Montreal Canadiens: The best time to try new things
By Omar L
As the losing continues for the Montreal Canadiens, there’s no reason why Claude Julien couldn’t whip out the whiteboard and try some new things.
The Montreal Canadiens losing streak is set at five. They haven’t had a slump this long since December 27th losing all games up until January 4th against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Now the Habs are fourth last in the league. Good spot as far as the draft lottery goes, but the optics of another L are not sitting well with many others.
Claude Julien is looking more and more frustrated in his post-game scrums, the players are dishevelled and don’t really have any answers, and Marc Bergevin is getting caught on camera showing some emotion towards his team. It summed up how a lot of fans felt so at least everyone is on the same page when it comes to that.
However, just like all of their loses, there were some positives to take from it. Nikita Scherbak scored his first goal of the season completely undressing Marc-Andre Fleury while Charles Hudon had his moment of excellence with a great individual effort to score the opening goal for the Habs. That clapper on the power play from Jonathan Drouin was something to see as well. He hasn’t been able to produce as much as he’d like on the man advantage but it’s getting there for the 22-year-old.
There was something else nice about that game. Julien chose to give Antti Niemi the Saturday night start ahead of Carey Price. Question marks were floating all around that decision, but apparently, it was a move to reward the veteran goaltender who has been playing well for the Habs.
Unfortunately, it didn’t last too long for Niemi as he allowed three goals on six shots. 12 minutes of play and the 34-year-old’s night was over. I wouldn’t consider it deep investigation to think that starting Niemi was a move to showcase him to the rest of the league. That was the first game where he didn’t look steady, so it’ll be interesting to see if that hurt any desire from other teams.
The nice thing about the game wasn’t just the fact that Niemi started. If we take away the trade aspect of it, Julien is just trying new things. Good, keep doing it. There’s nothing else to play for this season, as terrible as that may sound to some. The Habs can make alterations that they haven’t considered all season while still trying to ‘put the best lineup on the ice to win a hockey game.’
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Charles Hudon at centre has been something Montreal has done already, but let’s keep that going, sure! Put Jakub Jerabek back in the lineup. Despite his age, Jerabek could very well be a part of the Habs’ blueline in the future. Play him.
Alex Galchenyuk and Scherbak haven’t lost their chemistry, and it’s continuing to grow. Can we try Galchenyuk down the middle again with Scherbak and Jonathan Drouin on the wings? Julien keeps mentioning his play away from the puck has kept him from playing centre, but he has been improving. If you try that, no chemistry is lost because only positions are being lost and it could be better. Just try it.
OR, if Julien is open to moving Galchenyuk at centre, perhaps Artturi Lehkonen would be a good fit on the left side with Drouin on Hudon’s right. Just try it. There are a lot of possibilities that fans could probably think of, but I think it’ll add some fun to the remainder of the season.
Will changes like those turn into wins? It’s hard to tell (somewhere out there Team Tank is screaming, ‘They better not!’). However, there’s nothing wrong with taking out the whiteboard and a red marker and mixing things around.
What would you want Julien to try? Let us know in the comments below.