Montreal Canadiens: Does Eric Staal Deserve a Spot in the Lineup?
Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin added a few depth pieces at the trade deadline.
He didn’t make any blockbuster trades to bring in superstar players, but with the team sitting somewhat comfortably in a playoff spot, their GM went out and added a couple of pieces to make the team better.
The player he gave up the most to bring in was veteran centre Eric Staal. Bergevin sent third and fifth round draft picks to the Buffalo Sabres for the 36 year old who has over 1200 games of NHL experience.
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Things started off pretty good for Staal in a Canadiens sweater. He debuted on April 5th in a game at the Bell Centre against the Edmonton Oilers. The contest went to overtime and it ended when Staal came down his off wing and fired a wrist shot just inside the far post. Staal has a pretty solid debut with the Habs and he was the hero at the end of the night.
Since then, he has played five more games with the Canadiens and added next to nothing. In fact, he’s added nothing at all.
Staal has zero points in his last five games with the Canadiens and has been a minus player in every single game. Plus minus as a statistic has its detractors because there are many reasons to be on the ice for a goal against. Sometimes a player is directly responsible for a goal against and deserves the minus, but other times he does everything right and a teammate gives the puck away and the goalie allows a soft one and the minus wasn’t deserved.
However, there is no good way to explain being a minus player for five straight games. That’s a pattern and it is not a good one.
So, the question has to be asked: does Staal even deserve a spot in this lineup?
His arrival has forced Jake Evans to be removed from the lineup. Initially, Staal played higher up in the lineup while Evans was on the fourth line, but with Joel Armia returning from the Covid restricted list, it was Evans sitting as a healthy scratch.
Evans has had a solid season as the team’s fourth line centre. He has seven points in 36 games bus has regularly been counted on to kill penalties and hasn’t needed to be sheltered from certain competition on any given night. He hasn’t been a big offensive producer but he can be trusted to play decent minute and brings good speed to the fourth line with Paul Byron.
Staal on the other hand, slows things down dramatically when he is on the ice. He started off with Jonathan Drouin and Tyler Toffoli, as good a spot as any Habs centre can ask for, and he struggled mightily.
In his first game with the Canadiens, Staal was on the ice for 17 shot attempts taken by the Habs and just eight by the Oilers. The Habs outshot the Oilers 5-4 when Staal was on the ice and had eight scoring chances with Staal out there to just four for Edmonton.
One night with great statistics doesn’t tell an entire story but when a trend emerges it starts to show there is no coincidence between this player being on the ice and his team performing a certain way.
Well, we now have six games of evidence from Staal and though the first game was a success, a trend has emerged since then but it is anything but positive.
Since his debut game, the Habs have had 49 shot attempts with Staal on the ice, while surrendering 68. The Canadiens have been outshot 40-27 in the last five games when Staal plays and have given up 44 scoring chances while countering with just 25.
In short, the Habs played well for one game with Staal on the ice and atrocious for the next five.
Staal is a great veteran and has accomplished a lot in the game of hockey. However, his performance with the Canadiens so far can be described as abysmal. He’s fortunate that his shot in overtime found the back of the net in his first game with the Habs.
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Otherwise, there would be nothing positive to talk about in Staal’s tenure with the Canadiens. He may be a decorated veteran with a Stanley Cup and Olympic gold medal, but Staal is going to have to step things up quickly or lose his spot in the lineup to Jake Evans.