Montreal Canadiens: Is This Defensive Structure Viable?
By Joshua Rosa
Everything is coming up aces in Montreal right now. After winning three straight must-win games to close out the Toronto Maple Leafs in a first-round seven-game classic, the Montreal Canadiens have rolled into Winnipeg to take the first two games of the series against the Jets, a barn-burning 5-3 win and a tight defensive 1-0 win.
The most recent 1-0 win shows what strengths the Canadiens have on the back end. Carey Price ended the night with 30 saves, but I think I can count the amount of high danger scoring chances on one hand. Many Winnipeg shots came from far out by the blue line or off to the side chippers that Price was easily able to glove down.
And this is due to Montreal’s defence, which has been stellar ever since Game 5 of the Toronto series. It all stemmed from a change Dominique Ducharme implemented, which saw the defence stand up at the blueline, and clog up the neutral zone. Teams are going to have a hard time scoring if they cannot get the puck in the offensive zone, and that’s what Montreal is doing to Winnipeg.
The lucky thing is that there is a way to beat this, but neither Toronto nor Winnipeg seem willing to do it. It’s the dump and chase. It would not only create more scoring chances, but would tire out the Montreal defence faster.
But, to play dump and chase, the offence has to be willing to play physically against Montreal’s physically imposing defence. Both Toronto and Winnipeg have a core group of really skilled forwards, and really skilled forwards like bringing the puck in under control rather than dumping it in. But Montreal’s defence is not allowing for any room for those skilled forwards to deke and skate, resulting in most plays dying in the neutral zone.
So, what’s the problem? It all seems good so far. Well, it might not be super apparent just by watching the games, but Ducharme is essentially running with four defenders, and the bottom pairing has been very sparsely used.
If you look at the average ice times for Canadiens skaters, the forward core is sandwiched in the middle, with defencemen either being heavily played or barely played at all. Shea Weber leads the team, somewhat unsurprisingly with 25:26 average ice time, followed by Ben Chiarot with 25:02, Jeff Petry with 24:44 and Joel Edmundson with 21:52. To find the next defenceman in order of ice time, you have to go all the way down to John Merrill, who has only played five games so far and recorded an average of 13:42 minutes. Then, Brett Kulak and Erik Gustafsson bring up the rear of the entire team at 11:49 and 8:45 respectively.
I say that Shea Weber is surprisingly Montreal’s ice-time leader, because, in the last little while, that mantle had been taken over by Jeff Petry, but Petry has had some struggles in the last little while in the defensive zone. In Game 6, both of Toronto’s goals were deflected off of him, and later in Game 1 against Winnipeg, Derek Forbort’s goal was as a result of a screen by Petry. His offensive numbers haven’t been great either, three assists in nine games.
But, that is nitpicking some bad things that have happened in nine games. Petry is still a great defender and focusing on those negatives is ignoring the games of good that he has done. There isn’t a whole lot of bad to look at in Montreal’s defence, outside of Gustafsson’s horrible giveaway that led to Winnipeg’s short-handed goal in Game 1.
Shea Weber is 35 years old, Ben Chiarot is 30, Jeff Petry is 33, and Joel Edmundson is 27. Those aren’t exactly spring chickens, especially in today’s NHL. But this strategy of standing up at the blueline definitely helps keep the players fresh. It is not as much skating and much less physical than playing in the defensive zone.
But who knows how long this will last. I do not expect Paul Maurice to just accept what the Canadiens are giving him. He will probably make some adjustments to try to beat the Habs, unlike Sheldon Keefe. And looking forward into the future, if I may be so brash, it is not going to be as easy in the next round against the Vegas Golden Knights or Colorado Avalanche.
It is working now, but how sustainable is playing a 35-year-old 25+ minutes a night?
There isn’t a great answer for the third pairing. Merrill provides solid defence but little to no offence. Gustafsson is the same thing but the other way around. Alexander Romanov has yet to see any playoff action, and no one knows how well he would perform in the high-stakes world of the NHL playoffs.
All I know is that fatigue is real, and Montreal’s older defence corp might start feeling it sooner rather than later this year. They have the ultimate equalizer in Carey Price, and they are going to go as far as he can carry them, and if he keeps playing like this, that looks pretty far.