Montreal Canadiens: Home penalty kill vs. road penalty kill

A lot of things were to blame for the Montreal Canadiens loss last night but, the discrepancy between the home and road penalty kill was a big part of it.

The Montreal Canadiens finished this final multi-day road trip with a 1-3-2 record. It started well with the 6-3 win over the New York Islanders, but similar to the other games on the trip; it had its blemishes. When it came down to it, execution, defensive coverage, and bad luck kept the Habs to only a single win over the six-game stretch.

There’s been one thing that’s stood out for the team though. The Montreal Canadiens have lost games no matter where they play, which is a very realistic but negative way to look at the season. However, the way the losses have come are at times dependant on whether they’re on the road or at home. Last night’s 5-3 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets was a prime example of this. The Habs struggle with killing penalties on the road.

Overall, the Habs penalty kill is at 75.7% placing them 28th in the league ahead of the Islanders, Flyers and Oilers. It gets more interesting once you break down the location of play. At the Bell Centre, the team’s penalty kill is fifth in the NHL at 85.6% only allowing 14 goals on 97 opportunities.

Not bad right? Now I present to you the Mr. Hyde of this conversation: the road penalty kill. When the Habs are on the road, their penalty kill is a league-worst 68% allowing 40 goals on 125 shorthanded chances. The two power-play goals allowed at the hands of Alexander Wennberg and Seth Jones were frustrating, but not unique for the Habs. Including those pair from Columbus, the team allowed nine man-advantage goals against on 24 chances for their opponents.

Before those two goals by Wennberg and Jones, it was a 1-1 hockey game. The penalty kill may not be the direct cause of the loss, but it’s a hard detail to ignore. Especially when the Habs failed to score on their two chances.

It makes sense for a team to have a discrepancy in performance at home vs. being on the road. You’re more comfortable playing in your own building, and Habs fans haven’t been shy to cheer the team on in trying times of a game (just going to ignore the instances of ‘boos’ for a second). Brendan Gallagher had an interesting but common sense point after last night’s loss.

A penalty kill is about doing your own job and trusting that your teammates on the ice are doing theirs. What does that entail? Getting sticks in shooting lanes, covering the open lane, blocking shots when you can, and having good goaltending. Too many shots were going through, and despite the number of solid saves from Charlie Lindgren again, he did struggle with tracking the puck in that net.