Despite Signs of Improvement, Canadiens Offensive Woes Continue
For Game 5 on Wednesday, the Montreal Canadiens find themselves down 3-1 to the Philadelphia Flyers in their first-round series, as they’re offensive woes continue.
The Montreal Canadiens have problems with their offense.
While one could look to x reason or y reason for why this isn’t the case and why Montreal has so much offensive potential, in the playoffs, potential means nothing. Performance is what matters, and its something the Habs have been sorely lacking in.
On a sunny Tuesday afternoon in Toronto, Ontario, the Canadiens once again struggled to solve Philadelphia Flyers’ goaltender Carter Hart, who in the process now sits second on an NHL record that A) I didn’t know existed, and B) no one has come close to since 1945. At 22 years old, Hart is now the second-youngest goalie in NHL history to record back to back shutouts in the playoffs.
Only Hall of Famer Harry Lumley sits above him, doing so when he was 18, for the Detroit Red Wings in 1945. While an impressive feat for Hart, who has proven himself as the Flyers goalie of future and one of the NHL’s brightest young stars, for the Habs, it marks a new low for the team’s continued offensive struggles.
Despite a few high danger chances here and there out of Montreal’s 28 shots, Hart stood on his head, giving the Habs an ultimatum with their backs now against the wall, down 3-1 to the Flyers in their first-round series. Long removed from the days of Jaroslav Halak‘s brilliance in 2009, the Habs find themselves on the receiving end of such a performance.
Goaltender Carey Price has made up for a mediocre-at-best regular season by playing some of his best hockey in these playoffs, shocking the Pittsburgh Penguins in four games in the qualifier, and allowing no more than two goals in a game so far in this series. However, that doesn’t matter if your team can’t score, and the Canadiens have simply struggled to do that.
Regular-season leading scorer this year, Tomas Tatar, has just two goals through the Habs first seven games. Consistent 30 goal man Brendan Gallagher can’t buy a goal in these playoffs, failing to score at all while posting three assists. Jonathan Drouin, who battled injuries through most of this regular season, has just a goal and two assists and has been a liability on the ice more times than not.
In the regular season, the Flyers and the Canadiens had the same number of 40-point players, six, yet look entirely different in this series. While Philadelphia’s offense hasn’t been great, it’s done what it’s needed to do, while playing behind a stingy defense that tends to swallow up high danger scoring chances. Backup goalie Brian Elliott faced just 17 shots in his only start thus far, while it’s unlikely Charlie Lindgren sees any action should this series continue.
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There’s no denying that the Canadiens have players who can score, yet for most of this regular season and the playoffs, they’ve consistently struggled to do just that. A mix of depth scoring and a brilliant performance from Carey Price was what carried the Canadiens to just barely missing the playoffs by two points last year, with Max Domi posting a career-high 72 points and Phillip Danault posting his first 50-point season.
So far in these playoffs, Domi and Danault have combined for just 5 assists, with Domi consistently being slotted in the team’s bottom-six with Jake Evans, Alex Belzile, or Dale Weise.
Against Pittsburgh, Montreal had the benefit of playing against a rusty Penguins team who were enduring a horrible stretch of play before the league suspended play due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the most part, Pittsburgh simply looked unfocused and unmotivated, with star forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin failing to do much in the series.
A few costly turnovers, like Brandon Tanev‘s middle of the ice pass that led to the series-winning goal by Arturri Lehkonen, didn’t help too much either. While the Habs did play a fantastic series, with Paul Byron continuing to showcase his return to form after a slow start to this season, they weren’t facing the same Pittsburgh Penguins we’ve come to expect over the last few years.
The Flyers transition from mediocre at best last year to a solid contender this year is impressive, to say the least, and it seems as though the Flyers have enough pieces in place where they should have a solid team for the future.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Nick Suzuki have shown tremendous promise for the Habs in these playoffs, and it’s clear to see they’re on their way to becoming solid NHL players, but they’re still young and are settling into they’re respective role. Kotkaniemi’s four goals in these playoffs are promising, and Suzuki’s improvements to his two-way game are noticeable.
It’ll be interesting to see how things play out, with Montreal set to face the Flyers in game five on Wednesday night. With they’re backs now against the wall down 3-1 in the series, the Canadiens will need to turn to all the pieces available to them should they look to turn the tide and make this a series once more.
Coming back from being down 3-1 is one of the toughest tasks in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but if history has shown us anything, its to never count out the underdog. With the lack of offense displayed by Montreal so far in these playoffs though, these underdogs certainly have,
A tough task ahead of them.