Montreal Canadiens: 3 Keys To Victory vs Winnipeg Jets

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The Canadiens typically roll four lines and have every forward playing between 18 and 12 minutes. The difference between first line centre Nick Suzuki’s ice time and fourth line centre Jake Evans minutes can be as little as five or six minutes some night.

This was great early in the season when everyone was scoring and the penalty kill was putting more pucks in the net than it was allowing. Every single player was delivering and playing well and it made it difficult for the opponents to match up with the Canadiens on their first lengthy road trip.

Well, pucks aren’t going in the net at the same rate as they did early in the season. After scoring 44 goals in their first ten games, the Habs have scored 27 goals in their past 12 games. So, they went from averaging 4.4 goals per game for ten games to 2.25 goals per contest in the past dozen.

It is easy say they need more goals but they can be hard to come by. What the Habs really need to do is shut down the opposition and try to win an ugly one if they are only going to score two or three.

The best way to do that is to shut down the Jets top line of Mark Scheifele, Paul Stastny and Blake Wheeler. The trio played over 22 minutes each on Thursday night and Stastny’s two goals in regulation were key in leading the Jets to victory.

The Canadiens should put together a shutdown line with Phillip Danault in the middle and make sure it is on the ice every time the Scheifele trio jumps over the boards. Even more importantly, Dominique Ducharme needs to get Jeff Petry and Joel Edmundson out against the Jets top line as much as possible.