Habs News: Matt Duchene Trade, Fourth Line Upgrade, Let Downs, Brendan Gallagher Hat Trick, NHL Trade Deadline Board
by Chris G, Senior Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine
ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | LAVAL, QC. — The Canadiens had a good week on the ice winning two of the three games they played. Their two wins came at the Bell Centre, as the Habs beat Columbus 3-2 on Tuesday night and 5-1 against the Flyers on Thursday night.
On Saturday night, Montreal blew a 3-0 lead and ended up losing 6-3 against Toronto. “Tonight, we didn’t do a good enough job. You get up 3-0, you should come out with a win,” said Brendan Gallagher after the disappointing loss.
A busy week for Montreal on the ice as they play four games. On Monday, Montreal begins a pair of back-to-back games on the road as they face the Devils and the Red Wings, and then on Friday, they will be in New York to play the Rangers and end the week on Saturday in Montreal with the Penguins in town.
My top-5 Canadiens takes of the week
Duchene trade
On Friday, the Ottawa Senators traded Matt Duchene to the Columbus Blue Jackets in return for two prospects and two draft picks. Duchene was the marquee player available heading into the trade deadline.
Later on that day, Brendan Kelly of the Montreal Gazette, wrote “The Matt Duchene trade proves Marc Bergevin is not an A-list National Hockey League general manager.” In Kelly’s opinion, this was a trade that the Habs should have completed to acquire Duchene.
I strongly disagree with Kelly because Duchene isn’t the missing piece that would make Montreal a Cup contender this year. All indications show that Columbus will be losing Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky at the conclusion of the season. They are putting it all on the line for a deep playoff run. That’s why I think the Duchene and Ryan Dzingel acquisitions as rentals make sense for them.
Fourth line upgrade
In last week’s Take 5 column, I wrote about the upgraded fourth line of Nicolas Deslauriers – Nate Thompson – Dale Weise. Six days later, that line has been completely dismantled. Deslauriers was going to be a scratch for the entire week if it wasn’t for Jonathan Drouin missing Saturday’s game due to a virus, and Dale Weise was assigned to the Rocket prior to Tuesday night’s game.
This week, the fourth line did get an upgrade as Artturi Lehkonen was moved to that line as Paul Byron made his return following his injury. Lehkonen is currently on a 24-game goal drought, which forced the coach to move him to that role. In that stretch, he has collected four assists.
Until Lehkonen regains his confidence offensively, I think that the fourth line is a perfect role for him. Less pressure for him to put points on the board, and he will be facing the bottom of the opposition’s lineup. Who imagined that the upgrade to the fourth line was already available internally?
Let Downs
In two of last week’s four games, the Canadiens didn’t provide a 60 minute effort. In the game against the Flyers, there was a let down after Montreal took a 5-0 lead. Fortunately for Claude Julien‘s team, the Flyers don’t have the depth and didn’t provide a complete effort to make a game out of it.
On Saturday, the story repeated itself as the Habs had a let down after getting a 3-0 lead in the first period. The difference was that the Leafs have the firepower to get back into a game if you give them forty minutes to do so.
The bounces went Toronto’s way in the last two periods. The tying goal scored by William Nylander was following a bad bounce off the boards which resulted into Carey Price being out of position and Nylander had a wide open net to score his fourth goal of the season. Toronto’s fifth and sixth goals of the night were scored as a result of the goalie being pulled.
With the Canadiens having a tough schedule to finish the regular season, they can’t afford have let downs if they want to earn a playoff spot.
Gallagher the scorer
On Thursday night, Brendan Gallagher got his first career hat trick in the NHL and brought his total to 26 goals for the season. He’s on pace to 34 goals this season, which would make his second consecutive 30 goal season. Max Pacioretty‘s was the best team-friendly contract, and now Gallagher’s $3.75 million contract is the best one in the team’s books.
“He’s the type of player who shows up every game,” Claude Julien said Thursday. “Whether it’s a big game or not, you know what you’re going to get from Gallagher, and coaches like to know what they’re going to have at their disposal game after game. He’s one of those warriors who gives everything every game; at the end of the game he’s spent.”
Gallagher has continually improved since he started in the NHL. In his first few years, we all recall the number of disallowed goals and goalie interference calls against Gallagher. Now it’s hard to remember the last time that any of those scenarios happened.
I also recall that when the Canadiens acquired Andrew Shaw, that some Habs fans thought that Gallagher was a good asset to trade because both players apparently play the same style of hockey. If you had to choose one of those two players to have on your team, who would you choose?
Trade board
Montreal is headed into trade deadline day holding on the first wild card spot of the Eastern Conference. For the long term good of the organization, I think that Bergevin should stick to his plan and build on the future of the team.
If I had to prepare a Canadiens trade board, it would include the following names: Charles Hudon, Jordie Benn, and Antti Niemi. There were reports that the team is willing to retain a portion of Karl Alzner‘s contract as they look for a trade but I don’t see that happening on deadline day.
Unfortunately for Jamies Duthie and his colleagues at TSN, I don’t expect Montreal to provide them with some good content for their trade deadline coverage.
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