a little bit, and those growing pains need to be accounted for.
If you are looking for a bright spot, a beacon of light during this five-game losing streak, look no further than Alexander Romanov.
☆ SECOND STAR: Tyler Toffoli
Tyler Toffoli has come as advertised. For years, the Canadiens have needed a guy who could step up and score big goals at important times in games and Toffoli has stepped up and delivered for this team. He leads the Canadiens in goal-scoring with 12 on the season and scored an absolute beauty against the Senators this week, that was perhaps overshadowed by other events of that game.
A lot has gone wrong for the Canadiens recently, but one player who has continued to do his part for Montreal is Toffoli. That signing from Marc Bergevin this past off-season has paid off big-time for the Canadiens and having a proven goal scorer, who has really just entered the prime of his career, was a really nice move.
More than just the goal-scoring, Toffoli can be trusted to provide reliable play all over the ice, goal-scoring is certainly his calling card, but he is not a one trick pony or a defensive liability. He just provides steady play which has been a really nice addition to the Canadiens this season.
If the Canadiens are going to turn this around, Tyler Toffoli will more than likely have a lot to do with it, they will need others to step up and deliver to have that depth scoring we saw earlier this season, but Toffoli will be relied upon heavily to maintain this offensive output.
☆ FIRST STAR: Joel Armia
I have to give the first star of this week to Joel Armia, he was tremendous this week for the Canadiens. It shows in the box score in the two games against Winnipeg, he scored two goals in the first game and picked up an assist on the lone Canadiens goal in the second which came following some wonderful work from Armia against Mark Scheifele and Josh Morrissey.
The production from Armia was just icing on the cake this week because the effort plays that he makes in the other team’s zone, the work down low, the possession, it’s all incredibly valuable to the Montreal Canadiens. When he was injured, Corey Perry filled in admirably in his place, but he could not replicate all the things that Armia does for this team.
This week Ducharme spoke of Armia as being someone who has untapped potential and it is hard to argue with that. In baseball you often hear about five-tool players, Joel Armia has all the tools you could want in a hockey player. He has size, skill, good speed for his size, has good hockey IQ and is someone who has the versatility to play in all situations.
This week, we saw Joel Armia all over the puck, maintaining possession in the opposition’s end and creating opportunities for the Canadiens because of his hard work. With eight points for Armia in 13 games, the production has been there in addition to the consistent work ethic that always sees Armia hounding the opposition.
The Canadiens will need Armia to maintain this effort level and production, but it would be nice to see others hop on board and try to replicate some of the effort plays we saw from Armia this week.
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By Joseph Whalen, Host, Canadiens Connection podcast
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