Habs News: Carey Price Sets Record, Canadiens Playoff Odds, Jonathan Drouin Not Contributing, Shea Weber, Jesperi Kotkaniemi Usage

by Chris G, Senior Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine

ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | LAVAL, QC. — It wasn’t a good week for the Canadiens. After beating the Red Wings 3-1 on Tuesday, they lost against the Islanders 2-1 on Thursday and got shutout 2-0 by the Blackhawks on Saturday night.

There are four games on the schedule this week to get back on track. On Tuesday, Montreal heads to face Philadelphia, and then they come back to the Bell Centre to face the Islanders on Thursday and the Sabres on Saturday, before ending the week in Carolina on Sunday.

With Charlie Lindgren being recalled last week, it will be interesting to see if he will get an opportunity to start one of the two games of the upcoming back-to-back or if they will ride their number one goalie until the end of the season.

My top-5 Canadiens takes of the week

Price Sets Record

In Tuesday night’s win against Detroit, Carey Price became the winningest goalie in franchise history by getting his 315th career regular season win. The crowd at the Bell Centre gave him a long standing ovation chanting “Carey, Carey” when he was named the first star of the game. The Canadiens goaltender isn’t known to show a lot of emotions, but you can tell that this was a special night for him.

“I’m very proud to be here with this puck in my hands. I’m grateful for all the help I’ve received since I started out,” said Price following the game. He was being humble because for most of his career, he was the one helping his teammates. Price was the reason that Montreal had any chance of winning any of the games last week. He made several spectacular saves one after the other.

With eight years remaining in his current contract and many more wins to be added to his record, it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for another goalie to break the record.

Price will need to play at the same level for the team to have any chance of making the playoffs this season.

Playoffs Odds

“Playoffs? Don’t talk about playoffs. You’re kidding me. Playoffs? I’m just hope we can win a game.” That’s a quote that was made famous in 2001 by Jim Mora, coach of the Indianapolis Colts, but I could easily see Claude Julien giving the same quote following Saturday’s game.

On February 7th, the Canadiens easily beat the Jets 5-2 at the Bell Centre. The fan base started imagining a long playoff run, and some very intelligent people called it a statement win. With that win, Montreal was third place in the Atlantic Divison and an eight point cushion from ninth place. Everything was going well for them.

We must have placed a jinx on the team because since that win versus Winnipeg, the team has played 17 games and has a 6-10-1 record and is now ninth in the Eastern Conference. The odds of them making into the playoffs has dipped under 20 percent.

Several General Managers have said that they are cautious with making trades during the season when their team is doing well because they don’t want to risk affecting team chemistry. Dale Weise and Nate Thompson were acquired on February 9th and 11th respectively, which is also the beginning of the team’s slide. Is this a coincidence?

Every time that Marc Bergevin has spoken to the media this season, he has mentioned that making the playoffs is the goal. I wonder if he has pushed the panic button.

Drouin is a Non-Contributor

There were two players in the spotlight for the Habs last week, Carey Price for the reasons mentioned earlier, and Jonathan Drouin. Unfortunately for the latter, it wasn’t for the right reasons.

“Everyone has to be playing their best every night. Lines are taking nights off, players are taking nights off. We don’t have that bite,” said Andrew Shaw following the game against the Islanders. Shaw’s comments weren’t aimed towards any specific player, which led to the media and fans pointing the fingers for him. In a market like Montreal, it gets intense.

I would say that the player that got the most backlash from those comments were Drouin. The criticism came from experts, media, and the fans. It was hard to avoid them.

Drouin has become the team’s scapegoat. Everything that goes wrong seems to be his fault. On the Islanders’ game winning goal on Thursday night, a lot of fingers were pointed to Drouin for his pass attempt, which happened deep in the opponent’s zone. It was a bad pass. On that same play, Max Domi and Brett Kulak also made mistakes and Jeff Petry also wasn’t happy with how he handled the 2-on-1 defensively. Why point the finger only to Drouin?

Drouin has four points in his last 16 games, all of them in the same game. For a player, who’s success is solely tied to generating offence, this is unacceptable. Coaches say if players don’t put points on the board, they need to contribute in another way. Drouin’s defensive struggles have been well documented, therefore he’s currently in a slump where he’s not adding any value to the team.

Does this mean that he needs to be traded for a bag of pucks or sent to Laval as I have been reading on social media? Absolutely not. Prior to his current slump, he had collected a very respectable 46 points in 55 games, and is three points shy of tying his season high in points.

Is Weber Playing Hurt?

A concern of mine has been the recent play of Shea Weber. When the team’s captain is at his best, there’s no doubt that he’s the best defenseman on the ice. In my opinion, he hasn’t been as dominant as of late.

In last week’s three games, Jeff Petry had more ice time than Weber, which is unusual. “Nope” was Weber’s response on Saturday when asked by a journalist if he was injured. The body language on his reply was concerning. He was looking towards the ground away from the cameras. There’s a saying that no one is playing at 100 percent at this point of the season. The question is at what percentage is he right now?

As a reminder, Weber played with a torn tendon in his left foot for two months last season before missing games. For the organization’s sake, I would hope that his recent play is related to an injury and not  fatigue. Weber’s contract expires at the end of the 2025-26 season, it would be a huge concern for the team if fatigue is the cause.

Kotkaniemi Usage

During this slump, Claude Julien hasn’t escaped the criticism, and I think that’s fair. From my perspective, he hasn’t managed the usage of Jesperi Kotkaniemi well as of late. On Saturday, he was given 7:56 of ice time, way below his season average. Kotkaniemi hasn’t been used on the power play recently either.

“KK (Kotkaniemi) is a young player that’s learning. At one point, he had 2-3 consecutive shifts where he left his man open that led to scoring opportunities,” said the coach after the game. “We’re at the time of the year that we have to win.[..] Tonight it was based on making decisions to find a way to win.”

I totally support a coach that makes tough decisions that are needed to win. Considering the team has scored one goal in the last two games, and that their power play is embarrassing, Kotkaniemi should be part of the solution.

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