Montreal Canadiens: 7 Talking Points

1. Right-Wing Depth

Heading into the offseason, the team’s depth at right wing was a concern. In the bubble, the Habs only had three right-wingers on their roster: Brendan Gallagher, Joel Armia and Dale Weise. At the start of the 2021 season, the Canadiens clearly had one of the best groups of right-wingers in the league. Now, nearly halfway through this 56-game season, I feel relatively confident in saying that the Canadiens have the best right-wing depth in the league.

It should be noted that I am specifically speaking of the best right-wing depth rather than the most valuable right-wing corps in the league. Toronto has a one-two punch of Mitch Marner and William Nylander that easily trumps the Habs’ top-2 right-wingers on skill and game-breaking ability alone. Toronto does not, however, have Montreal’s depth at the position. Note that I am writing this piece prior to Saturday’s rematch against the Flames, so the statistics will invariably change a little bit, but the conclusions they draw should remain valid.

Tyler Toffoli has had a phenomenal start in the Tricolore, leading all right-wingers in the league with 15 goals on the season, and while he has almost exclusively been playing on the left-wing, he is a right-winger by trade. Josh Anderson and Brendan Gallagher each have 10 goals, tied for 12th in the league in goals among natural right-wingers. Joel Armia and Corey Perry have both notched 5 goals in 19 games, which ties them for 43rd in the league among natural right-wingers.

Of the 56 right-wingers in the league to have scored at least 5 goals this season, 5 are on the Habs; that’s pretty good! Unfortunately, the goalscoring prowess of the Canadiens’ right-wingers has not been replicated by the centremen or left-wingers.

At the time of writing, the Habs have scored 85 goals. 45 of those goals were scored by the 5 aforementioned right-wingers. The four centremen on the roster have combined for just 11 goals and the four left-wingers have equalled that tally. The right-wingers have more than doubled the goals scored by the centremen and left-wingers combined. There is of course the caveat of Tyler Toffoli playing on the left-wing all season, which singlehandedly skews this whole stat-line.

It should also be noted that the three natural scorers playing in the Habs’ top-9 are all right-wingers, while the centremen and left-wingers are playmakers first and foremost, so the goals will naturally come from the right-wing. Still, I find it interesting how reliant this team is on goals being scored by the right-wingers or Jeff Petry.

Considering how strong the team is in scoring from the right-wing, it will be interesting to keep an eye on the team’s top two forward prospects, who just so happen to be right-shot right-wingers, in Cole Caufield and Jesse Ylonen. Both could make the team in training camp next year and they are both known for their wicked shots and finishing ability. A little more on Caufield later…

2. The 3 young centremen

Last Tuesday, Dale Weise had his first Habs Tonight podcast/live stream; his guest was Georges Laraque and the point of the show is to showcase the humanity of NHL players, to be transparent about NHL locker rooms and experiences and to facilitate fan interaction with Weise and his guest(s). Anyway, I tuned into the show’s first live stream and thoroughly enjoyed the interview with Laraque and hopped onto the show to ask a question at the 1:59:15 mark.

I asked Dale Weise what his impressions of Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Nick Suzuki and Jake Evans were in his time playing with them. I would encourage you to listen to his response yourselves, as his belief in these three guys really shines through, but I’ll summarize his points.

He heralded Jake Evans for jumping from an AHL scoring role to an NHL shutdown role with few minutes and noted that he has the ceiling of a really good 3rd line centre and that he is more offensively gifted than fans may realize.

Weise then echoed Jake Allen’s comments during training camp about Kotkaniemi’s shot being as good as any player he has ever played with; which includes the likes of Weber, Giroux, Subban and Pacioretty. He goes on to say that Kotkaniemi doesn’t quite realize just how good he is and that when he does, he will be a force in the NHL. Lastly, he comments on how KK’s attitude will help him a lot in his career, he’s easygoing, kind and “lets things roll off his back” which is especially important in a market like Montreal.

