Who ends the power play slump for the Montreal Canadiens?

The Montreal Canadiens power play has been ice cold in the last stretch of games, and it’s only a matter of time before someone pots one in.

The counter is now at six. Tomas Tatar was the last player on the Montreal Canadiens to score a powerplay goal going back to the team’s 5-2 win over the New York Rangers. Since then, the drought has gone to missing opportunities, not taking enough shots, predictability, and even getting scored on while on the man advantage.

As the team continues their three-game homestead Saturday against the Ottawa Senators, there is one question in the air: who is going to end the slump?

If there were any game to do that, it would be this upcoming one. The Senators have one of the worst penalty kills in the league, and if any team could allow a power play goal, it would be them. Claude Julien made some changes to the units ahead of their 6-4 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes, but they were still unable to score a single goal on six chances.

The first unit went back to the basics with Jonathan Drouin, Max Domi, and Brendan Gallagher as the three-person forward group while Shea Weber and Jeff Petry took the point. There’s far less predictability here as both defencemen are offensive threats via Weber’s slap shot and Petry’s accurate wrister which can beat a goalie from far out or find a stick in the slot to get the deflection.

Unit two was the “Finally!” alteration. Mike Reilly and Paul Byron were finally put on the power play with Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Tomas Tatar, and Andrew Shaw filling up the rest of the spots. Reilly is a shooting machine and has the skating to man the point. The only concern is the defensive awareness at the offensive blueline which could result in chances against, but that is something he can and will improve on if given the opportunity to.

Byron doesn’t shoot much but he gets in the right places to get a scoring chance on net, and the chemistry he has with Kotkaniemi at 5v5 should make the transition.

The issue with both units is their lack of shots. With the number of power plays the Montreal Canadiens had last game, it’s concerning they only had four shots on net. As important as it is to keep the puck moving to have the penalty killers and opposing goaltender guessing, at some point you have to throw the thing on goal and see what happens.

Several players thrive in the crease and who can chip a dirty rebound in when chaos arises. Think of a player like Gallagher or Shaw. A goal like that is going to break the Montreal Canadiens out of the slump, and if I had to bet on it, Mr. Brendan Heart Gallager will be the player to do it.

It only takes one to make the damn break, and hopefully, the team makes use of its chances. The Habs have a good amount of skill throughout their lineup, and there isn’t a reason why it should be this cold. They’re in control of how it is executed, and they can’t afford to stay in this slump forever.