Montreal Canadiens: Therrien Should Put Pacioretty on the First Line
Examining why Montreal Canadiens Forward Max Pacioretty should be moved back up to the first line.
The Montreal Canadiens have been sizzling to start the season and haven’t had too many issues scoring goals. The Habs have had a lot of their goals come from depth forwards like Paul Byron or Phillip Danault. Also, the Canadiens have had great contributions from their defense as they have scored 14 goals so far this season.
Pacioretty Not Scoring but Still Producing
However, some of the Canadiens snipers have struggled to find the back of the net. One of those players is Habs Captain Max Pacioretty as he has scored only three goals in sixteen games.
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It’s not that Pacioretty isn’t creating any offense because he has amassed nine assists. Considering that Max has twelve points in sixteen games hardly seems like the captain isn’t playing well. He just seems to lack chemistry with some other players.
However, Max’s shooting percentage is lower than his career average. This season Pacioretty is scoring on seven percent of his shots and his career average is eleven percent. Its obviously no time to panic, but the Canadiens could be more open to giving Pacioretty an opportunity to score.
Pacioretty Removed from Top Line
At the beginning of the season, Pacioretty started out on the Habs first line with Alex Galchenyuk and Brendan Gallagher. However, Head Coach Michel Therrien started juggling the lines to look for more balanced scoring and this ended up bouncing Pacioretty off the top line.
Since Pacioretty has been removed from the top line he has had a plethora of different line mates. He has been centered by Tomas Plekanec and David Desharnais but hasn’t been able to find real chemistry with either.
Galchenyuk has found chemistry with Alexander Radulov on the new top line and they have been on quite a tear. Their line mate Paul Byron has also been able to chip in on offense and is adding an element of speed. However, it’s unlikely that Byron will be able to keep up his current offensive production.
Pacioretty Better Fit
Pacioretty has played very well with Galchenyuk in the past as his center and this was evident at the end of last season. During the last month of the season both players were producing at a point per game pace. Reuniting Pacioretty with Galchenyuk may help Max get his goal production back on track.
Also with Max playing on a line with Radulov may add for some great chemistry. Radulov has been a strong puck possessing player for the Canadiens and has terrific passing ability. Radulov could be able to find Pacioretty sitting in opposing teams soft coverage areas waiting for one time passes.
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Paul has been a wonderful role player for the Habs on the penalty kill and recently on the first line. However, Byron’s history shows that his stats should start coming back to reality soon. In contrast to Byron, Pacioretty’s history shows that the Canadiens have an elite sniper who produces as a top line player.
Final Thoughts
It’s obvious that Michel Therrien wants to have all of his lines being able to produce evenly. However, if Therrien was to move Pacioretty back up to the first line the Canadiens would still have more than enough offensively talented players to carry the load.