A Winning Habit
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Canadiens: The Slate Is Not Clean

By Lissa Albert

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Canadiens: The Slate Is Not Clean

It’s a great feeling to sit down to watch a Montreal Canadiens game, when the ice is new, the scoreboard is set at 0, there are 60 minutes (or more) to anticipate and anything can happen. That clean-slate feeling every game night.

It’s a feeling I experience with every game in the regular season, especially when the Habs are doing well and every game just adds to their already-accumulated points.

In playoffs, there is a desperation of time and space that adds to the excitement, but also adds to the tension. After all, there are only 4 guaranteed games. And again, anything can happen but that also means a potential season ending.

When a series is won, and a new one not yet established, does that mean there is a brand new clean slate on which the Canadiens must write a new story? Yes – and no.

Yes, because it is a new team to face, new players to match up against, and new strategies to which to adjust.

No, because there is always a lot to learn from the previous round. And in the case of the Canadiens, that means the following:

  • Goal scoring
  • Power play
  • Penalties

The Big Three. Something we, as fans, have lamented all season long. We have heard it and read it and bemoaned these points till we’re blue in the face. But it bears repeating.

Where are the Big Three on the Habs these days?

Goals

Max Pacioretty – the 37-goal scorer of the 2014-15 season – has not come back from his injury with his usual pucks-to-the-net style. I’m hoping he will show us that he’s recovering fast, and will pepper the next opponent with pucks.

Tomas Plekanec – he scored 26 goals this season, his highest since 2009-10 when he scored 25. He has been a play maker in this series but has to re-discover his scoring power.

Alex Galchenyuk – the hero of Game 2’s overtime winner – who has the hands, the skating and the moves to score a lot more than he has.

Goal scoring has been the biggest problem in this series. Except for the dismal Game 5, each match was a one-goal decision. The Habs must rack up the goals in order to ensure a strong series next round.

Power play

Much has been been said  about the Habs and their power play. Much has been written which I won’t reiterate. But it’s time for the team to study the effective power plays of the remaining teams, in anticipation of the coming rounds (and yes, the optimist in me makes that plural). Minnesota, Anaheim, and Calgary – potential, and formidable, western opponents – all have power plays which rank in the top 3.

Teams know by now that on the Habs power play, PK Subban will be set up to take shots from the point. This is established and predictable. What if he weren’t doing that? What if they cycled the way they used to, and if he were in position, then he could take the shot?

Learning about a team’s style is key to winning a series. The Canadiens are, no doubt, studying Tampa Bay and the Detroit Red Wings as we speak, in anticipation of Round 2.  The power play must be a priority; at 5%, the Canadiens’ power play is second to last on the list, with only the New York Islanders at 0% (admit it, you didn’t think there was a team worse than the Habs for PP%, did you?).

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Penalties

The agony on the face of Jacob De La Rose, as he sat in the penalty box with 3 minutes to go in a 1-goal game, reflected what every Habs fan felt. Penalties can be a make-or-break event in any game, and no one wanted to go to a Game 7 because of a penalty in the dwindling moments of what was another elimination game for the opponent. Luckily, the Habs held on, but penalties have plagued them this season, followed them into playoffs, and must be curtailed.

Of course, there will be the inevitable accusations (by fans, and armchair coaches) that referees handed the game to one team or the other. Much of the time, they get it right. There are glaring errors they do make, and that is an entirely different post. But they even out, and let’s face it, the Habs do have a tendency to take those dumb penalties in the worst of times.

The opponent to be faced in Round 2 is as yet unknown. Detroit could finish it off this evening and become the Habs’ next match-up. Many fans are hoping for the Red Wings, given the inability of the Canadiens to have beaten Tampa Bay even once this season.

But it doesn’t matter. Because if the lessons of Round 2 can be learned, absorbed, and the challenges overcome, the opponent is less important than each and every game.

I’m optimistic that in a best-of-7 series, the Habs can adjust. Many are not. But being the ultimate believer in this team, I fail to see any other scenario than the Canadiens’ incredible season, tenacious Round 1, and venerable history buoying them through the next.

If you were wondering what happened in the Habs’ locker room after the game, you’ll enjoy this video:

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