At this point of the season, the Montreal Canadiens have to be happy where they are in the standings. They currently are second in the Atlantic Division, but the race is incredibly tight as the Red Wings have the same number of points but have played one more game, while the Buffalo Sabres are only two points back of both teams.
While they have been good to this point of the season, there is always room for improvement and for the Canadiens, these are three areas that they should be looking to improve.
Taking Penalties and Penalty Kill
This is an area that seems to compound on itself as the Canadiens currently are fifth in penalty minutes with 588, and to make matters worse, when they are on the penalty kill, they aren't very good. They rank 25th in penalty kill this season at 76.9%.
Last season, the Canadiens' penalty kill was solid, and they ranked ninth in the league at 80.9%, so a four percentage point drop is significant. The loss of Joel Armia in free agency certainly played a factor, but the issues seem to run deeper than just losing one player.
It wouldn't be surprising if the Canadiens try to trade for a player to help their penalty kill but if they aren't able to do that, the best thing they can do is focus on not taking as many penalties.
Save Percentage
The goalie position has been an issue for Montreal this season, as they have had three goalies get at least 10 starts this season. The trio of Samuel Montembeault, Jakub Dobes, and Jacob Fowler has combined for a save percentage of .887, which is the eighth worst in the NHL.
The reason this number should be concerning for the Canadiens is that they have actually been pretty good at limiting shots as they have allowed the 12th fewest shots on goal. One of the reasons is that they rank second in the league in blocked shots, and skaters are getting into shooting lanes.
This is a position that the Canadiens are going to have some decisions to make and might be one they address with a trade. However, if they move forward with the current players on the roster, it is something that will be on the goalies to improve because Montreal is doing a good job limiting shots.
High-Danger Chances
The final area of focus for the Montreal Canadiens coming out of the Olympic break should be to generate more high-danger chances. Through the first part of the season, the Canadiens have generated the third-fewest high-danger chances in 5v5 situations according to Natural Stat Trick.
This season, the Canadiens have not had any problem scoring, as they have the third-best goals scored per game at 3.46. However, generating more high-danger chances can only help them score more as the games get tighter and more competitive. If they can address these three things, it should help their playoff chances over the remainder of the regular season.