Montreal Canadiens Formula is Simple, if Jake Allen Gets Any Goal Support, They Win

Montreal Canadiens bakcup goaltnder Jake Allen was so valued by the organization that they protected him over their star starter Carey Price from the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft.

The Kraken balked on Price’s night contract and mysterious injury that somehow happened just as the expansion draft lists were about to made public.

So, the Canadiens kept their goaltending tandem in place from last season and once again Allen is rewarding the team with strong play. The problem is, Allen is rarely rewarded by the team’s skaters with any goal support.

Allen was acquired before the shortened 2020-21 season and he was given plenty of support early on. In his first four games with the Canadiens last season, the team scored 15 times. That is an average of 3.75 goals per game, and though no team could keep up that pace for a full season, the Canadiens just stopped scoring altogether when Allen was in goal.

The Fredericton native was in net for 25 more games after the quick four game start, but the team scored just 48 goals in those games. That is just 1.92 goals per game in what was essentially half of the 56 game season.

The wildest part of it is that Carey Price played 25 games last season and the team scored 3.33 goals per game when he was in goal. So, the Canadiens were one of the best offensive teams in the league when Price was in their net and one of the worst offensive teams when Allen was in goal.

You would have hoped it was a one year oddity, until the start of this season. After four starts last season, the Habs had scored 15 goals for Allen. After four games this season, they had three tallies. That’s 0.75 goals per game. While they were blown out by the San Jose Sharks, Allen’s great play kept them in the games with the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes even with a single goal.

Finally, in Allen’s fifth game of the season he got a little goal support. The Canadiens scored six against the Detroit Red Wings and then had four against the Sharks in a rematch in San Jose. Between those two contests, they did score a single goal against the Seattle Kraken in a 4-1 loss.

While that low scoring contest was right in the middle of an offensive explosion, the Habs still have 11 goals in their past three games. That’s 3.67 goals per outing which is a lot better than what Allen has become accustomed to seeing in front of him.

That only brings the season average up to 2.00 goals of support per game for Allen. That’s not good enough, but it doesn’t take a lot more for Allen to win games. He has a 2.60 goals against average and a .912 save percentage on the season.

All the Canadiens need to do is score more than one goal and Allen will keep them in games. Allen has five losses this season and in all of them, the Canadiens score one goal or less.

The team has found the back of the net a little more frequently in the past three games. If they can just start scoring two, maybe three per game, Allen will ensure they win more than they lose.