2. Powerplay and Penalty Kill
Heading into this season, fans and analysts alike noted the importance of special teams to the Canadiens’ success. The powerplay had been largely ineffective and static for the past three seasons, while the penalty kill was a real area of concern in 2019-20. These trends continued this season under Claude Julien and Kirk Muller.
Following a hot start with 6 powerplay goals in the opening 5 games, the man advantage went dry, scoring just 4 goals in the final 13 games of Muller’s tenure, scoring a measly 11.43% of the time. The final 9 games were even worse, with just a single goal and a 4.76% success rate; nothing was working and the powerplay killed any momentum the Canadiens had accumulated.
Since Alex Burrows took over the powerplay duties, the Habs have excelled with the man advantage. They scored on three of their first 5 powerplays, which came in the first two games after the coaching change; just one less powerplay goal than they scored in the 13 previous games. In the 13 games since Burrows took over from Muller, the Habs have scored 10 powerplay goals, hitting a 34.48% success rate, which is elite.
The penalty kill is very different but nonetheless interesting. While it killed just 70.97% of the penalties in the final nine games of Julien’s tenure, its efficacy was 76.39% in the 18 games Julien coached. This number is nearly identical to the PK since the coaching change, which is 76.47% effective. Ideally, the penalty kill would be over 80% and the Habs certainly have the personnel to hit such an efficiency rate, but they haven’t.
The penalty kill certainly remains an issue, on Saturday, the Canucks scored on their sole powerplay as a result of Paul Byron missing his coverage of the prime passing lane between Quinn Hughes and Brock Boeser, opting instead to stand in the high slot far from all 5 Vancouver attackers.
However, the best way to avoid conceding powerplay goals is to stay out of the box, and this is something the Habs have been far better at since Ducharme took charge. Under Julien, the Habs averaged exactly 4 minor penalties a game, since the coaching change, that figure has been 2.62. That’s 1.38 fewer penalties per game, or approximately 2:45 minutes less potential PK time per game, which is substantial.
The penalty kill will hopefully improve before the end of the season but the Habs have become far better at staying out of the box, while also scoring at a very high rate on the powerplay. Adding penalty kill and powerplay percentages can give you a sense of whether a team’s special teams as a whole are below or above average. Under Julien, that value was 94.57%, far from ideal, and in his final 9 games, it fell to 75.73%, which is horrendous. Since the coaching change, the team’s special teams value has been 110.95%, bringing the season total to 100.23%, a smidgen over par.