Montreal Canadiens Record Not Accurate Reflection of Their Play

The Montreal Canadiens couldn’t have asked for a better first ten games to their season. However, the numbers tell a different tale than their nearly perfect record.

After the Montréal Canadiens beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-0 on Wednesday night, they improved their record to begin the season to 9-0-1. The record over the first ten games this season is officially better than the start last season of 9-1-0, though last season serves as a cautionary tale for this team.

With the possibility that history could repeat itself, the players insist that they learned the lessons from last year. With that being said, it is interesting to see whether or not this year’s team is better than last year’s team, therefore less prone to suffering a similar collapse if they were to lose Carey Price again.

Depth of Attack

On offense, the Canadiens were slightly better last year than they are this year after ten games. Last season, they scored 36 goals compared to 34 this year. Captain Max Pacioretty had seven goals and 11 points to lead the team and Tomas Plekanec was following close behind with five goals and 10 points.

Compare that to this season so far, where those two players have underwhelmed, and it is understandable why fans are demanding more out of them as two of the team’s leaders.

However, fans should allow them to play as they are and have faith that they will get going offensively. It is good that the team is winning even without some of their top players delivering offensively.

The fourth line has been on fire, with Mitchell and Danault pitching in on offense in a similar manner that Tomas Fleischmann and Dale Weise did last year. The fact that the Canadiens are still scoring at a high pace with some of their best offensive weapons struggling says a great deal about their overall game.

Sturdy Defence

This season, the Canadiens have allowed fewer goals (13) than they did last year after ten games (17). New backup goaltender Al Montoya deserves much of the credit, as he held his own while Price was ill during the first three games of the season.

However, the aspects of the team’s play that is better this season stops there. If we decide to look at more advanced statistics, it does not look as promising. Last season, the team’s Corsi percentage sat at 50.23%, whereas this season they sit at 47.46%.

This means that they are not dictating play as well as they did last season. Opposing coaches praised the Canadiens for their relentless pursuit of the puck, which tired out other teams.

So far, we have not seen that style of play this season from the Canadiens. More often than last season, many of the team’s wins came with close results, and much of that has to do with its goaltending and timely scoring. It seems that they are relying a bit more on their goaltenders’ performances, something that critics have often pointed out in the past.

Stronger Canadiens Identity

If this year’s iteration of the Canadiens want to make it to the next step and not fall victim to failures from the past, they will need to find a way to return to a state where they do not need to over-rely on Carey Price. Management took precautions for if he were to ever fall into injury again, but the hope is to win the Stanley Cup rather than just win a few playoff rounds.

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The leadership, toughness and skill that the Canadiens added give them more options to adapt to situations. Last season, when it appeared that the team could no longer score goals, they did not know how else to play than to futilely watch all their efforts end up in vain. The offseason additions have added plenty of intangibles, therefore fans would hope that the numbers are not indicative of how good this team is.