By J.D. Lagrange, Senior Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine
In a series where the Montreal Canadiens have allowed the first goal in all five games so far and where the Senators came out on top coming back into a series in which they were down 3-0, Michel Therrien’s team must make some adjustments in order to avoid having to come back to Montreal with the series tied at three.
PENTICTON, BC. – While game six of this series may not be a true do-or-die situation, you can bet that Therrien and his players know that it’s as close as it gets to being the case. If Ottawa was to come out on top in game six and tie this series up, they would have beat Carey Price three consecutive times and as we saw on Friday night, they have no complex playing at the Bell Centre in the ultimate game.
While the Habs have played much better than the score indicates, out shooting and out chancing their opponent by a wide margin, it is quite alarming to see that most of the quality chances are being generated by the third and fourth line. In a short series, your best players must be your best performers and so far in this series, it has not been the case. In the first five games, the top-six has accumulated a grand total of nine points amongst them. By comparison, the bottom-six have contributed 12 points and that, without major powerplay time.
For the Canadiens to get going, they need the likes of Max Pacioretty, David Desharnais, Devante Smith-Pelly (who is playing his best hockey since the trade), Alex Galchenyuk, Tomas Plekanec and Brendan Gallagher to find the back of the net, whether it’s at even strength or on the powerplay. The other two lines do.
And in order to provide more finish and offense to its line-up, the Canadiens should insert P-A Parenteau for Brian Flynn, playing him on the third line with Lars Eller. They should also bring back Sergei Gonchar for Greg Pateryn, giving another option to a powerplay limping badly. Not that Flynn or Pateryn are playing poorly but the other two have more offensive upsides.
THE ERIK KARLSSON STIGMA
Erik Karlsson is like an excellent forward playing defense, whose sole weapon in his zone is his speed to make up for the blunders that he makes. Fortunately for them, the Canadiens form one of the fastest teams in the NHL and one would think that they could do an even better job at containing him. The guy has a grand total of 14 hits in this series, and six of those hits came in game three when he caught Nathan Beaulieu with a hit to the head which got unnoticed by the NHL, for some reason or another.
A slick skater and good passer, Karlsson’s shoulders are barely wider than his hips and yet, coach Therrien and his players seem happy to simply force him to pass the puck. This is far from a bad strategy, but what about zeroing more on him? What about ensuring that every occasion that presents itself, someone should ensure finishing his check? What about setting up plays to funnel him along the boards and force physical contacts? Who, on the Senators, can hurt you more than Erik Karlsson offensively? No one.
If I were Michel Therrien, my game plan would have been focussed on being physical with Karlsson every single chance that we get, even beyond the “legality” of the game from time to time. You must bruise him. You must slow him down. Mostly as a fan, you must wipe the smirk off his face and let him know that playing this game is not going to be fun at all. Send one man on the forecheck on him and never, ever give him the middle of the ice. Force him along the boards and always ensure that you have either another forward or even a defenseman ready to hit him if he tries to skate away along the boards. Late hit? Do it once or twice, even if you take a penalty here and there, just so you make him think. Hurt him with solid body contacts every single time. We’ll see if he’s as effective after.
POWERLESS POWERPLAY
Everybody and their dogs have solutions to the Canadiens’ powerplay woes or so it seems. Starting this season, we notice that the teams are focussing highly on Andrei Markov and mostly on P.K. Subban and his shot. The coaching staff has tried to generate plays down low but the lack of quality passers on the team is hurting that aspect of the game. Passes get intercepted, deflected or bounce over the designated shooters’ sticks.
Following on my Twitter account, I noticed that many fans seem to think that the problem is David Desharnais but to be perfectly honest, I don’t think it’s the case. Out of the team’s top three centres, Desharnais is by far the best at seeing passing lanes and getting the puck through tough areas, well ahead of Tomas Plekanec or Lars Eller in that aspect of the game. His biggest downfall is the fact that he gets pushed off the puck too easily when he gets along the boards but that’s to be expected from a player of his stature, as the same can be said about Gallagher.
If I were to make a change though, I’d like to see Eller get more powerplay time. There are two options to do this: you put him at centre instead of Plekanec or you place him on the wing. He would provide more big body presence when going to the net and let’s face it, he’s been playing some pretty good hockey for the last couple of months now. He needs a reward and powerplay time, especially when things aren’t working, is the best way to do this.
I would also like to see the Canadiens use the umbrella powerplay a bit more, with a good passer at the blueline and two good shooters on their off-wing in the faceoffs circles for one-timers. The other two would be options for passes in the low corners and for net presence to disrupt Anderson. Gallagher does that perfectly and it might be time to try Jacob De la Rose in that role as well, especially if Galchenyuk can’t find another gear soon.
While the Canadiens have never, in their history, lost a best of seven series when taking a 3-0 lead, it is my personal opinion that if the Senators were to win game six, they would likely also win game seven. Here is hoping that we don’t even get to that point to see if I’m right or wrong!
Go Habs Go!