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Habs Worst is Still .500 Hockey... |
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The Canadiens capped a tumultuous six-game road trip with a big 6-4 win against the Dallas Stars in what proved to be an old-fashioned barnburner. The win, secured by Lars Eller's brilliant third period goal and Max Pacioretty's insurance gave the Canadiens a 3-2-1 record, despite allowing an average of 3.66 goals against over the trip.
I think it's pretty safe to assume whatever gameplan Michel Therrien drew up for these six was either thrown to the wind or to the wolves, as the Canadiens failed to execute with the kind of confidence you'd expect from a team that's now 24-14-4 on the season (five points up on the Maple Leafs, who have played as many games; six points up on Detroit, who have also appeared in 42 contests).
A game past the halfway mark of the season, and Montreal sits in third place in the division, four points back of the Bruins, who hold a game in hand, and even with the Lightning, which holds two games in hand. Considering the inconsistency in their play of late, that's pretty good.
After raking in 19 of 20 available points between November 19th and December 7th, the team's gone 5-5-1. The phone lines to talk radio are ringing with negativity, but the team isn't giving anyone the justification to write them off.
Scoring slumps for several players have been predominant. Nausea would be an appropriate reaction to a stat flying across RDS' screens last night, indicating Rene Bourque's contribution to the team on the road this season is zero. Nausea would be an appropriate reaction to any scoring chance (subjective) involving Brian Gionta. And you'd be really nauseous watching the team blow leads like they have in three of the last five games. But the sky isn't falling, and neither are the Canadiens in the standings.
And so, the team's identity is questionable. Are they as good as their best stretch of hockey this season? It'd be bending the truth beyond its breaking point to suggest they are. But if their worst is a 5-5-1 stretch of mostly bad hockey, or the 10-9-2 they went with injuries to Alexei Emelin, Max Pacioretty, Brandon Prust, Daniel Briere, Douglas Murray and George Parros, they can't possibly be as bad as some would have you believe.
No one accused the Canadiens of being on the level with St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Jose, Anaheim and Chicago, and as far as their conference is concerned, I can't remember anyone predicting they'd be ahead of Pittsburgh or Boston. No one would label them a Stanley Cup contender, and the outrage regarding their average play of late should be balanced with the benefit of the doubt.
Here they are, and in a regular season that goes 82 games, the Canadiens have barely less than half a season remaining to show their closer to the team that rattled off that impressive winning streak than they are to the one that sputtered through their last 11 games, despite a healthy roster.
In order to do that, they need to tighten up defensively. As the team with the third-best defensive numbers in the league; a team with outstanding goaltending, that shouldn't be too difficult to do.
As for generating offense, most of that will depend on two factors:
1) Renovating the powerplay, which currently sits at 7th in the league thanks to a stellar stretch before these last 11 games.
2) Getting a bit more from players you expect to get it from--Eller, Galchenyuk and Gallagher--and making a trade to supplant the scoring you know you aren't going to get from Gionta, Briere and Bourque.
Number one on the list will be easier to come by, and half of number two is a bit harder, with the latter half of number two being more of a dream than it is a reality-- until further notice.
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1) It's not hard to figure out why Max Pacioretty made the US Olympic team ahead of some of the guys that were left off.
He doesn't just score in bunches, in the sense that once he gets hot, he stays hot. He scores in bunches in each game he scores in.
Pacioretty has appeared in 33 games this year, and he's scored in 12 of them. He's scored 19 goals in those 12 games. He has as many multi-goal games as he does single-goal games (6).
Pacioretty scores big goals. He's got five game-winning goals out of the 19 he's scored, and he's added a few insurance markers too.
We call that game-breaking ability.
He's got game-breaking speed too.
He hasn't racked up the assists the way he has over the last couple of years, but we know he can distribute the puck too, when he wants to.
This year, we've seen him kill penalties, and he's been great at it.
He doesn't make his living pounding bodies on the forecheck with that 6"2, 215-lb frame, but that doesn't mean he's not an intimidating player to play against. Not to say he's shy to throw around his weight.
In year one of a deal that pays him $4.5M per year over the next six, Pacioretty is easily one of the best value players in the league.
Trade him?
Short of the moon and the stars, there's nary a deal worth Bergevin's consideration on the market. So can we put this whole thing to bed, already?
2) Obviously, that was an exceptional performance for P.K. Subban, yesterday. Playing with Francis Bouillon for most of the game, Subban was in on four of the six goals the Canadiens scored, and his talent made the difference on all four of them.
The two passes to Pacioretty were just ridiculous. The play on Desharnais' goal and the goal he scored show the kind of magic he's deprived himself of to insure he wasn't taking too much risk in tight game situations.
Subban's influence, over just 23:52, was enormous.
When Subban got to the NHL, the common thought was "don't change him, just let him be". He's not spent a moment here without people trying to change everything about him. He has done, literally, everything that's been asked of him, and so much more.
Marc Bergevin--obsessed with character--can't possibly overpay for what Subban offers in that department. Subban's work ethic, his composure under unbearable scrutiny, his energy and passion bursting with every skating stride, his talent, his clutch-ness is worth every penny Bergevin will spend on him; worth SO MUCH MORE than what he's already spent on him.
There will be no extension before the Olympics. Don Meehan is settled in, and has virtually no incentive to have his client sign any offer worth less than what his client is worth. And only a fool would play hardball with Meehan over this one. Bergevin better tread carefully, because anything less than a deal that secures Subban's place as a long-time Canadien would be an abject failure on his behalf.
3) Alright, let's go backwards.
The Briere signing was lamented for several, justifiable reasons. That's not to say he can't contribute to the team at one point or another, and I wouldn't put it past him, though that's obviously the harder argument to make at this point.
But it looks worse under the microscope when you know other moves, or no moves at all could've been made that would help the team better take advantage of the situation they're in.
Right now, Subban makes $3.75M as the team's superstar.
He'll never be cheaper, and given the way the East looks, the time is ripe for Bergevin to go for it.
The long-term plan is in place, but the long-term plan is going to include massive dollar signs next to Subban's name, regardless of how much the cap is going up by over the next few years.
The team's prospect pool is deep, and its draft standing is almost irrelevant with Trevor Timmins and Rick Dudley taking care of that end.
As we approach the deadline, we're going to hear a lot about how Bergevin should stay the course, and not mortgage the future.
You have to give up something good to get something good, though, and the Canadiens have things to give.
The sooner the better.
4) I'm not sure Bergevin's minded the Pacioretty trade rumors. Sure deflects attention away from people he might actually be trying to package for something that helps this team, as opposed to trading Pacioretty, which automatically makes them worse.
For instance, and I'm not starting any rumors, note that you may have once thought David Desharnais was un-tradeable.
Not that he'd be the lynchpin to a big deal, but Desharnais has 19 points in his last 21 games. If the Canadiens didn't have five players his size, you'd have an easier time understanding his value on the marketplace, as a player making $3.5M over the next three seasons after this one. Desharnais' got better value than many players making the same salary across the league--words I didn't think I'd be uttering at this point of the season.
This is a player that Bergevin has to be offering up right now.
5) I'm pretty sure I know what Brendan Gallagher asked for, for Christmas.
Nice to see him in the goal column...
Ditto for Lars Eller, who scored in his second straight game.
Bonus:
Doesn't matter if it's 6-4 or 2-1, Carey Price gives this team a chance to win every game they play.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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