How the Montreal Canadiens Can Reform Their Defence

The Montreal Canadiens’ flaws have been blatantly exposed in the playoffs; what aspects of the defence need to change and how can it be done?

As I am sure is the case with all Habs fans, this series against the Toronto Maple Leafs has been incredibly frustrating for me to watch. The powerplay is lifeless, the offence stagnant, and the defence… where to start with the defence? The only consistently good (or even great) part of the Montreal Canadiens has been Carey Price, who has once again come to play in the postseason and is being let down by his team in every facet of the game; apart from hitting that is, at least the Habs are getting more hits in.

I would like to preface the article by clearly stating that this is an opinion piece. I am not claiming to know the answers to fixing the team, but I am arguing that reforming certain parts of the roster’s construction would go a long way in making the team more competitive and enjoyable to watch, based on how teams with these elements perform throughout the league.

Ironically, I don’t think that the offence is the problem for the Montreal Canadiens, a team that has scored four goals in as many playoff games thus far this postseason. From what I am seeing, the structure and composition of the defensive corps are central to most of the Canadiens’ struggles this season. We are talking about a defensive group with four members who play a very similar game, one that has become exploitable in the modern NHL.

Shea Weber, Ben Chiarot, Joel Edmundson and Jon Merrill are all big, strong, stay-at-home defencemen who supposedly make up for their lack of mobility and speed with brute force and net-clearing ability. Unlike some, I don’t believe that this mould of player is obsolete in the NHL. I do, however, believe that they have to be insulated with mobile defencemen who excel in transition. If the Montreal Canadiens had two out of these four and added two dependable defensive players that can counter-attack on a whim, the defensive corps would be in far better shape.

As we have seen all season and especially in the playoffs, having four relatively slow defencemen who do not bring any value in transition both handicaps the team in transition to actually gain offensive zone time and facilitates breakaways and 2 on 1s for the other team, something the Leafs have taken great advantage of.

The Montreal Canadiens have also been let down by their defence in the offensive zone. Zone-entries have become hugely cumbersome and I cannot count the number of times the rare moments of offensive-zone possession were wasted by the fumbling of the puck when passed back to the blueline, something that holds true both at even strength and on the powerplay.

As it turns out, building a defensive corps after your own style of play that excelled two decades ago is not necessarily the key to success.