by Corey Desormeaux , Staff Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine
OTTAWA, ON. — For Habs fans, round two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs has been hard to watch. Their team’s inability to score goals has caused frustration amongst the Canadiens players resulting in a lack of discipline and focus.
After the first two games of the series, the Montreal Canadiens find themselves faced with a daunting task heading to Tampa Bay without a win. Tampa Bay is tough to beat in there own barn, boasting the best home record in the league during the regular season. Add this to the fact that they haven’t lost to the Canadiens in their last seven meetings, nor have they lost three games in a row all season long. It’s safe to say the odds are stacked against the Habs.
On the positive side for the Canadiens, they’ve come from behind all season and despite the outcomes of the first two games, seem to be doing a lot of good things in this series against the Lightning. At even strength, they’ve been dominating the play, leaving the Canadiens players frustrated with their two losses but optimistic that the tide could turn.
So what are the Canadiens doing well and not so well?
The Good
Possession at even strength
My eye test from the first two games of this series is telling me that the Habs are playing some of their best hockey all year at even strength. They are cycling the puck extremely well and forcing the big Lightning defencemen to make quick plays with the puck, forcing several turnovers.
The Habs lead all teams in round two with a Corsi of 55.2 per cent, leaving Tampa Bay with the worst even strength Corsi at 44.8 per cent. If we eliminate blocked shots from the Corsi equation (also known as Fenwick), Montreal’s advantage heightens to 59.4 per cent. The Habs have proven at even strength that they can play with the Tampa Bay Lightning, something they have yet to prove all season long.
Shots
In this series, the Canadiens have a shot lead of 73-59 over the Lightning. Considering the Canadiens have taken 17 penalties and only drawn eight, that number is pretty impressive. The Habs have to do a better job of getting traffic through to Ben Bishop to obstruct his view and pounce on rebounds. Bishop looked uncomfortable at times against Detroit in the first round and if the Habs want to have success they’ll need to knock him off his game.
Face-offs
The Canadiens have been dominating in the faceoff circle this postseason, which is part of the reason the Habs have been controlling shot attempts in the first two games of the series. The Habs’ primary centremen have face-off percentages above 50 per cent throughout the first two games.
| Faceoff Taken | Faceoff Percentage | |
| Plekanec | 55 | 63.6% |
| Eller | 42 | 61.9% |
| Desharnais | 19 | 52% |
| Mitchell | 22 | 50% |
Face-offs are important in all moments of the game but can sometimes be accentuated late in the game when the score is close. Some teams only have one player that they trust to throw over the boards to win a crucial draw at the end of the game, but the Habs have the luxury of picking between a few players.
Creating Turnovers
Like they’ve been doing all year long, the Montreal Canadiens are relying on forcing turnovers to generate offence. Adam Oates did a great job of explaining how the Canadiens do so throughout the 2nd intermission of Sunday’s game on CBC. The Habs have 21 takeaways in the first two games of this series, the Lightning on the other hand have five.
The Habs have generated several odd-man rushes and scoring opportunities off of turnovers in this series. Perhaps the most notable was Brian Flynn’s scoring chance right in the slot of the opening period in game two after Smith-Pelly forced a turnover with a strong forecheck.
The Bad
Finishing
Since their first postseason game against Ottawa, the Canadiens cannot seem to cash in on their offensive opportunities. In the second round, the Canadiens hold the second worst shooting percentage out of all remaining playoff teams, scoring on 4.1 per cent of their shots. It just so happens that their opponent leads the remaining playoff teams, scoring on 13.6 per cent of their opportunities.
Powerplay
There have been lots of pieces written about how to fix the Habs’ powerplay, so I won’t bore you with a ton of thoughts. We all know it needs to be fixed and all have our opinions on how to fix it. What I will say though is that whether its personnel changes, passing lanes or more movement it seems like the coaching staff have run out of solutions.
The Habs powerplay is now 1-for-26 in the playoffs, clicking at a success rate of 3.8 per cent. They’ve registered seven shots on six powerplay opportunities in the series.
Top-6
Simply put, the Canadiens top six forwards aren’t producing enough. They know it and we know it.
Gallagher and Pacioretty have been shooting pucks from just about everywhere with a combined individual Corsi of 29. Meanwhile, Plekanec, Galchenyuk and Weise have combined for 17.
Plekanec, Galchenyuk and Weise have got to find a way to be more involved in the offence if the Habs are to win four games against the Lightning.
Undisciplined
The Montreal Canadiens have a dangerous penalty kill, and fans often joke that they’d rather see their team down a player than on the powerplay. However, in game two, the Lightning powerplay went 4-for-8 and completely eliminated the Habs from crawling back into the game. The Canadiens have taken 17 penalties in this series, while Tampa Bay has taken 8.
The Lightning scored more goals than any other team this season. If the Habs want to make their way back into the series, they have to stay out of the penalty box.
Stamkos on the scoresheet in a big way
Steven Stamkos entered game two searching for his first goal of the playoffs and boy, did he find it. Stamkos received a stretch pass from Jason Garrison that streaked him in on a breakaway where he made a beautiful move to beat Carey Price. That goal opened the floodgates and Stamkos finished the game with three points.
The Lightning Captain came into the game cold and left red hot. The Habs will have their work cut out for them if Stamkos keeps this up.