There are many of things to take from the Montreal Canadiens game last night, but Tomas Plekanec’s lack of discipline could be something that poses a threat.
You could pretty much check things off the main events from the Philadelphia Flyers game. The Montreal Canadiens fell early, fought back, gave up two quick goals, but couldn’t get the equalizer to force overtime. Carey Price kept the Habs in the game for the most part, but anyway you look at it, Travis Konecny‘s second goal can’t go in.
On the bright side, the Habs increased their power play goal streak to three games thanks to Brendan Gallagher. If only management could clone him about 22 times seeing as he’s the only player on the team never to always give it his all. Gallagher now sits at 19 goals, five away from tying his career high.
On the not so bright side, Philadelphia capitalized on two of their four opportunities on the man-advantage. A total of ten penalty minutes came the Habs’ way by the end of the game, and Tomas Plekanec had six of them. I think it goes without saying that you can’t kill a penalty from the penalty box.
Plekanec has been one of the team’s best penalty killers, and although the Flyers scored on only one of his draws, it holds them back from competing five-on-five especially when momentum is generated from it.
Special teams may not have been the only reason why the Habs lost, but it sure did help. Claude Julien said it best after the game:
"Those penalties hurt us. Their power play seemed to be clicking and our penalty kill wasn’t good enough. At even-strength, we were good and we were competitive. We had chances. But, those penalties were costly."
Here’s a question for you, does that look bad on Plekanec? Not so much for the Habs themselves, but for other teams taking a peek at him. The veteran is second on the team in penalty minutes with now 41. Anyone will say that special teams make or break your chances in the playoffs, and if one of the main things Plekanec has to offer is his ability on the PK, seeing that can’t help.
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I doubt a team sees that game specifically, throw their hands up and say, “Yeah we’re out sorry,” but it’s something to think about. That’s probably something Plekanec doesn’t care about though. To him, his penalties factored in the team’s loss which is way more important to him.
Do you think a team may take his PIMS into account before trading for him? Read these links below then when you’re done pondering on it, leave a comment.
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