Montreal Canadiens: Trying to Fix the Broken Offence

This Montreal Canadiens season is only about a week and a half old, but it already feels like forever. In succession, the Canadiens have lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1, the Buffalo Sabres 5-1, the New York Rangers 3-1, the San Jose Sharks 5-0, and the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1. The Maple Leafs and Hurricanes look to be good teams this year, the Rangers are a young middling team on the rise, and the San Jose Sharks and Buffalo Sabres should be bad, but don’t look like it so far.

The Canadiens did beat the Detroit Red Wings 6-1 on the back of a hat-trick by Mathieu Perreault and Mike Hoffman’s first goal as a Canadien. And while that is all really great, it is one good game against five bad ones. It could be a great start to a good run, but this is also the Detroit Red Wings we are talking about, a team that was supposed to be bad and actually seems to be bad, unlike the Buffalo Sabres and San Jose Sharks.

So for those keeping score, that five game start was an 0-5 start, with 4 goals for and 19 against. That is 3.8 goals against per game, 0.8 goals per. In the first 5 games, Montreal has failed to score 2 goals in one game, and has struggled to even threaten to. The closest they came was when Gallagher looked to score the first goal in the Carolina game, but it was called back as goaltender interference.

Offence was a question during the preseason, where there were long stretches of up to 13 minutes, Montreal could not take a shot. In the San Jose game, Montreal only took 4 shots in the first period where San Jose got 3 goals. They escaped out of the first period of the Carolina game scoreless, but only managed to take 5 shots. Montreal retook the shot gap in both the Carolina and San Jose game, but it was when the game was already out of reach.

This is a very different look to the Montreal Canadiens that we have seen in the recent years. It really seemed to start the year that Marc Bergevin brought in Max Domi and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. This was a team that was not the best in the league, but fought for every second on the ice and was tons of fun doing it. It is a mentality personified by Brendan Gallagher and has persisted the past few years to make a team that is generally fun to watch.

That has not been the case this year.

There has been little fight this year, especially in the offensive zone. Its not that Montreal has lost 5 games in a row to start the season, its that they have hardly threatened to win or look interesting or entertaining at all.

And that is the difficulty with trying to fix this offence. Usually there are players that are playing well and you can put them together to try to spark something. But who has been good? The second line of Josh Anderson – Christian Dvorak – Jonathan Drouin has been the only bright spot, and it hasn’t been perfect. The rest? Well, let’s just change a few things.

First Line

Right now, the first line is composed of Mike Hoffman – Nick Suzuki – Brendan Gallagher. This is…interesting.

It does follow the logic of having a goal-scorer, Hoffman, a play-maker/skill player, Suzuki, and a play-driving guy that gets to the dirty areas, Gallagher. It is a good idea in theory. Gallagher draws a lot of defenders to the front of the net, and that gives more room for the skilled Suzuki and Hoffman to work.

Gallagher has been and can continue to be a top line centre in Montreal. Honestly, the more ice time that Gallagher gets, the better. As so many have opined, Gallagher is the ‘straw that stirs the drink’, and he always brings the same high energy and lifts the rest of the team with him.

Hoffman, not so much. Everyone has said that he struggles to drive play and produce offence by himself. He has a really good shot, but depends on others to get him the puck. And he has a lack of enthusiasm in the defensive zone. It isn’t exactly the best when you are putting Hoffman against the top lines of the opposition.

Especially because Nick Suzuki has looked out of his depth. There was a lot of talk about Suzuki’s development this year, and how he has gotten better each year in his NHL career so far. But the difference this year seems to be the departure of Phillip Danault. Danault took all of the hardest match-ups in the past two years, leaving the second and third line match-ups for Suzuki. And it may seem like we have all underestimated how much of an impact that would have on Suzuki’s game.

Suddenly, Suzuki is coming up against Auston Matthews and Patrice Bergeron and Mark Stone. Not to mention that his most common linemates Tyler Toffoli and Cole Caufield are not the greatest defensively either.

Gallagher is a good compliment to Suzuki in my opinion. He has proven to be responsible defensively, and will make space for Suzuki to use his vision and skill. I am not sure about Hoffman. I personally would want someone that is better at creating his own offence.

I think Josh Anderson could be an interesting fit. He hasn’t recorded a goal so far, and 1 assist. He is big, he is fast, and he has an interesting shot. Its not the best in the world, but it can beat goalies clean on occasion. And Suzuki has the vision to get him the puck in good positions.

Proposed Line: Josh Anderson – Nick Suzuki – Brendan Gallagher

Second Line

The second line of Josh Anderson – Christian Dvorak – Jonathan Drouin has been Montreal’s best line so far. It hasn’t been perfect, but Drouin leads the team with two of the four Montreal goals. Josh Anderson has one assist on a beautiful pass to Drouin for Montreal’s first goal of the season. Dvorak also has just one assist.

