Marc Dumont
If the Montreal Canadiens don’t figure things out soon, they’re in for a long season.
The team has started the season on a four-game losing streak following a decisive 5-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks on home ice.
There’s a laundry list of items that ails last year’s Western Conference Champions (haha).
And if they don’t correct all of the following, they’ll be one of the frontrunners for this summer’s projected first overall pick, Shane Wright.
An impotent offense:
The Canadiens have only scored three goals in four games. It’s not only hard to win games when you can’t score, but it’s hard to watch as well. Whether it’s the fans in attendance or those watching at home if the team doesn’t win they at least want a show. There’s no reason scoring should be this difficult. Tyler Toffoli, Mike Hoffman, and Brendan Gallagher all have 30-goal seasons under their belts. Josh Anderson has a 27-goal season and Cole Caufield scored in almost every game he played in at the collegiate level. Montreal has players that know how to score, they just haven’t.
“It’s disappointing that it’s happening in the very beginning of the year,” said Canadiens’ alternate captain Brendan Gallagher. “You want to test yourself in tough situations and that’s where we are right now.”
Ruinous specials teams
Montreal has been awful both on the penalty kill and the powerplay. With the addition of Hoffman, a full season of Caufield, a rejuvenated Jonathan Drouin and a new voice behind the bench with assistant coach Alex Burrows, things were supposed to be different with the man advantage. They aren’t. Instead, there’s a lack of movement, creativity, and vision. In the loses to Toronto and New York, one powerplay goal could have been the difference. Montreal is now 0-for-13 on the powerplay and have surrendered seven goals while shorthanded.
Defensive breakdowns
Nothing will anger a coach more than a defensive breakdown that leads to a scoring chance, or worse a goal. Lately, the same mistakes are being committed by the same players. Almost identical goals were scored in back-to-back games by Alexis Lafreniere on Saturday and Logan Couture on Tuesday. Poorly timed gambles at the blue-line and forwards not covering for their teammate or reading the play correctly have led directly to goals against. The tape doesn’t lie, and the coaching staff likely wants to set it on fire.
“It’s a lack of execution, lack of engagement on certain plays that cost us and that was the case in the first period,” said head coach Dominique Ducharme.
Lack of effort … And character?
Disconnected? Disjointed? Out of synch? There’s a lot of words to describe their team play. But what’s most concerning is they look uninspired. Except for a few select players, it doesn’t feel like the Canadiens are a team. They’re a group of individuals. Somebody must bring the group together. It could be the coaching staff, or it could be the so-called leaders in the room. If this isn’t the first thing fixed, everything else is probably a moot point.
“A lot of people are going to turn on us and it’s important in the locker room we don’t,” said Canadiens’ alternate captain Brendan Gallagher.
While it’s hard to not fixate on what we’ve seen to start the season, there’s still time to right the ship. If not, they’ll show that they just aren’t that good and prove the doubters who believe last spring’s run to the Stanley Cup Final was a mirage, to be right.
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