by Michael Ham-Fan, Managing Editor, All Habs Hockey Magazine
MONTREAL, QC. — The Habs beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 in a shootout on a rare Friday night game at the Bell Centre. Despite the victory, the game wasn’t easy to watch.
Being at the Bell Centre, I got a good view of the night’s play. I would like to share some thoughts about what I viewed as a lack of execution by the Canadiens. This is not an article to bash the Habs, but simply a few remarks and observations.
First I would like to say that, like most of the season, the effort level was there but I feel it was wasted on bad execution. There were a few aspects that were especially lacking: the passing, the breakout and the zone entries.
The Passing Plays
We often hear how the Canadiens lack a pure goal-scoring winger, and how they can’t finish. One of the things I noticed was how the passes weren’t well thought out. From Lars Eller trying to pass the puck twice on a 2-on-1 (one of those to his teammate’s skates) to Alex Galchenyuk puck-handling through two guys only to pass it to a third opponent, the passing isn’t much better than the goal scoring and these two aspects usually go together.
I don’t remember the last time that I watched a Habs game and felt that their passing game was on point. Aside from Alex Galchenyuk and David Desharnais, which forwards can we effectively identify as good playmakers?
This gets exposed even more when Andrei Markov is struggling, bringing me to the second point.
The Breakout Play
Andrei Markov, for years, has been the signal-caller on the back end. This year he has struggled immensely and zone breakouts have been a problem. When the defensemen are pressured and have the puck, it seems like they are instructed to get the puck out of the zone using the boards, no matter who’s on the other side.
Tonight, the Flyers caught on to that strategy and often had a man waiting for that puck. They got quite a few scoring chances that could have gone in if it wasn’t for a solid night from goaltender Mike Condon.
I would like to see some adjustments on that front. The Canadiens have one of the most mobile defensive corps in the league. Why not trust them more on transporting the puck out? I understand they want to play the percentages, but it is very hard to get momentum on choppy plays.
This translates to another issue, directly linked to this one: the zone entry.
The Zone Entries
I’m going to bring back nightmares mentioning the name of Scott Gomez, but remember how he was able to just take the puck and skate it in the zone on every shift? There were obviously some pretty important issues with him but this was one thing he did well. If we fast forward to the present, who really gets in the zone like that on the Habs? P.K. Subban, and that’s about it.
The other players either don’t have the ability to do so or are instructed to do the right play and dump the puck deep, or pass it to an open teammate to get in. The problem is that with the poor passing execution this results in a ton of offsides like in this game, or a loss of possession because of their inability to get the puck back from tougher defences.
At the end of the day, there is a clear lack of personnel and a mismatch of coaching strategies. The effort level keeps the team afloat and they keep most games close, in which they win more often than not with the best goaltender in the league. The offence needs help. When the return of Paul Byron changes the dynamic of your offence that much, it shows you that it may be deep on bottom-6 forwards, but maybe not in top talent. As for the strategies, with their ability to skate, I would like them to use more of that. Keep the puck on your stick and skate it up. Dump it or pass it if you have to, but try to keep it first. I think that would be at least much more entertaining.