Montreal Canadiens: 7 Talking Points

7. Non-5v5 play

I already touched a little bit on the powerplay in point number 2, but let’s go a little bit more in-depth on the Canadiens’ play not on 5-on-5 this season. At 5-on-5 the Habs have been dominant, leading the league in goals-for percentage and in expected-goals-for percentage at the time of writing. It is, thus, in all other situations that the Habs fall short.

The powerplay started off hot and has since turned cold, it has essentially been a song of ice and fire… but mostly ice; having scored just 3 goals in the month of February, they notched 8 in January. The penalty kill has all the ingredients for success: a very good duo of goaltenders, a big defensive corps and 7 forwards that are good on the PK. The PK has allowed a joint-fourth most goals with 16 in 19 games but has scored 7. All but one of those 7 came in the opening 10 games.

One of the problems with the PK along with its static nature is that it has seen so much ice time. The Canadiens – and their defencemen in particular – have been terribly indisciplined all season, and it’s biting them.

The issues continue beyond the most basic special teams, however. The Habs have not scored in 3-on-3 OT, despite playing in 4 separate overtimes this season; they conceded twice. In the two games in which they did not concede an OT goal, they capitulated in the shootout. The Habs have lost all four games that went to OT this season, that is not good enough, especially when two of those four came against Ottawa.

Oh, and how could I forget 4-on-4. The Habs have scored no goals and conceded two – both against Toronto in the same game. Not good enough. The Habs are one of the 8 teams in the league not to have scored with an empty net, while they have conceded 3 empty-net goals. Not good enough.

Many people in the advanced-stats community were dumbfounded and/or critical of the Canadiens’ firing of Claude Julien; after all the Canadiens were so dominant at 5-on-5. But what they may fail to realize is that the Canadiens have routinely been dominant at 5-on-5 under Claude Julien all the while producing mediocre to lacklustre results.

I honestly don’t care if the Habs dominate possession with shots from the points and overall phenomenal underlying numbers if they can’t win. And the Habs had stopped winning after a hot start, with the same problems that had plagued Julien’s Habs for 4 years returning. A change was needed, mediocrity can’t be tolerated by a professional sports organization let alone an organization in a market like Montreal, let alone the Canadiens.

Dominic Ducharme will have his hands full with revamping the team’s philosophy and instating a modern approach to this beautiful game, but his focus needs to be on special teams. This team has had success at 5-on-5; its Achilles heel, however, has been every single other facet of the game, and that has to change.

All statistics sourced from Natural Stat Trick.