Rocket:

I’ve never been a big fan of Farber’s fluff pieces. His articles are often written so simplistically and politically correct (to the extreme) that he ends up conveying nothing of value for the sake of widespread circulation .

It is amusing to me to observe that the worse the Canadiens power play gets this year, greater grows the legend of Mark Streit. Let’s give Streit his due recognition. He filled a hole in the power-play unit, and he did so quite well, for a time. But let’s not get carried away.

It is correct that Streit had 62 points last year, which ranked 3rd among NHL defensemen. But that stat is rather misleading as almost half of Streit’s points were scored as a forward. As a defenseman, on the point of the power-play, Streit had 7 goals and 27 assists for 34 points.

Assuming that Streit’s contribution is the main reason the power-play is struggling is rather naive. It seems common on sports radio these days to mythologize the value of Streit.

Farber tosses out the $2.5 million figure to resign Streit last year without any justification. With Gainey’s reluctance to negotiate contracts during the season, the amount probably would have been closer to what he received from the Islanders: $4.1 million. Streit was simply unaffordable at that amount given Gainey’s other pressing needs. BG certainly couldn’t have added Tanguay and Lang if so much money was committed to Streit.

Even if Streit could have been signed for less money, was he worth it? Perhaps last year, the Canadiens could devote a spot to a one-dimensional player. Not this year. The size of a NHL roster does not lend itself to space for a special teams’ player, like the NFL does.

Besides, Streit let it be known that Gainey would have to guarantee him a spot on defense to re-sign him. Given Streit’s defensive liabilities, it was something Gainey was not prepared to do.

Sports commentators and fans also forget that Streit did not play well the last month of the regular season and was ineffective in the playoffs. The Montreal Canadiens power-play has also struggled since last Spring. I believe that it was teams like the Flyers and the Bruins who analyzed the Habs power-play and devised a scheme to stop it.

The missing ingredient is that the Canadiens coaching staff did not undergo the same kind of analysis to adjust the power-play strategy. Certainly a big shot from the point is an important component of a successful power-play but that could come from someone like Andrei or Sergei Kostitsyn, if either of them was given time to adjust to the role.

The personnel for the power-play units should be deployed tactically and with a scheme that has been devised to exploit the Canadiens strengths and the opposition weaknesses. The head coach must be more accountable for the success or failure of the power-play.

From the SI.com article by Michael Farber:

There are some fascinating numbers swirling around the NHL — 82.8 (the value of the Canadian dollar in U.S. cents, a dip that is hurting the six bulwark Canadian franchises), 24 (the number of goals that Buffalo’s resurrected Thomas Vanek has scored) and .938 (Boston goalie Tim Thomas‘ other-worldly save percentage) — but the most perplexing of any of them is 29. That’s the Montreal Canadiens‘ power play ranking prior to their 3-2 loss on Tuesday in Carolina.

Now some teams must be among the NHL’s bottom feeders in any statistical category. (Only in Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon are all the children above average.) But Montreal’s status with the man advantage is shocking considering that the Canadiens ranked first in power play efficiency the past two seasons.

In 2006-07, Sheldon Souray was blasting pucks from the point, absolutely undressing goalies. Of his 26 goals, 19 came on the power play — a record for an NHL defenseman. But general manager Bob Gainey let Souray, also a minus 28 that season, walk to the Edmonton Oilers for a five-year, $27 million deal. No problem. The following season, Montreal bumped defenseman/forward Mark Streit, who had been on the second power-play unit, up to replace Souray. He didn’t have Souray’s industrial-strength shot — few do — but he had a quality shot and was a slicker passer than Souray. The result was 90 Montreal power play goals, split evenly between home and road.

Gainey probably could have negotiated a multi-year deal worth an average of $2.5 million if he had moved on Streit early in the season. But Streit, whom the Canadiens often played on the wing because they didn’t trust him even on the third pair, moved into a higher-rent
neighborhood with a 62-point season, which included seven power play goals. Streit, who wanted more five-on-five time strictly on defense, signed with the New York Islanders for five years at $20.5 million. Although he’s now a minus seven on a scuffling team, Streit has seven goals and is on another 60-point season pace. He is also playing mega-minutes, about the 25 per game that are worthy of a No. 1 defenseman.

This season, faced with replacing another power play catalyst, the Canadiens slid Andrei Markov from the left point to the right, the trigger spot. And … splat.

Montreal’s power play, with two goals in 37 chances over the past nine games, has been in a funk since the first weeks of the season, lacking the sharp cross-seam passes that Markov used to make to Alex Kovalev on the right half boards. But it most tellingly lacks the big blasts from the point.

Neither Markov nor veteran Patrice Brisebois has been the weapon the Canadiens have sought. Because penalty killers don’t have as much respect for the Habs’ point shots, they have been sagging in their box, putting extra emphasis on defending the ever-dangerous but thoroughly snake-bitten Kovalev. He is seeing more bodies and sticks in the shooting lanes than he ever has, which forces him to try to pick the far corner.

The result: Kovalev had not scored in 19 games, since Nov. 1, until getting a short-handed goal against the Hurricanes. On Montreal’s lone power play — Carolina had 11 — Kovalev started on the point, a position he played regularly in Pittsburgh.

After an 0-for-8 dud in a one-goal home loss to Washington last Saturday, coach Guy Carbonneau said the Canadiens are being outworked when they have the man advantage. Perhaps. Hard work always has been viewed as a panacea in hockey. But there is a structural problem with the power play that rival teams like Boston, with big points shooters like Zdeno Chara and Dennis Wideman, don’t face. A breakout night, one of those three-for-five explosions, might alleviate some of the problems. And maybe the law of averages will simply take over on a power play that features gifted offensive players like Alex Tanguay, Robert Lang and Kovalev.

But right now, it looks like the law of averages has been repealed.