The Montreal Canadiens have a big pile of adversity on their plate, but their issues don’t fall on one person, especially Jonathan Drouin.
When things go wrong, it’s always easy to sift through your ranks and point the blame on one person. The Montreal Canadiens fan base have been doing that since Saturday’s loss where Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov, a potential model for what Jesperi Kotkaniemi can be one day, lit the Habs up for three goals leading to a 6-3 loss.
So what’s the issue? According to some fans via social media, the issue falls on Jonathan Drouin who is having a polarizing but improved season.
Let’s break it down. Drouin has been pointless throughout the team’s four-game losing streak after putting up two goals (17) and adding two assists (29) against the Winnipeg Jets bringing his season total to 46. He was even as far as plus/minus goes in the Leafs overtime loss but has finished a -2, -1, and -3 in the remaining three games.
Drouin’s fancy stats have taken a hit over the streak as well as his on-ice Corsi-for at 5v5 has dropped steadily from the 64.71% he had against the Leafs:
- Nashville – 36.00%
- Tampa Bay – 50.00%
- Florida – 48.48%
The clear outlier is the Nashville game whereas the recent two losses haven’t been as bad. However, he’s only had scoring chances for himself in one of the four games, that being the night in Tampa Bay (two regular and one high-danger). Not ideal, but surely not enough to get the goat horns here.
Another thing I’ve seen are complaints about Drouin’s penalty. The 23-year-old took a retaliatory slashing penalty which brought out the pitchforks. Again, not the best look for Drouin but he’s not the first player this season on the Montreal Canadiens to take a bad penalty. His 26 penalty minutes are one of the fewest among Habs forwards where players such as Max Domi (71), Phillip Danault (37), and Andrew Shaw (48) completely eclipse that number.
The same thing goes for giveaways as Domi has more than Drouin. Perhaps it’s a, “what have you done for me lately” type of things or the area and point of game when Drouin turns over the puck vs. Domi. Either way, giveaways are common amongst players who handle the puck.
The Montreal Canadiens have had a few things go wrong for them lately. One of which being giving up the first goal of the game and not holding onto leads. They scored first against the Toronto Maple Leafs but gave up two more. Once they took a 3-2 lead, they allowed another goal pushing the game into overtime.
A similar thing happened in Florida where it was a tie game at three before Barkov scored another one. The Lightning and Predators game saw Montreal give up the first goal and not have enough push back.
That’s a team-wide issue. The fourth line hasn’t come together as quickly as the Habs would like, goaltending has been a tad shaky at times, and the team’s scoring from the top-nine has been shaky and inconsistent. Then there’s the powerplay, but that’s been beaten enough times.
It’s going to take a collective effort to fix the issues that are holding the Montreal Canadiens back. Drouin is not the problem. He needs to be better, there’s no doubt about that, but so do the other players on the team. What’s making Drouin’s problems look worse is the fact that he hasn’t been producing offensively which is making his play away from the puck more analyzed.
Give Drouin some time and he as well as the rest of the team will come out of the slump.
Acknowledgements: Advanced stats via Natural Stat Trick