Montreal Canadiens: Tweaking the roster to add more speed
By Omar L
Speed is a dangerous element of any team’s roster, and Marc Bergevin has acknowledged that the Montreal Canadiens need more of it.
Watching the Stanely Cup Final has made one thing very clear, it takes speed to get to the stop. The players on both the Washington Capitals and Vegas Golden Knights have displayed tremendous quickness throughout this series which has led to some great hockey. It’s not only them; many of the teams who finished at the top of the standings have a strong degree of quickness, something the Montreal Canadiens will want to emulate.
The Habs do have their speedsters though. Paul Byron is arguably the fastest on the team and has used that to find himself on a number of breakaways. Brendan Gallagher, Jonathan Drouin, and Alex Galchenyuk are other speedy members on the team.
In the same article where Marc Bergevin said the team is unlikely to move the third-overall pick, he also mentioned how important speed is. However, he did say that the team needs some tweaking on that front.
Bergevin’s free agent additions look to be a part of this new movement. Hayden Verbeek, Alexandre Alain, and David Sklenicka are examples of this. It makes you think of the not so speedy areas of the roster and what can be done to improve that.
Montreal has some speed on the blueline with Jeff Petry, Victor Mete, Noah Juulsen, and Mike Reilly. Karl Alzner, Jordie Benn, and David Schlemko to some extent don’t fit the bill. However, a defence doesn’t necessarily have to be fast, but mobile.
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They need to be able to get to and cover their areas of the ice before their opponent can make a move. Again, Benn and Schlemko are the outliers.
Another thing to keep in mind is that speed is meaningless if the team does nothing with it. Think back to the first few games of the regular season when the Montreal Canadiens made use of multiple quick passes on the power play. They were fast and moved constantly, but they didn’t convert.
It’s a give and take when handling speed. However, it’s good to see that Bergevin is pinpointing it as an area to improve.
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