The Montreal Canadiens lost again last night and dropped their season record to 6-16-2.
They are on pace to finish the season with 48 points and it would take something beyond divine intervention to get them back into the playoff race.
I mean, Carey Price will soon be back, but even that isn’t going to be enough to turn this team’s fortunes around this season.
They still have 58 games to play, which is longer than the entire regular season from last year. It is going to be a long, monotonous road at times as the team just plays out the string while knowing they have absolutely no chance of making the playoffs this season. They were just in the Stanley Cup Final last season, but this fall from grace has already cost Marc Bergevin his job as the team’s general manager.
Owner Geoff Molson held a press conference yesterday and the message was more about building for the future and properly developing young talent and not pushing to try and win this season.
The problem is, the head coach doesn’t seem to be getting that same message.
Once again, the Canadiens youngest players were also the ones who sat on the bench the most. Ice time is based on experience more than merit or even long term develop for the Canadiens at the moment and that needs to change.
Just look at the ice time chart from last night’s 2-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks. The game was tied after one period at one goal apiece thanks to Ryan Poehling driving the net and redirecting a Jonathan Drouin pass into the net.
Poehling is one of the team’s youngest and least experience forwards and therefore he was one of the least used last night. He has played a strong, impressive two-way game since being recalled from the Laval Rocket, but it is games experience that matters to Dominique Ducharme. So, even though he scored the team’s only goal and played well all night, 22 year old Poehling finished the game with just 11:31 in ice time.
This ranked 16th among the team’s 18 skaters.
In a game where the team trailed for the final 34 minutes, 20 year old Cole Caufield was also mostly stuck on the bench. He played just over 12 minutes, which was 15th among the team’s 18 skaters. Caufield is a gifted offensive player who needs to learn the NHL game and deserves opportunities to get on the ice when the team is counting on him. But he sat on the bench.
Michael Pezzetta, a 23 year old who won’t be mistaken for a super skilled winger like Caufield, but bring energy on every shift and battles and makes the other team feel some pain every time they touch the puck, was last on the team in ice time with 8:41.
The same thing happens on the blue line where Ben Chiarot leads the team in ice time once again, though the team desperately needed a goal most of the evening to tie the game.
Meanwhile, 21 year old Mattias Norlinder, a gifted offensive player and terrific skater played 12:27 which is almost half of Chiarot’s 22:38.
It doesn’t make sense. The season is already over so why not get the young players on the ice way more often? Caufield should be among the team’s ice time leaders when they are losing most of the night. Poehling deserves more ice time based on his play and Norlinder needs to be on the ice if he is going to use his skating to create anything.
Hopefully, with a long, and losing season ahead of them, the Canadiens coaching staff will soon choose to start playing the young players far more often.