By J.D. Lagrange, Senior Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine
When you think about it, hockey is a pretty simple game. In order to win, the team that scores more goals than its opponent gets the win. Keep the puck out of your net and fill your opponent’s net. If you do that more often than the reverse, you’ll have a winning record.
PENTICTON, BC. – Of course, it’s a bit more complicated than that but that’s the basis of hockey, or any other team sport. There are systems, defensive responsibilities and roles on a team to make that happen and in a league where talent is so diluted creating parity like never before, willingness to play hard every shift and commit to winning is what make good teams great.
The Montreal Canadiens find themselves in a bit of a rough stretch, having lost six of their last seven games, being outscored 24-13 during that span. Teams will go through such stretches during a long and demanding 82-game season. The ones finding ways to shake and limit their losing streaks to a minimum will finish ahead of their competition when the playoffs start. However, they’ll need to find ways to score some goals while preventing the puck from going in their own net.
Max Pacioretty, the Canadiens’ top point getter with 20, is 55th in the NHL in that category. Yes folks, this means that there are 54 other players in the NHL with more points than the Habs’ top scorer! But this is not necessarily anything new for this team who has yet to have a top notch offensive threat since Vincent Damphousse, Pierre Turgeon and Mark Recchi were playing for them!
Head coach Michel Therrien has said on numerous occasions since taking over the team that in order to win, they need to score three goals per game. During this stretch of seven games, they average less than two goals per game and that’s including a four goal effort in their win against Colorado. While some seem to want to target David Desharnais solely, the problem runs much deeper than him if you ask me. Montreal is a team who likes to run with four lines, with the top three providing offense and the fourth line being responsible defensively and generate some energy. Let’s take a quick look at the players playing on the first three lines and their recent offensive contribution.
Let’s be honest here… how can we expect wins when those eight guys aren’t putting the puck in the net on a more regular basis? Carey Price can only do what he can and we know that while the team’s defensive core is alright, we’re not talking about the top defensive group in the league here.
How many times in recent games have we seen Pacioretty passing the puck instead of shooting? He’s the team’s only somewhat natural goal scorer and he’s looking for Desharnais or Weise to pass to when in shooting position? It’s one thing not to want to be predictable but when a goalie sees Pacioretty pass instead of shooting, he’s feeling a heck of a lot better!
The powerplay
Some of that lack of production certainly is directly proportional to the team’s inability to take advantage on their powerplays, an area where the Canadiens sit 24th in the NHL with a success rate of 14.5 percent. While it’s a far cry from Buffalo’s 6.6 percent, but it’s also nowhere close to Pittsburgh’s 29.4 percent. If they ran at only 20 percent, it would mean an additional five or six goals on the season.
For a team who is known as one of the fastest in the NHL, it is puzzling to note that only the Boston Bruins and the Washington Capitals have drawn less penalties than the Canadiens, who have only had 76 powerplay opportunities this season. As a measure of comparison, the Detroit Red Wings lead the league with 110 powerplay opportunities.
At the opposite end, the Habs have found themselves short-handed 105 times this season, with only the Winnipeg Jets being penalized more. That time and energy spent killing penalties is time and energy not spent generating offense and playing guys like Galchenyuk, Gallagher, Parenteau and company.
Solution? Use your speed to force the opposition to take penalties and play a more disciplined game yourself by staying out of the box.
The stretch pass
When Jacques Martin was coaching this team, he wanted them to attack as a group of five and backcheck as a group of five. There is nothing more boring to watch than that but it made for tighter defense, that’s for sure. But back then, I was of the opinion that the system did not allow the team to play to its strength, which is team speed. I wanted a faster skater to sometimes get behind the opposition’s defense for the stretch pass, at the same time backing up their defensemen, giving our forward more time and space to get the puck out.
Under Therrien’s system, he has acknowledged and fixed that problem. What we do see however is that both wingers are often playing the stretch pass, allowing the opposition’s defensemen to play them tight no matter where they are on the ice. A stretch pass now becomes a quick tip of the puck in the offensive zone with no sustained pressure when they touch it, or multiple icings when they miss.
Can’t we have a bit of a middle ground somewhere? By having the weak side winger stretching one of the opposition’s defenseman, it makes the second defenseman thinking twice before pinching in, fearing a two or three on one the other way. It also gives the Canadiens’ defensemen some options for breakouts.
This is no fancy stats folks, it’s watching and analysing the game played on the ice, noticing trends and tendencies, and attempting to find hockey solutions instead of criticizing players or coaches with statistics. That’s hockey in its purest form.
Michel Therrien has changed his lines in time for Tuesday’s game against the Canucks. Here’s hoping that he also makes some changes to his system. But remember folks: things aren’t as bad as they seem during a rough stretch, just like they’re not as good as they seem during a winning streak. Go Habs Go!