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Practice Makes Perfect, and the Habs need Practice |
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What do you take from the Canadiens' opening road-trip?
The numbers are pretty interesting:
5-4-3-2 -- That's the sequence of P.K. Subban's shots on net from game one through game four. He had a goal in game one...
Max Pacioretty scored on his first shot of the season, and he's had nine on net since. This is a guy who had five or more shots on net 24 times last season. That's 24 times more than he's done it so far. Pacioretty played a season low 17:21 last night, and working backwards towards opening night in Toronto: 21:41, 19:16, 18:17.
39th -- That's where Carey Price currently ranks in save percentage. Granted, the Canadiens have only managed to kill off 77.8% of their penalties, and Price has made some great stops to secure two wins thus far, but you don't expect to see his numbers on page two of the NHL.com stats page.
77.8% is a much better number than ZERO! -- It would literally be impossible for the powerplay to be worse than that.
So, I'll tell you how I see it. The Habs took six of eight available points on a road-trip that started with them opening up the ACC in Toronto and Verizon Center in Washington on back-to-back nights, with a practice the following day before their third game in four nights--in Philly, where they hadn't won in 10 attempts--before the grand finale in Tampa, where the Lightning, who they swept in the first round of the playoffs, were waiting to make a statement. Pretty good.
Emphatic statement made by Tampa against a team that hadn't started any of their previous three contests until the second period; against a team whose best players in Price, Subban and Pacioretty aren't quite at the level yet; against a team whose special teams are operating in a special needs kinda way.
Practice makes perfect, and the Canadiens have three days of it before welcoming a Boston Bruins' team that's started off on the wrong paw; a Bruins team coming in from Detroit, on the second night of back-to-backs on the road; a Bruins team that wants to maul them for the way their season ended, but a few months ago.
Time for the young leaders to start leading. Lot's of slack allotted--not just in this blog, but hey, no excuses!
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1. It's going to be a love-hate relationship with Tom Gilbert this year, isn't it? Maybe he should be the poster boy for why advanced stats are only part of the analysis.
The good is plainly obvious. Gilbert's creative, he moves the puck around well in all three zones, he's versatile and can be used in all different situations.
The bad is also quite evident. Gilbert's feet don't move quite as fast as they need to. He has three hits in four games (avg 22:25/game). OY!
2. Jarred Tinordi's filled in quite well in Alexei Emelin's absence. But if Jarred Tinordi is going to be your best defenseman for two straight games, well, that's a sign that something's not going too well on the blueline.
3. Hockey teams never have four full lines going at full capacity. The Habs have had two going well, one going decently, and one not working at all. That's about par for the course.
What needs to change for Lars Eller, Rene Bourque and Jiri Sekac? I'd argue the psychological effect of seeing the puck hit the twine for one of them would go a long way.
Sekac had his first NHL goal stolen by Anton Stralman. It was the best kick-save of last night's game. Heck, it was the best kick-save of the millennium, to date.
Bourque had a perfect shot in Washington. Almost perfect. Almost Bourque.
Eller couldn't have been more stoned by Ray Emery in Philadelphia if he had been hanging on Willie Nelson's tour bus for three hours with the windows locked.
The ice-time is sporadic, and the chemistry isn't exactly boiling over for these three.
4. Obviously, it's been an inauspicious start for Sekac, who's proving the naysayers right with classic preseason to regular season stunted growth. He's made some great plays, and he's made a lot of the wrong ones, especially when it comes to simple things like getting the puck deep, or tying it up in the offensive zone.
It's tough to learn on the fly with four games and one practice under your belt. Experience is the only teacher thus far, and there are a lot of lessons being served.
Is Sekac's spot in the lineup in jeopardy? Perhaps, for a game or two.
Can Sekac benefit from a few days of practice and a night of watching from the press gallery? We'll find out.
5. Michael Bournival, unleashed? You'd have to think his energy would be a good boost come Thursday.
If it's not Sekac on the sidelines for him, who is it? Weise?
6. I'm no doctor, but I see a few different things that are leading to the stagnation of the Canadiens powerplay. In no particular order:
a. The dump-in recovery looks like a freelance operation. There doesn't seem to be any standard practice there. They aren't putting pucks in places where they can be recovered, and they aren't pursuing the puck strongly enough to get it back.
b. Once they have possession in the zone, there is too much standing around. Parenteau's on the sidewall, standing still while trying to throw a cross-seam pass to Subban is not a recipe for success; 0/2 on that play so far this season.
Puck movement is critical, but player movement is just as crucial.
c. If Subban isn't in a one-timer position, he's far less effective. If Pacioretty isn't in a one-timer position, he's far less effective. If both of them are not in one-timer positions at the same time, the powerplay isn't going to work. The threat of both those shots ensures that one of them will get an open look eventually.
7. Michel Therrien hasn't been overly emotive on the bench, but I can bet any amount of money he's simmering on one particular issue with the Canadiens play, thus far: They're not getting pucks deep enough to capitilize on the speed advantage they hold over most of their opponents.
When they got pucks deep consistently against Philadelphia, in that miraculous third period, they annihilated the Flyers. That period was an indication of who these Canadiens can be. A steamroller of speed is how I referred to them on Twitter that night.
Cut the fancy plays at the line, get the puck behind the defensemen and go to work. If this team commits to doing that from the start of games, wins are going to continue to pile up.
8. Here's a number that makes a bit of sense, but it still needs to increase: 16:49. That's Alex Galchenyuk's average ice-time, so far. Last year, it was 14:23.
Right now, with Tomas Plekanec on fire, Galchenyuk and Plekanec, and whomever they play with should be used as Montreal's top line. Get Desharnais' line a better match up, and give them a bit more motivation to pick it up immediately.
Desharnais is at 17:51 avg, and Pacioretty's at 19:08. Plekanec's at 18:58.
9. Montreal's scored the most goals at 5-on-5 in the league, with nine. Problem: They've also allowed the most, with nine against. This would obviously be less of a problem if their powerplay and penalty kill weren't completely deficient, but we've already been through that.
10. A 7-1 pasting is a 7-1 pasting. It's a lesson. It's a kick in the derriere. It's a wake-up call, and if you're an optimist you might consider that it came at the right time, while the team might have been riding too high after pulling off three wins that could easily have been losses.
It's a long season, and there's plenty of time to work out the kinks. You can't help but think about what the success level will be when the Canadiens' best players are leading the way; when the powerplay and penalty kill are even slightly more effective.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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