The Montreal Canadiens have had their share of high-impact defensemen, with various play styles.
Be it Andrei Markov or Pk Subban to Sheldon Souray, Mike Matheson, and the emerging young rearguards. Montreal has been fortunate to have some great support pillars for the forwards to benefit from. Matheson is more of a number two defender, however, and at times showed his fatigue with brutal mistakes and brainfarts.
Given the fact that the Canadiens will be breaking in Lane Hutson and Kaiden Guhle will be looking to take another step forward, I think Matheson should have a little less weight on his shoulders. Ideally, he would be the number two blueliner on the top powerplay, not having to do as much, and letting Hutson do some heavier lifting. This won't likely happen right away, but if it does, it will give Matheson a little less pressure and hopefully benefit him with better decision-making.
Less pressure, less mistakes?
Naturally, if a player is prone to mistakes, playing less minutes against the opposition's top players is the best recipe for success. I suspect that will be the case with Matheson, who often tries to do too much, especially on the power play to try and overwhelm the penalty killers. This sometimes works and results in a beautiful end-to-end rush, however, when it doesn't it ends in disaster.
If Matheson consistently made high percentage plays, then the 60 point season would likely roll in with regularity. However, he sometimes relies a little too much on his skating and not enough on short outlet plays that eat up chunks of ice through the neutral zone. Sure it's nice when a masterful play works out, but it doesn't always work that way, which makes Matheson a high-risk player, but that doesn't always mean high reward.
Fortunately for Matheson, Guhle will be another year older and Hutson will get some reps on the power play as well. That's also not to mention Arber Xhekaj who will help out on the penalty kill and Logan Mailloux, Justin Barron and David Reinbacher who have hopes of playing with the Habs soon. I personally believe with less responsibility on the power play, Matheson should benefit from more points.
Not only would the Canadiens benefit from more points at five on five, but this would also mean Matheson gets victimized less by penalty killers. If he plays less on the power play or has a defenseman helping him run things at the blueline, rather than a winger, the support should be a helping factor. Sure, Hutson isn't a shutdown defenseman and he is very young, but proper defensive coaching should p