Weise is more succinct in his comments on Nick Suzuki but he highlights how the young centreman really stepped his game up in the bubble and how tremendously skilled he is. He finishes by noting that he has the highest ceiling of the three centremen and that he is the long-term solution at the number 1 centre slot for this team for the next decade and beyond.

I found it really interesting to hear the unfiltered opinions of a former teammate of all three of these players, which is something you never get from players on an active roster, and Weise is just 7 months removed from playing and practicing with these guys. His perspective is certainly a valuable one, as he has more insight than we regular fans do.

Interestingly, his assessments of the three correlate quite closely to mine; I think he was spot on with his projection of Jake Evans and that Kotkaniemi will be lethal once he gains more confidence, especially in his shot. I also agree that Suzuki prejects as a #1 centre, that he was the best forward in the bubble and that his intelligence will take him a long way.

My sole disagreement is that I believe that Kotkaniemi has a higher ceiling than Suzuki. Don’t get me wrong, Suzuki is phenomenal and one of my favourite Habs, his is the only jersey I own; I simply believe that the raw tools Kotkaniemi possesses: the great shot, the physicality and the vision all in one package give him more room to grow than Suzuki. I think the chances of Suzuki reaching his full potential are higher and that his floor is higher than Kotkaniemi’s, however. No matter the outcome, the Habs have themselves two special players to build around.

3. Cole Caufield

Everyone’s favourite 5’7″ sniper in the Habs’ system features in my column once again after a multi-week hiatus. We all know of Caufield’s tremendous offensive abilities and he showcased them once again last weekend in his final regular-season games in the NCAA, earning the Big Ten’s 1st star of the week award. He scored three goals and added an assist against Michigan State, including a snipe that no NHL goalie would save:

He finished the season with 25 goals and 46 points, both of which led the entire NCAA; oh, and he put up those stats in 28 games while playing against men. Wasn’t he supposed to struggle mightily against bigger competition? He also score 8 more goals than the next-best goalscorer, which is a rather significant margin in a 28-game season. He certainly is the frontrunner for the Hobey Baker award for best player in college hockey, but whether or not he wins it, his potential is huge.

While, as previously mentioned, the Habs have a lot of goalscoring from the right wing which may make it difficult for Caufield to get big minutes once he makes the NHL, no player on the Habs roster has a shot nearly as deadly as Caufield’s. Weber’s is far harder and Kotkaniemi has a laser, but Caufield’s combination of accuracy, deception, power and eye for soft ice is unrivalled in the Habs’ system.

I would personally love to see Caufield get some sheltered NHL minutes once his NCAA playoffs and quarantine are finished. Play him on the third line with veterans and give him the reigns of the powerplay. He would add an element to the Habs’ game that they lack: game-breaking offensive skill.

He may very well start out in Laval and not see a minute of NHL action this season, which may also be the wise decision, but I am fairly confident that by the end of training camp next season, Caufield will have cemented a spot in the top-9 if not the top-6. I cannot wait to see him on a line with Kotkaniemi; that will be fun to watch.

4. The 3rd line

Along with the rest of Habs’ fans, I was incredibly excited when Dominic Ducharme gave Jesperi Kotkaniemi two goalscoring wingers in Brendan Gallagher and Tyler Toffoli last week, and we have already seen that decision pay off with Kotkaniemi excelling in his offensive role, scoring a goal and adding a primary assist at 5v5 in the two games he has played with the scoring duo.

One underrated part of bumping Kotkaniemi up the lineup has been the creation of the ultimate 3rd line of Tatar-Danault-Armia. The line was Montreal’s best in both the 5-1 victory against Vancouver and the 2-1 defeat to Calgary; a game in which they were the only line able to create consistent offence.

The trio is great defensively and has enough offensive elements, namely Tatar and Armia when he’s playing well, to feast on any other third line in the Canadian division. It is with this new combination of lines that we truly get to see and appreciate this team’s depth. It is also interesting to note that this entire dominant third line consists of players on expiring contracts with no guarantee of being re-signed.

