The Montreal Canadiens have found the back of the net a lot as of late which is completely opposite of how they were weeks ago when goal scoring was an issue.
Going into this season, fans and hockey analysts alike questioned where the goal scoring was going to come from on the Montreal Canadiens. The concerns became worse when the team was losing a lot of games and couldn’t put up more than three a night. This last stretch has been the exact opposite.
The Montreal Canadiens had a record of 1-6-1 in their first eight games. In that slump, they only managed to score a total of 13 goals. Their next four games were a different story. The Habs went 3-1 where 18 pucks found the back of the net!
There’s one question to ask, where the heck is this coming from? Are the Montreal Canadiens doing something different, or is the dam finally breaking? It’s simple, but obvious. The team is capitalizing on their scoring chances. You’re probably rolling your eyes right now and thinking, “No duh…”, however, that is the honest truth.
According the naturalstattrick.com, the Habs have gotten the majority of the scoring chances (57.5% of them to be exact). It goes back to a post I wrote earlier on the bad luck Montreal was getting. Eventually, all things were going to even out.
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Claude Julien deserves a lot of credit as well. It’s only been a week since the head coach decided to change the lines up again and it’s been working. Each forward line has an offensive threat and you can tell that chemistry is being formed and rekindled.
Jonathan Drouin and Artturi Lehkonen are starting to get things going together while Max Pacioretty and Phillip Danault are bringing back that fire they had last season. Alex Galchenyuk is taking advantage of the matchup game although being on the fourth line, and it’s shown considering he scored his first 5-on-5 goal on Monday (kudos to Jordie Benn for the beautiful feed). Additionally, Brendan Gallagher has been a solid addition to the Charles Hudon–Tomas Plekanec duo who had already established a level of camaraderie earlier on.
Charles Hudon's first career NHL goal is a beauty #Habs pic.twitter.com/VZPJiKV49z
— Shayne Pasquino (@shaynepasquino) October 30, 2017
However, there’s one other possible explanation for the surge in goals, and it’s not as attractive as the other ones.
Weaker Opponents
The Montreal Canadiens have faced James Reimer, Jonathan Quick, Ondrej Pavelec, and Craig Anderson in these past four games. No offence to the rest, but there are two names that clearly stand out.
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It’s been difficult for Reimer to establish himself as an everyday starting goaltender. Pavelec has had some alright stretches over the years, but his rebound control has been something he’s struggled with. If you look at some of the goals he allowed against the Habs, three of them were from bad rebounds.
Quick and Anderson are overall better goalies with the spotlight on the former. The fact that Montreal wasn’t able to score a single goal on him, despite putting up 40 shots and having 67% of the scoring chances, speaks to his calibre as a goaltender. He completely robbed the Habs of that win.
Anderson on the other hand is much better than what he showed Monday night. Some of the goals were incredible plays made by the Canadiens, but a few were those you’d expect a high-calibre goalie to stop.
This is not to take away from what the Montreal Canadiens have done as of late. However, it is something to pay attention to. The Habs will have their upgraded offence tested against the Minnesota Wild next. It’s most likely they’ll be seeing Devan Dubnyk in between the pipes who has a tendency to steal games.
That being said, there’s no reason why this goal scoring should stop. They’re slowly returning to the team we know they can be, and as the games continue, the on-ice chemistry grows.
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What do you think of the goal scoring? Can the Habs keep this up? Let us know down in the comments.