Montreal Canadiens: Three Players Poised To Be Far Better Post All-Star Break
The Montreal Canadiens wrapped up the first half of their season with a hard fought game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Canadiens lost that game in overtime, but battled throughout against a playoff hopeful and earned a point in the standings. It gave them a record of 20-21-8 as they headed off for their All Star break.
Nick Suzuki represented the team in the actual All Star Game but the rest of the team was off for a vacation as that game against the Penguins was on January 27, which is now ten days ago. The Habs are back in action tonight as they face the Washington Capitals before having three more days off for some reason.
Then they play three games in four nights and five games in eight days. But I don't make the schedule, I just point out the insanity of it from time to time.
Of course, we call it the first half but the team is playing Game 50 tonight and they only have 33 to go.
The team suffered three consecutive losses shortly before the break that included a couple of beatdowns at the hands of the lowly Ottawa Senators and a disastrous 9-4 loss to the Boston Bruins. They also have traded Sean Monahan since we last saw them on the ice so expectations have dropped for this team in the past couple weeks.
While we all now expect them to miss the playoffs, and we kind of thought that all along, it isn't all doom and gloom.
There are a few players who are on the cusp of breaking out or are on the verge of seeing their offensive numbers take a big jump. We may not see a lot of wins in the final 33 games, but we should see a lot of points from these three players compared to their production before the All Star break.
Juraj Slafkovsky
Juraj Slafkovsky got off to a bit of a slow start to his second NHL season. His rookie season was not phenomenal as he put up four goals and ten points in 39 games. He looked over his head as he was often caught with his head down or quickly knocked off the puck as he seemed surprised by the quickness and speed of NHL action.
This season, he had an assist on a nice backhand cross crease feed in the opening game of the season. It appeared, after a strong training camp, that he and Alex Newhook and Kirby Dach were going to form a tremendous second line for this team moving forward. Then Dach got hurt in the second game of the season and was ruled out for the final 80 and things just didn't click for Newhook and Slafkovsky when they were joined by Josh Anderson.
Slafkovsky went nine consecutive games without a point and then finally scored his first of the season in the team's 11th game. He followed that up be being held pointless in his next four contests which gave him one goal and one assist in 15 games played.
He then had a nice little stretch with five points in seven games but was held pointless again after that for seven games. He has been better of late, with 13 points in his last 20 games, finally showing a bit of offense that we have all been waiting for since he arrived.
He is still just 19 years old and seemingly just noticed he is a lot bigger than most players on the ice. He stands at 6'3" and 230 pounds and has played a much more physically engaging game recently and has just looked far more confident with the puck and getting involved offensively.
It appears that a big breakout is on the horizon for Slafkovsky as we enter the second half of the season.
Josh Anderson
File this one under, well, he can't be any worse, right? Josh Anderson is a unique hockey player even at the NHL level. He has a combination of speed and size that just does not exist elsewhere.
The 29 year old winger is 6'3 and 224 pounds, but he flies down the wing like a helmeted Guy Lafleur. Of course, he doens't resemble Guy all that much when he gets around the net.
That was never closer to the truth than the beginning of this season. Anderson simply could not buy a goal. He played well to begin the season and was generating tons of chances but none of them would go in the net. It started to become almost comical, aside from the fact it was happening to a real life Canadiens player and you couldn't help but feel bad for the guy.
He played the first 24 games without scoring a goal before he finally scored an empty netter against the Seattle Kraken. He finally put a puck past a goaltender a few games later and suddenly went on a bit of a hot streak. He scored five goals in five games, trying to make up for some lost time, but was held scoreless for a handful of contests after that.
He wrapped up the first half with seven goals and 13 points in 45 games which included an indescribable cold stretch. He has to be better in the second half as he just can not possibly go through another 20+ game scoring slump.
Cole Caufield
Cole Caufield did not have as tough a start to the season as Juraj Slafkovsky and he definitely did not have the same cold spell as Josh Anderson, but he also didn't have the first half of the season we all thought he could.
Caufield has been a great goal scorer at every level he ever played at, but had a stretch this season where he put up just four goals in 27 games. He was off to such a great start with four goals and nine points in his first seven games, but then came his slow stretch of play.
Thankfully, the 23 year old winger has found his game once again. He finished the first half of play on an incredible hot streak and will look to propel that into a fantastic second half. In his last nine games, Caufield has scored six goals and 12 points.
That brought his first half numbers up to a very respectable 17 goals and 39 points in 49 games played. However, they could have been much better if not for that period of time where he didn't score goals, which is very unlike the skilled winger. Don't expect a repeat of that in the second half, as Caufield is sure to continue scoring plenty over the final 33 games of the season.
With few other options, the Canadiens need to rely heavily on the line of Slafkovky, Nick Suzuki and Caufield to score every night. Expect them to do so.
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