Montreal Canadiens: Ben Chiarot Lack of Discipline Sinking Habs

Montreal Canadiens defenceman Ben Chiarot has played the past two seasons on a pairing with Shea Weber.

The tandem played a ton of minutes, were relied on heavily for killing penalties and facing the other team’s top players literally every single night. They had their off nights for sure and it showed.

There were times when a complete lack of speed and quickness would get picked apart by the likes of Mitch Marner or the young, skilled forwards on the Ottawa Senators and Chiarot and Weber were just spinning their wheels.

But they performed admirably most nights, limiting chances to the mid-range and winning battles for pucks on a consistent basis in the defensive zone. Neither of them were going to make many highlight reels on the rush, but they proved their worth in the postseason, wearing down the opposing team’s best players and playing pivotal roles in Habs series wins over the very skilled Pittsburgh Penguins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets and Vegas Golden Knights in the past year.

Without Weber, Chiarot was left to find a new partner this season. He started with David Savard, but the pairing did not look great in the first few games and Chiarot was moved next to Jeff Petry. This gave the Habs a more compatible top pairing with the shutdown defender in Chiarot and skilled, offensive Petry. Most importantly, both can handle playing tough competition and a heavy workload.

It looked much better last night in a blowout win, but Ben Chiarot needs to find a way to stay out of the penalty box.

In six games this season, Chiarot has put the Canadiens down a man on five occasions. He was called for a hooking penalty against the Toronto Maple Leafs on opening night, and the team killed it off.

Since then, Chiarot has been signalled for hooking, tripping, roughing and tripping over the past five games. The biggest problem is, the team has not killed off any of them. The Buffalo Sabres scored twice while Chiarot was in the box, the San Jose Sharks capitalized while Chiarot was sitting and the Detroit Red Wings scored first last night while Chiarot was on his own in the box.

With Weber gone this season, every time Chiarot sits in the box, the team is missing the two defenders they turned to when they needed a penalty killed last season.

The Canadiens were the best team in the playoffs last year at killing penalties. They had a 91.8% efficiency rate while shorthanded. A lot of that credit can go to the work Weber and Chiarot did to shut things down in front of Carey Price. That’s not to take anything away from Price, or Petry or the forwards like Phillip Danault, Paul Byron and Artturi Lehkonen, but Weber and Chiarot were the pillars on the penalty kill.

This season, the Habs are killing off just 20% of Chiarot’s penalties. When neither Weber or Chiarot are available on the penalty kill, this team is lost out there. There is no way they will only kill off 20% of Chiarot’s penalties for the rest of the season, but there is also no question that Chiarot needs to clean things up in the discipline department.

Chiarot is not a speedy defender, and his penalties reflect that. He has been called for tripping twice and hooking twice as well as a roughing penalty. The trips and hooks by a defensive defender are usually a sign that they are getting beat with speed or are out of position and use their stick as a desperate attempt to stop the player they can’t catch.

Chiarot is going to need to adjust and stop taking a penalty every night that puts his team shorthanded. That’s probably more difficult than it sounds, but he was able to pull it off last season. He hasn’t even been called for a cross check yet, which the league is supposedly clamping down on.

Chiarot was called for 12 minor penalties in the Habs first 19 games last season. After that, he had just three minor penalties in his final 22 games played.

A similar adjustment needs to happen this season and it needs to happen fast. Chiarot’s penalties are killing the Canadiens and he needs to find a way to stay out of the penalty box.