To tell you the truth, this line has not produced enough offence. It would be fine, but there has been absolutely no help from the rest of the team. Drouin has been the bright spot this season offensively, but Dvorak has been doing something special.

So far this year, Dvorak has won 59 faceoffs. That is good for 4th in the league, behind Leon Draisaitl, Bo Horvat and John Tavares. This is good for 55.1%, or 15th best in the league. 15th best in the league, but he has taken the second most faceoffs in the entire league behind Horvat. Its safe to say that if you double the amount of faceoffs Anton Lundell or Joel Eriksson-Ek or Derek Ryan, their percentages fall back down to earth.

Dvorak has always been good for winning faceoffs his entire career, and he is reliable defensively. Drouin is not really. He is one of the most talented offensive players on the ice, and his vision and passing ability are almost second to none, but his physical play and defensive ability leave much to the imagination. But the good thing is that Dvorak can make up for that.

Josh Anderson is a pure force on the ice. He does not always get results, but is a livewire and can galvanize the team with a big hit or a exciting rush up the ice. But there is something not working with this whole offense, so something has to be changed. With Dvorak’s faceoff winning percentage and defensive capabilities and Drouin’s playmaking, an offensive goalscorer would be a perfect one.

The question is which one. Mike Hoffman and Tyler Toffoli are good options. Hoffman has a great shot, but as previously stated, is a powerplay specialist, and I don’t know how much I like the idea of him playing top 6 minutes on the team in even strength situations. Tyler Toffoli has been on the top line for the last little while now, and scored 28 goals last season. Toffoli has never been an out-and-out sniper, and more uses his positioning and hockey smarts to score goals rather than his shot.

And there is someone that I think could use the lack of defensive responsibility, easier match-ups and Drouin’s passing ability, and that is Cole Caufield. Caufield would benefit from a lot of ice time to build up his confidence, but these linemates might be perfect to shelter his mistakes, and get his offensive game going.

Proposed Line: Cole Caufield – Christian Dvorak – Jonathan Drouin

Third Line

Currently, Montreal’s third line is composed of Tyler Toffoli – Mathieu Perreault – Cole Caufield.

This line had a fantastic game in Detroit the other night. Perreault had a hat trick, and for the first time this season, Caufield was skating like he did in the playoffs. It will be interesting to see how this continues, but I think the Red Wings demonstrated their destitute defensive deficiencies and definitely determined Montreal’s victory.

It is really tough to look at Montreal’s bottom 6, a lot tougher than it is for other teams. At the start of the year, I looked at the bottom sixes of every team in the league, and found that Montreal has the most expensive bottom 6 in the league. It doesn’t really matter which way you look at it. Someone was going to make $5-6 milllion dollars on the third line and that’s that.

Mathieu Perreault is not a natural centre in the NHL. He is more at home on the wing, but can do at centre in a pinch. He has done well, but there should be a better option for the third line centre role.

Anyone that knows me knows that I love me some Jake Evans, especially after his performance in the preseason. In the playoffs, Jake Evans was surprisingly promoted to winger on the first line, taking Tomas Tatar’s spot, alongside Brendan Gallagher and Phillip Danault. There, he proved that he can be trusted defensively, even though he played on the wing. In the preseason, he made the team aware of his offensive skills as well.

I mean, Evans was flying out there, making beautiful dekes and passes, all while still playing defensively sound. What more could you want in a third line centre?

Now, it would be tempting to put two high-end players alongside Jake Evans. Because Tyler Toffoli and Mike Hoffman have not been given a line yet, and unfortunately one of them will end up on the fourth line. It is what it is. Montreal is not set up like most NHL hockey teams, and their third and fourth lines could see as much ice time as the first two.

I am not putting Hoffman and Toffoli together, that would be awful in my opinion. Neither Toffoli nor Hoffman are play drivers, and there is no way that just Jake Evans could drive play for that line. Put Hoffman and Toffoli together, and with Montreal’s immobile defense, the puck is not getting past the opponent’s blueline.

A demotion to the fourth line is not a big deal in Montreal’s system, and I think that Tyler Toffoli should be on the third line with Evans. Evans determination with the puck could open some lanes for Toffoli, and as he proved with the preseason, he could make some pretty plays with the puck.

Now, who to put with them? This is a question that can go any which way. Montreal’s bottom 6 are just packed with talent, and there are going to be some tough cuts. Do you keep Perreault or Paquette? Or is Lehkonen with his new contract the odd man out?

For the immediate future, I think you have to put Perreault out there. He is the hometown hero and scored a hat trick in Montreal’s first victory. He has earned a spot on the roster, and would be a good fit for this hard working identity that this line will have. But, it is definitely a pencil that writes his name in this spot, and you can be prepared to erase it in the coming future.

Proposed Line: Mathieu Perreault – Jake Evans – Tyler Toffoli