Paul Byron has gone without a goal for the last ten games with the Montreal Canadiens, and if anyone needs a puck to bounce their way right now, it’s him.
This hasn’t been the first goalless drought for Paul Byron during his tenure with the Montreal Canadiens. He went through a 13-game slump in the 2016-17 season and another 12-game one the year after. What’s unique about this one, in particular, is it’s been the longest Byron has gone to start the season without a goal.
It took only two games for Byron to score his first with the Montreal Canadiens after the team picked him up off the waiver wire via the Calgary Flames. The same thing happened last season as the 30-year-old put up two goals in his second game while the 2017 and 2018 campaigns took five and seven games, respectively.
His previous slumps weren’t too much to focus on. Byron established himself as a consistent 20-goal player and a leader on the Habs, but he was on a very valuable contract that carried a $1.66 million cap hit. The situation is different considering his pay upgrade, which has his cap hit at $3.4 million for the next three seasons after this one.
Some may take a look at Byron’s ice time and usage in the lineup and pinpoint that as the issue. Ironically, the veteran’s time on ice at 5v5 hasn’t changed much. Byron has averaged about 11:35 in his previous three years with the Habs and is currently at 11:15. The rest of his time is dedicated to the penalty kill as he hasn’t gotten any powerplay time this year and hasn’t gotten much in the past.
His shot totals, on the other hand, are playing a role.
Byron was never known for being a shot machine. In fact, one of his biggest critiques was that his scoring wasn’t sustainable, given his relatively high shooting percentages:
- 2015/16 – 22%
- 2016/17 – 22.9%
- 2017/18 – 17.4%
- 2018/19 – 16%
That said, his shots/60 have fallen to 2.67 after being the highest it’s ever been last season at 7.66. The two years where Byron scored 20+ saw his shots/60 at 4.96 while his first season with the Montreal Canadiens had it a bit lower at 3.41.
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Another thing to look at is his expected goals for which is a very low 0.54. Not only is Byron not taking as many shots, but the shots he does take are all being stopped, even the dangerous ones. That’s a, “No duh” moment if there ever was one, but Byron is getting high-danger scoring chances and is still seeing them stopped. It’s as recent as Thursday’s game where Byron had a solid chance by the left circle with still no luck.
Perhaps the lack of breakaways is one of the main culprits here. Byron got his reputation for being the team’s speedster with the number of breakaways he would get each season. Some of them would come at even strength, but a lot would take place shorthanded where a broken play would give Byron the open lane to charge down.
Byron hasn’t shown any signs of the slump getting to him and acknowledges keeping the puck out of his net as the most important thing. He’s been in that department, and Claude Julien will admire that, but part of the reason why the Montreal Canadiens signed him to that deal is because of the offence he brings to the team’s depth.
It’s still too early to doubt Byron and his ability to turn things around. However, he needs to get going given the team isn’t the best it can be right now.
Can that change with Byron playing mostly fourth-line minutes? Nick Cousins looks like he can bring offence, and Nate Thompson can have some skill moments when he wants to. But that’s not their objective when they’re on the ice.
Byron getting the bump up to play with Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Artturi Lehkonen should help given the chemistry they built last season. Perhaps that makes a difference and allows Byron to get more shots on net given Kotkaniemi’s playmaking.
At this point, fans should expect Byron’s first goal of the season to be something goofy. But at this point, all he needs is for one to go in and once that monkey is off his back, he can really get going.