We've gone two seasons without a full understanding of what Andrei Markov's impact on this team could be.
Now that he's returned from his rehabilitation stint with Dr. James Andrews in Florida, the hope is that he's that much closer to resuming practice with his teammates.
We don't know what he'll be able to contribute this season, but we do know that the Canadiens' powerplay hovered between 22nd and 28th last season until James Wisniewski came into the fray. This was one of the biggest reasons the Canadiens comfortably made the playoffs.
With a record of 4-5-2, the Canadiens have to hope they can maintain a .500 winning percentage (or better) through November. Chances are, if Markov's able to return within the month (and that's a pretty big if, at this stage) he'll need at least ten games under his belt before he can be counted on to provide what the Canadiens will consistently expect from him.
I can appreciate the reservations people had about Pierre Gauthier's decision to part ways with Wisniewski and sign Markov for three seasons at 5.75 mil/season.
In the end, Gauthier was forced to choose between the two and chose the less expensive option. Due respect to Wisniewski's performance, because it truly was impressive, but Gauthier also chose the better player.
Considering Wisniewski's had three ACL reparations to Markov's two, there's an argument to be made that choosing Markov may have been a risk, but it's a risk that likely yields a higher reward.
Granted, the fact that he suffered a setback (Gauthier was surely under the impression he'd be ready to start the season) has cast a serious shadow of doubt regarding his ability to bounce back from this situation.
It should be noted however, in the 52 games Markov played over the last two seasons, he scored 38 points, 17 of which came on the powerplay. Between injuries and the time allotted to ease himself back into play, those are pretty remarkable numbers, only slightly less impressive than what he did in his last healthy season.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
In '08-09, Markov was the second leading scorer among defensemen with 64 points in 78 games. Of those 64 points, 32 of them were powerplay assists, leading all defensemen in the category and falling just one powerplay assist shy of Sidney Crosby's 33 on the year.
That's a point-per-game average of .82.
How does that stack up against his current competition?
Lubomir Visnovski led all defensemen in scoring with 68 points last year.
Nicklas Lidstrom came in 2nd place with 62 points in 81 games. Of those 62 points, 32 of them were powerplay assists, leading all defensemen in the category and falling just five powerplay assists shy of Martin St. Louis on the year.
That's a point-per-game average of .75 for the then 40-year old defenseman.
Pretty incredible how identical the numbers are between Lidstrom's last season and Markov's last healthy season.
When healthy, the Canadiens are going to rely on their powerplay, their penalty kill and their goaltending to get the job done.
Despite Markov's dominance in the Canadiens' Centennial season, they only managed the league's 13th best powerplay.
But for the two years leading up to that travesty of a season, Markov was the constant that pushed the Canadiens powerplay to be the very best in the league.
With emerging talents in Subban and Weber, the Canadiens don't need Markov to perform quite at the clip he established in '08-09, but if he can get 3/4 of the way the way there, that should give the Canadiens a major boost.
Elliotte Friedman of CBC did some
great research a couple of weeks ago about teams that aren't in the playoff picture as of November 1st.
In the blog, Friedman notes that since the lockout, 20 teams have made the playoffs despite not being in the picture as of November 1st. Of those 20 teams, only two were more than three points out of a spot.
The Canadiens are only one point back of the 8th-place Lightning, having played the same amount of games. If they're to be among the average 3.5 teams/season that make the playoffs despite being out of the picture on November 1st, they'll need to tread water until Markov's return.
And whether or not you question how effective he'll be, he deserves a chance to show that he resembles the player we remember.
*****
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