It’s back to the drawing board—or, in the Canadiens’ case, the video room. Marty, Stephane, and Trevor will be busy today reviewing the tape with their players after that careless defensive effort last night in dropping a 6-3 decision to Pittsburgh.
The Canadiens will need to tighten things up, and I suspect that the coaching staff will have the players watching plenty of video today. They were careless after storming back in the second period to take a 3-2 lead.
Up a goal late in the second period, Justin Barron joined Mike Matheson on a two-on-three rush. That is not the time to be taking an offensive chance. If it’s a 3-on-2 or a 4-on-2, then it makes some sense, but Barron was never a passing option for Matheson, and then both of them were caught up ice after Matheson took an ill-advised shot from a bad angle.
To further complicate matters, neither Nick Suzuki nor Cole Caufield hung back to cover for one of the defencemen. Slafkovsky ended up being the lone guy back on a subsequent Penguins rush, and Eller tied the game with his second goal in the contest.
With the score tied 3-3 almost midway through the third period, Dach lost a faceoff on Montreal’s side of the neutral zone, and Boston took a lead it would never relinquish.
If Dach was off to a rip-roaring start, then perhaps you could overlook him winning just 18.8 percent of his faceoffs, but something has to change on the second line. The only NHL forward with a worse percentage after having taken at least ten faceoffs is Tim Stutzle. At least in Stutzle’s case, he has Claude Giroux on his line, and he has taken most of the draws and won 57 percent of them. After the faceoff, Stutzle moves into the middle.
It wouldn’t be a huge issue if Dach had a linemate who could take most of the news and make up for his ineptitude, but Alex Newhook has only won 35 percent of his faceoffs. Given that the team is only four games into the campaign, it wouldn’t usually be time to panic, but neither Newhook nor Dach have ever been close to 50 percent on faceoffs in their careers. It’s not likely to get much better, so the club will have to consider moving either Christian Dvorak or Jake Evans onto the second line so it can have decent possession time instead of starting most shifts without the puck.
This has to be addressed, and I would try Dvorak on the second line and move Armia to the fourth line to play with Kapanen and Heineman on the “Finnish Line.” It’s not like Armia has been tearing it up either – Dvorak wouldn’t be a downgrade, and he is the club’s best faceoff man. Kapanen is more comfortable at center, too. It would be nice to see how he looks there in a regular-season game. He was very good playing center in the exhibition season. Keep the Gallagher-Evans-Anderson line intact, as they have been effective so far.
You can see/hear an in-depth conversation Tony Marinaro and I had about it last night in his podcast:
Four games into his rookie season, Hutson’s CORSI and Fenwick are both 50 percent. It’s a snapshot of what he has brought to the club so far. Dangerous and creative with the puck…a work in progress without the puck. Even though he was on the ice for four goals against last night, he’s still creating more chances than he is giving up. His relative expected goals is 36.6 percent, which is 24th among all defencemen. Hutson had not been on the ice for a goal against in the first three games, so chalk last night up to it simply being a bad night. His defence partner early on, David Savard, was not overly impressive, and that had an effect as well.
The bottom line is that he has been on the ice for 2.75 goals against per 60 minutes, and the club’s goals-against average is 3.25, so his differential is still a half goal per 60 minutes on the plus side while he is averaging a point per game.
On the positive side, the Bell Centre crowd has its new PK. There used to be an audible buzz when Subban would get the puck. It’s already happening with Lane Hutson five games into his career. It is fair to say that he will be a fan favourite for as long as he wears a Habs uniform.
Joel Armia is throwing his weight around. His effort level, compared to the start of last season, is noticeably improved. Armia three three hits in his first seven games last season. He has seven hits in his first four games this campaign
Justin Barron has also been more physical. He has eight hits through his first four games, which ties him for eighth among all NHL defencemen. One of the knocks on him has been his lack of physical play, but he appears to have gotten the message from defence coach Stephane Robidas. The other part of his game most often scrutinized has been his turnovers, and so far this season, he has just one official giveaway.
He struggled in the Bruins game (as did everyone), but in the other three contests, he has only been on the ice for one goal despite logging 7:41 on the penalty kill and more than 16 minutes per game.
Xhekaj has been on the ice for the same number of goals against despite averaging just over 12 minutes per game and little time on the penalty kill. He has only been on the ice for 1:34 on the penalty kill. When Marty St. Louis changed up the defense pairings, Barron moved up to the second unit with Mike Matheson, while Xhekaj was paired with Jayden Struble.
This suggests that Xhekaj is the likely choice to come out of the lineup when Struble returns. Struble was the Canadiens’ best defenceman in the preseason, and he should be a stabilizing force on a blueline that has had an inconsistent start to the season.
Having a player who can be an enforcer is a nice luxury, but it is not essential every night for a club to win hockey games in today’s NHL. Edmonton won the Western Conference last season without an enforcer. Evander Kane led the club with 85 PIMs. No one would lump him in with the league’s best scrappers.
Florida won the Cup last year without an enforcer in the playoff lineup. Sam Bennett is gritty and pesky but could hardly be considered to be an NHL heavyweight.
The same can be said for Dallas and the Rangers – the other two semi-finalists. Ryan Suter led all Dallas players with 16 PIMs in 19 games. The Stars did not employ an enforcer last season.
New York had Matt Rempe in the lineup for 11 of the 16 playoff games, but he was a non-factor. He had one point in the playoffs, averaged six minutes per game, and didn’t fight.
If Xhekaj was one of Montreal’s top-four defencemen and a better option than Struble, then by all means, you never sit him out, as having that physical presence back there keeps other teams honest. It is difficult to argue that he is better than Struble, however, and it’s not like Struble lacks a physical presence.
The other reason Xhekaj may be the odd man out when Struble returns is that Barron is a right defenceman. He is more comfortable on the right side than Xhekaj and Struble.
This is not to say that Xhekaj should always sit out. They will rotate defencemen based on their performance and the team they are matched up against, but if Struble is ready to go against Los Angeles on Wednesday night, look for Xhekaj to be the healthy scratch.
Emil Heineman continued his impressive play on the fourth line. Heinamen and Dvorak were the only Montreal skaters with a CORSI above 60 percent, and he showed off his tremendous shot on his second goal of the season:
Here were the scoring chances and goals from the Canadiens in the loss:
