Molson's Patience Drying Up
This past Saturday night I attended the Habs/Leafs game with my father and was left floored by his observations.
My father grew up playing extremely competitive hockey, playing with many who went on to pursue careers in the NHL, and has an eye for the game that I truly admire.
Having attended hundreds of games together, though not many over the past few years, it was not only a great night, but a great experience in sitting with my father as we cross-analyzed some truly mind-boggling play from the Canadiens on Saturday night.
Here are a few of the fun conversations we had...
Do these guys want to play for Martin?
While watching the Habs shuffle around the ice Saturday night, coughing up lead after lead, we began to wonder if the lapses Montreal continually suffered were not due to the team's subconscious want to play a different style of game.
Though the Habs fought back on and off, the truth was that each time they would gain the lead they would sit back.
A trait this team has been able to overcome in the past, yet this season seems different, and the lapses seem even greater.
So we return to the main question, do these guys want to play for Martin?
It doesn't exactly appear so.
While the Habs have been built around speed for the past few seasons, they have always maintained a defensive "air" to their roster.
Not so much this time around.
Though the Canadiens are missing key players on the blue line, the truth is that the Habs are now a 3 line offensive team.
Gone are the days of two scoring lines, one defensive line and one checking line.
Gone are the days where the Habs boasted bigger, tougher defenders.
Now, left in its wake, is a speedy and talented roster. Though we have yet to necessarily see that talent.
And a major reason for that, at least - in our opinion, is that the Canadiens are having a tough time playing the same old style.
With added physicality, speed and skill spread over the team's top 3 lines, why not play a system that emphasizes those qualities?
Currently, what we are seeing is a mix between a team that has no problem turning up the juice from the red line in, yet cannot hold their in their own zone.
Martin has always maintained a conservative system that highlighted balanced offense and defense, yet is it possible he cannot tell that this team is now tilted more towards offense than defense?
So far, it would seem that way.
While the losses pile up, it's hard to say that Montreal's losing because of their talent pool.
Instead, it seems like they just don't have the confidence of identity.
Are they a defensive team or an offensive team?
They seem to want to be an offensive team, but Martin keeps snapping the reigns in emphasizing defense.
I say to hell with the D, play the style of game the lineup demands, not vice versa.
What is Weber's role?
People have given Weber a lot of grief this season as he waffled between the blue line and fourth line in pre-season and then into the regular season, yet is he doing that bad of a job?
Considering that Weber has never been given a clearly defined role on this club, how can we be sure of what kind of impact he can make?
Some nights he is used in a high capacity defensive role, other times not so much.
Then there are the nights where he's all of a sudden a winger again.
For a guy who challenged PK Subban for the OHL scoring lead among defensemen throughout his entire junior career, is it safe to say that we still don't know what he can really do?
I think so.
Though he's not been a prize on the blue line (yet), there's still the possibility he can.
He simply needs consistency.
Clearly the Habs value him, otherwise they would not have kept him up last season - or re-upped him during the off-season, yet they've still to remove the training wheels.
Unlike Subban, Weber has had a tougher time making such a large impact, and things did not get easier for him when the Habs brought (Y)Emelin over, nor when they signed Raphael Diaz this summer.
The addition of the two young dmen, though beneficial for the Habs, came with a price-tag for Weber. That price being paid in lost ice-time.
To wit, this kind of stuff hurts a young, developing defender's confidence. Though Weber will never tell that to you himself, the truth is that if people want to continue to demand high expectations out of him, including the coaching staff, then his bench bosses will need to make the first move in committing to giving him a real chance.
Give him a role, define it for him and let him prove whether he deserves to stay or not.
Where's the cycle?
Speaking of lost fundamentals...
While the team pulls to be an offensively minded squad and the coaches fight to keep them focused on defense, has anyone else noticed that this team barely cycles the puck?
It seems rather odd that for a team that used to cycle the puck so well, an offensive element that is directly related to the dump and chase, that they don't do it all that much anymore.
Especially considering how often they are still instructed to dump the puck.
Folks remember Koivu and Higgins shuffling around in the corner quite successfully, but who's doing that in this Habs lineup?
If Martin truly wants to keep pushing the dump and chase, there's no doubt in my mind that this team is going to have to work on their cycling. A lot.
What's with the dump and chase?
As mentioned, what gives?
The Canadiens are dumping the puck 4 out of 5 times when entering the zone, often with only 1 or 2 players moving their feet.
The result?
A less than 50% recovery rate.
If the team expects success out of beating their opponents to pucks in the corner and behind the net, they're going to have a couple more players helping the cause.
In my opinion, this archaic thought process of giving the puck up only to go retrieve it, kills off valuable time from the clock and forces players to non-scoring areas.
Why do that?
What's the big deal with setting up quick zone entries?
Remember a little thing called the give-and-go? Where the hell is that?
With small and speedy forwards who can pull it off, and with a couple bigger power forwards who can set up in the slot or in front of the net, why don't the Canadiens exploit their strengths?
It's not like they've got the big bodies to recover the puck every time.
Not to mention that they don't even effectuate the cycle well.
It's clear that by playing this system, Martin is hurting his club more than helping it. Let the speedsters use some speed. Set up give-and-go's, and other quick-zone entries, and quit making them feel like they are one team when they are the other.
Built for offense, so why not exploit that?
As you can tell, I've been leading up to this one.
The Habs have had infinite struggles in every area but generating shots, and preventing them.
With league low totals in every category but those shot total categories, is it not obvious that a quick switch in mentality would help these struggling Habs?
It's not so much that they aren't allowed to go on the offensive so much as it is the fact that they are commanded to pull back once they've achieved that.
Why pull back?
Why go in to a "defensive shell?"
With speed to burn, and certainly not the size to stop every team at their blue line, is it not as ridiculously simple as keeping the foot on the gas?
The speed is what is generating the offense, but the mind-set is pulling them back from piling it on.
I understood the defensive style and conservative ways over the past few years, but with the shift in mentality - and in the orientation of this roster over the summer - I can't help but feel that the identity of this club has moved away from the identity of their coach.
We'll see how long things last at this rate, clearly things won't remain as infinitely bad as they are, yet if the struggles spill-over to the 10-15 game segment, don't expect Jacques Martin to be around much longer.
No Fan of Dealing Brock Trotter...
While I can sympathize with management's need to shuffle the deck and bring a little change to the roster, I cannot for the life of me understand why the Canadiens dealt Brock Trotter.
A sleeper, and under-rated, Trotter's additon immediately makes the Phoenix Coyotes the winners of this trade.
Though people will argue that an increase in aggression and physicality is required, it coming in the form of giving up on Trotter is a mistake in my opinion.
While I can't say that Nokelainen won't help, I can say that Brock Trotter certainly would have.
Now, with the renewed Florida Panthers in town, seeking to prolong the Canadiens losing ways, the Habs are without their best possible call-up.
Instead, Trotter will now finally get his chance to play in the NHL while the Habs continue to take their chances on lesser skilled players in Blunden and Nokelainen.
For their sake, and Jacques Martin's as well, we can only hope that management knows something we don't, yet upon first glance - this deal doesn't shine right for Montreal.
In the end, I am still unable to clearly evaluate the Canadiens.
Though they are the worst team in the Eastern Conference at the moment, there are still a few more games to be played before a true sample size can be had.
If those few more games prove to be victories, the end of the world pieces from the past week won't have much meaning. Then again, if the team continues to play one way while their coach urges them to play another, chances are the moves from this past weekend won't be the last ones we see.
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