In Danault’s first game of the season outside of the top-6 and without Brendan Gallagher on his right-wing, he scored his first goal of the season. When he is not in a top-6 role, he is not relied upon for offence, which has, thus far, enabled him to not overthink his play and finally pot a goal after over a year (I’m not counting that empty-netter in the playoffs).

This third line is a luxury and one that the Canadiens will likely not be able to afford beyond this season; hopefully they make the most of their time together and produce offence while remaining their responsible defensive selves.

5. Jeff Petry

Last week I wrote of Joel Edmundson and his defensive prowess, this week is Jeff Petry’s turn, with a focus on his offensive abilities. The term “ages like a fine wine” and Jeff Petry’s name have been used in the same sentence on countless occasions over the past three years, and never has it been more apt than this season. Petry leads all NHL defencemen with 10 goals, and his 24 points are tied for second, behind only Victor Hedman’s 25.

+/- is a flawed statistic, but I have always found the two extremes to be meaningful indicators of a player’s overall performance. Having a terrible differential likely points toward a player struggling on a bad team, while the best indicate that the player is thriving on a good team. Petry sits second among defencemen with a +15 differential, which is still 11 short of the league-leader Joel Edmundson, who just so happens to be his defensive partner.

The duo has far-and-away been the Canadiens’ best pairing both offensively and defensively. With the injury to Ben Chiarot, they will likely be forced to play even bigger roles, especially in defensive situations. Don’t be surprised if Petry’s offensive numbers take a dip as a result, as he will be facing more elite competition and start more shifts in the d-zone.

Still, near the halfway point of the season, Petry has been nearly a point per game player throughout and has scored many of his goals off the rush, his skating certainly hasn’t deteriorated just yet, which is a marvel for a 33-year-old. I am also quite glad that Marc Bergevin locked Petry up for four seasons beyond this one at $6.25 million, had that contract been negotiated now or at the end of this season, Petry would almost certainly have gotten a deal north of $7 million.

As important as Shea Weber is to this team, it no longer remains a question who the team’s #1 defenceman is. Petry outplays Weber in just about every facet of the game with the exception of slot defence, a task that Joel Edmundson has taken up this season. Petry has finally gotten his perfect defensive partner; it remains to be seen if Alex Romanov can grow into Weber’s perfect partner.

6. Alex Burrows’ powerplay

I had always been of the mind that Kirk Muller was not getting enough out of his players and that the fundamental issues of the powerplay were in its set-up and system rather than in the players. However, I had not expected the powerplay to be this good with a more modern system under a new coach.

Burrows has the Canadiens’ powerplay units in constant motion. My biggest irk with Muller’s powerplays was just how static they were, the five players were islands in the offensive zone and just passed the puck along the periphery. With the constant motion, passing lanes are created, which allows for many more opportunities from the slot, something we’ve seen a lot since the coaching change.

It has, of course, been a tale of two powerplay units since Burrows’ appointment. The “second unit” quarterbacked by Jeff Petry and Jesperi Kotkaniemi has scored five goals in eight games and has constantly been dangerous and has given the Habs momentum. The Weber-Suzuki unit, on the other hand, the so-called “first unit” has scored just once in the eight games and has struggled on zone-entries and in maintaining offensive possession. While it has improved in recent games, it remains far inferior to its counterpart.

Shea Weber still has one of the most dangerous shots in the league and has seen much success on the powerplay throughout his career, but his lack of mobility has hamstrung the unit, especially since Burrows has applied the more modern system and increased movement. Weber did score the unit’s sole goal, but has lost possession in the o-zone countless times.

I would love to see what Alex Romanov could do on that unit, but I also know that Weber will be a fixture on the powerplay as long as his shot remains a threat and his even-strength minutes remain high; he is the captain after all. Burrows, then, has the challenge of constructing a system that implements movement and the opening of lanes while also compensating for Weber’s lack of mobility. He has thus far succeeded with the Kotkaniemi unit, so who’s to say he won’t do the same with Weber’s?