Max Domi can perfect the third line for the Montreal Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens are getting Max Domi for their Stanley Cup Qualifier, and his offensive skill could be another solid piece for Jesperi Kotkaniemi.

When the NHL released the full details of the Return to Play Plan, there was one clause that made it seem highly unlikely that Max Domi would participate. If a team, via the medical staff, felt that the exposure of a player to COVID-19 could create further risk, they would be deemed unfit to participate. It’s not surprising that Domi and the Montreal Canadiens decided on that 7-10 day window after training camp began to see how things are going (case-wise) and move on from there.

Tuesday fans learned that Domi made the decision to join the Habs for training camp and the resumption of the season. There have been some hiccups along the way with positive cases, although two were false positives, but the 25-year-old feels safe taking part. Another thing to make a note of is that even though it was Domi’s decision, there’s no way it would be possible without the nod from the team’s doctors, so things seem to be in the clear.

Domi has been on the outskirts so far at practice joining a fifth line of himself at centre with Alex Belzile and Laurent Dauphin on the wings. The rest of the team has been working for a week and a half now, so he’ll need time to get up to speed conditioning-wise before Claude Julien decides where to slot him in.

Before this, many had Domi centring that second line with Jonathan Drouin and Joel Armia. Nick Suzuki has the assignment, and it looks as if that’s how things are going to stay. Where Domi could be really useful is on that third line playing left-wing with Jesperi Kotkaniemi.

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The sample size of that experiment isn’t the greatest as Domi didn’t look as resourceful playing on the wall this season in favour of Suzuki. He’s mentioned in the past of his desire at playing centre comes with how often he’s able to hold onto and skate with the puck. On the other hand, Domi does have a tendency to rush up the ice on the left side almost, if not more than, down the middle.

However, there are his shot heat maps to consider. In Domi’s first season with the Montreal Canadiens, he had an even spread of shots highly concentrated throughout the hash-mark space of the offensive zone.

You could see a higher proportion of those shots coming from the left-most side of the net as well as higher in the zone upon entry (28% vs. 19%). Domi’s actual goals were a different story as many of them came in the slot or at net-front with an even split on either side of the faceoff circle.

This season saw Domi have a slightly higher proportion of shots in his hot spots but with a decrease of rubber coming from the walls. Additionally, he was taking more shots higher in the zone by the blueline. And when Domi did score, the majority of them came from the slot and the left side of the ice.

Comparing and contrasting the two shot maps from either season makes it seem putting Domi at centre while moving Jesperi Kotkaniemi to the left is the only way. That isn’t necessarily true. The Montreal Canadiens could run a line of Domi-Kotkaniemi with say Paul Byron and embrace speed upon the zone entry with a lot more dynamics in the offensive zone.

It’s going to come with a lot of trust and communication between Domi and Kotkaniemi, but it is possible to try out a role reversal once in the opposition’s end. A rush can begin with Domi entering first, and once the line is established, have him play as if he was a centre and stay more central ice with Kotkaniemi deferring to the right. That could open up Kotkaniemi for one-timers by the right circle, something that has been a growing strength.

This may be a little problematic as if they get their wires cross, a turnover could turn into an odd-man rush if they can’t get back in time. But I still stand by the idea of pursuing chaos in this series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and this definitely reeks of it.

The goal here is to get Max Domi going, and that ties down to using what worked in the past. If having him start at centre isn’t an option, then having him play like a centre despite being on the left-wall can do the trick. And it may be the way to perfect that line.