Nick Cousins gives the Montreal Canadiens another weapon in the slot
By Omar L
As far as possession goes, Cousins is a decent shot generator and saw his shot suppression dip. That said, he is a reliable option when it comes to the two-way aspect of the game.
He can also take faceoffs which is good to have with Shaw out of the picture. Cousins isn’t the best at it (243 wins on 520 attempts – 46.7%), but it is good to have a player who can take a draw in case the centre is thrown out of the circle
You could also argue there was a lot of poor luck for the winger this season. Along with his career high in overall points, Cousins also reached a new milestone with 144 shots up 25, and 234 shot attempts up 55 from the season before. However, his shooting percentage was 4.9% whereas it was 10.6% in 2018.
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Given his career average, we should expect that to go up. But the lure of Artturi Lehkonen and Charles Hudon could hold fans back from that optimism. Both are known for their ability to generate shots and have had poor shooting percentages for the last two seasons without any real changes in production.
Cousins isn’t a 20-goal scorer by any means, but he does have the ability to at least hit double digits (or at the very least close to it) on a regular basis.
What the Montreal Canadiens will appreciate in his style are where those goals and shot attempts are coming from.
Cousins is a gritty player, and similar to some of the Habs best like Brendan Gallagher, Tomas Tatar, and Joel Armia, isn’t afraid to head to the slot for offence. Consequently, the slot is where the majority of his goals come from (57%).
His shot is accurate when he has the time to get it off, making the majority of his production come from in-tight scrambles which isn’t a weakness in the slightest. Given what we’ve seen from Ryan Poehling early on, Cousins could be a great compliment.