Montreal Canadiens special teams rank on opposite ends of spectrum

The Montreal Canadiens are seven games into the season, and as they continue on, things may need to change with the team’s powerplay. At the time of writing, the team ranks as having the second-worst conversion rate in the league.

The Montreal Canadiens have an abysmal 4.76% conversion rate with just one powerplay goal on the year over 21 total opportunities. Only the Columbus Blue Jackets have been worse, as they have failed to tally a powerplay goal altogether.

Things have to improve, and that might just mean it’s time to switch things up and try out some different powerplay strategies. Now, before we get into that, on the flip side, they have been able to keep the opposition off the board in all but three instances on the penalty kill.

They have killed off 85.71% of penalties, putting them in the league’s top half. There’s still room for improvement here too. But they are at least on the right side of things with a better outlook than their abysmal powerplay.

Montreal Canadiens need to improve their special teams.

The penalty kill is getting the job done. They need to continue doing well, and they will keep improving that percentage and climb the league leaderboard. They must continue finding ways to stave off the opposition and disrupt rhythm.

Plenty to like to this point. It could be way worse, and the Habs have done an excellent job limiting opponents while they’re at a man advantage, being able to secure kills. But the thing that needs to improve is the powerplay—the offensive side of the Habs special teams.

Right now, this is generally what the two units look like.

1. Cole Caufield-Nick Suzuki-Sean Monahan-Jonathan Drouin-Chris Wideman
2. Mike Hoffman-Christian Dvorak-Brendan Gallagher-Kirby Dach-Kaiden Guhle

It’s some combination of the two, and it seems like it might be time to switch things up. Try some different line combinations out and see if head coach Martin St. Louis can find that winning combination.

Moving Hoffman to a bumper spot on the first unit, with Cole Caufield being the shooter with Suzuki aiming to create scoring chances, might help the team convert more. Getting Wideman off this unit also seems like the right decision.

Trying to swap Wideman with Jordan Harris, even if that means moving Guhle up to the first unit. It’s a lot of trust in the younger defenseman, but they have shown they can get it done to this point.

I don’t love Dvorak on the second unit and might try Jake Evans in that spot just to see if it sparks anything. The bottom line is the powerplay needs to improve. The Canadiens need to find different combinations and different ways to try and spark something when the team is performing this poorly.

Hopefully, St. Louis and the coaching staff can figure out ways to get this powerplay performing at a better rate moving forward.