Habs News: Trade Deadline, Power Play Struggles, Price – Niemi Tandem, Shaw’s Career High Season, Racism in Hockey
by Chris G, Senior Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine
ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | LAVAL, QC. — It was a busy week for the Canadiens as they had two back-to-back situations in the same week. And all four games were played in four different cities.
The Habs started the week in New Jersey on Monday night with a 2-1 loss against a Devils team that was missing some key players and had traded away one of their quality assets earlier in the day. The following night in Detroit, Montreal easily beat the Red Wings 8-1, a team that’s battling for a better spot to win the draft lottery.
After enjoying a couple of off days in the Big Apple, the Canadiens beat the Rangers 4-2 before heading back home on Saturday to face the Penguins. Pittsburgh took care of their opponents quickly by scoring three goals on their first four shots and went on to win 5-1.
Sunday was a travel day as Montreal travelled to the west coast to face the Kings on Tuesday and then on Thursday, they begin back-to-back games against the Sharks and the Ducks.
My top-5 Canadiens takes of the week
Trade Deadline
Marc Bergevin concluded one trade on deadline day as he acquired Jordan Weal from the Arizona Coyotes in return for Michael Chaput. Obviously, it wasn’t a blockbuster trade for the TSN panel to breakdown during their 10-hour broadcast.
From Montreal’s perspective, even if Weal hasn’t played a game yet with his new team, I think that it’s a good deal as they added a NHL player to their roster in exchange for an AHL-calibre player. I wrote about the impact of Chaput’s loss to the Laval Rocket on the AHL Report, that you can read here.
In Weal, Bergevin said that he was acquiring a right-handed centre who can win faceoffs. In 47 games played this season with Philadelphia and Arizona, Weal has had a 55.8 percent success rate at the face-off circle.
I wasn’t expecting Charles Hudon to still be with the team after deadline. The Athletic published a story on Thursday, where they spent trade deadline day with Allain Roy, who happens to be Hudon’s agent. In that piece, we learn that on deadline day, Roy received a text message from the player’s relative looking for an update and that the agent inquired with the organization. Hudon is clearly ready to move on to another organization and it should happen during the off-season.
Power Play Struggles
The Canadiens power-play is currently in a stretch where they have scored once in their last 24 opportunities over a 10 game span. They are now at a 12.4 percent success rate with the extra attacker. The main reason Montreal won 8-1 against Detroit is because they didn’t get any power-play opportunities. Alright I’m kidding, but it’s not often that a team scores eight even strength goals in a game.
“Next question,” was Claude Julien‘s response in New Jersey when asked by Sportsnet’s Eric Engels to comment on the power-play. Julien is clearly fed up talking about how bad the power-play is playing. Was he sending a message to his GM?
Earlier in the day, Bergevin told the media that one player can’t make the difference to help the power-play. I think that one player that was traded that could have helped with the power play without sacrificing the future was Mats Zuccarello. The Stars acquired him in return for two conditional draft picks. His 14 power-play points would tie him first with Jonathan Drouin in Montreal.
In the last two games, Shea Weber was moved down to the second unit of the power-play. Is it a new strategy or is the captain playing hurt?
“I’m not going to comment on that, because I’m not going to start rumours. Shea Weber is well,” said Julien in New Jersey.
Price + Niemi
We’re in the middle of a goaltending controversy in Montreal. It seems like this happens annually with the Canadiens. The difference this season is that the controversy is on Price’s usage. Carey Price has now appeared in 14 consecutive games, which is a lot for any goalie, and it’s more than what we are used to seeing by Price.
Bergevin said that he has confidence in Antti Niemi and didn’t find it necessary to acquire reinforcement on deadline. Niemi didn’t finish the last two games that he started. Montreal just finished playing three games against non-playoff teams in back-to-back situations and Niemi didn’t start any of them. It doesn’t sound like they have confidence in him.
Keith Kinkaid was the only goalie that moved on deadline day as he was acquired by Columbus for a fifth round draft pick. It was not an expensive price to pay for a goalie, but in my opinion if Price gets injured, the team won’t succeed regardless of who is in goal.
Price was busy in the news cycle last week as in a player poll published by The Athletic, he finished first when players asked who they wanted in their net for a game seven in the Stanley Cup final. It wasn’t close. He got 12 percent more votes than Marc Andre Fleury, who finished second.
Oh, there was also this viral video that you have already seen.
Carey Price showing he is one of the classiest athletes in all of sports. The young man (Anderson) idolizes Price and his mother, before dying of cancer, promised she would try to help them meet. It finally happened. Both feel the emotion as Anderson’s dream finally comes true. pic.twitter.com/19EjIH2NNe
— Goalie Gear Nerd (@GoalieGearNerd) February 28, 2019
Shaw’s career high season
In last week’s Take 5, when I wrote about Brendan Gallagher, I may have left an impression that I don’t appreciate Andrew Shaw. I want to state that I think Shaw has had a very good season.
With his first career hat trick on Tuesday, Shaw is now up to 16 goals in the season in 47 games played. If he scores four goals in the last 16 games of the season, he will tie his career season high of 20, that he got in 2013-14 with the Blackhawks. During that season, he also got a career high 39 points, which he can tie if he gets six points from now until the end of the season. It’s two milestones that are attainable for him, which is incredible considering Shaw has missed 19 games this season.
If Montreal goes on to clinch a playoff spot, Shaw will be a veteran that will have a key role with his inexperienced teammates.
Racism in Hockey
There were two incidents involving racism reported from St. Jerome, Quebec over the last week. There’s no place for racism in hockey and in society. Anyone involved with those incidents should be ashamed of their actions.
If you have faced bigotry, it needs to be reported. If you’re a witness of an inappropriate situation, don’t sit back and watch it unfold without taking any action.
It was a classy gesture by the Canadiens as they posted a message on social media condemning the actions of the individuals.
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