Confidence is a wonderful thing. With it everything seems within reach. That the world is your oyster. Without it though the simplest of tasks can appear impossible. Montreal Canadiens head coach Claude Julien knows a thing or two about confidence with a Stanley Cup in his back pocket to go along with an Olympic and World Cup gold medal. When he arrived in Montreal back in mid February Julien received a fragile team, recently admitting that “when I got here the confidence was really low”. The Canadiens had lost their way and their identity as they struggled through January and early February under Michel Therrien. Even with Julien behind the bench the team faced a steep uphill climb if they had any hope of rescuing their season and avoiding another disastrous fall from grace.
From the moment that Julien arrived in town he let his players know that he believed in them. That they were a good team with a lot of potential and that he was going to help them get back to their winning ways. If he honestly did not believe that, if he did not believe that he was not the right man for the job or that the Canadiens have the talent and ability to contend, Julien would never have accepted the coaching position in Montreal. He would have been content to wait until the season’s end and see what other coaching vacancies opened up. However returning to Montreal and coaching the likes of Carey Price, Shea Weber, Max Pacioretty and Alex Galchenyuk was an opportunity that he was not going to pass up.
Miracles do not happen overnight. Instead, Julien was realistic in his approach with the Canadiens. Slowly but surely Julien observed and tweaked the lines. He changed the system but not dramatically, focusing on the little things that would help the club. Plays to leave the defensive zone. Using their speed through the neutral zone. Aggressively forechecking and going to the net. On the penalty kill constantly pursuing the puck rather than sitting back and waiting for the play to unfold. Eventually practice makes perfect and while no one would claim that the Canadiens are now perfect, they are infinitely better than they were just a month ago.
With the players improved play, their confidence also returned. It starts with Carey Price who has yet to give up more than two goals in a game since Julien went behind the bench. Coincidentally or not, since the bye week Price has a .949 save percentage, is 5-2, has allowed just ten goals in seven games and sports a goals against average of 1.41. He has that calm swagger back. That look that says that you are not going to beat me. Now that Price has elevated his game, his teammates are more confident knowing that he is once again making the saves look easy and that he has their back. The rest of the NHL is taking notice of Price once again for all of the right reasons as his hard work was rewarded with being named the NHL’s third star of the week.
The Canadiens can also start to feel good that their first line is finally getting some support on offense as the rest of the trios and secondary scoring have started to chip in. General manager Marc Bergevin received some criticism for not being able to acquire a top six scoring forward at the NHL trade deadline. However, he expressed confidence and belief in his current roster that they would step up and rediscover their touch. The players must have been listening. Andrew Shaw has three goals in his last seven games. Comparatively he had none in his previous ten games. Shea Weber has a goal and four points in his last four games. Paul Byron, Brendan Gallagher and Artturi Lehkonen have all broken their personal goal scoring droughts as the team’s newfound confidence is contagious. Everyone wants to be able to contribute. Everyone is giving that extra effort that was previously missing in January and February.
Perhaps most importantly, with confidence comes consistency. With each passing game, with each passing period, the Canadiens are playing much steadier. Gone are the extreme highs and lows that the team was previously experiencing, one good game followed by a bad one. Everyone is on the same page. It started with Julien, extended to Price and now the whole team has bought in.
Following Thursday’s 2-1 over the Nashville Predators, Brendan Gallagher revealed how things have changed with a new voice behind the bench:
"I think (Julien) is a big part of it. The message that he's given us behind the bench since he got here is that we're going to have to be able to win these types of games moving forward… We weren't playing great and we weren't playing poorly -- it was just a game where not much was happening -- but we came out in the third period and found a way to score two goals. Going forward, that gives our group a lot of confidence.”
Gallagher continued that sentiment after the Canadiens 4-1 win over the New York Rangers on Saturday night, elaborating on the change:
"We're just getting back to what we did earlier in the year, feeling confident in each other, line after line, getting on teams and sticking to our structure”
Bergevin’s new acquisitions have also helped to build the team’s confidence, perhaps none more so than defenseman Jordie Benn. He has impressed with his solid play as he does not do any one outstanding thing. He just makes all of the right little plays. It has only been three games but fans are already looking ahead to the Las Vegas expansion draft and wondering who Bergevin will protect on defense. That is a happy problem for Bergevin to have if all or at least most of his defensemen are playing well…
Size and grit also gives confidence and the Canadiens are no longer lacking in that area. The Canadiens fourth line is physically much tougher to play against, if they continue to bring it as they did against the Rangers on Saturday night. Michael McCarron had not been using his 6’6” frame effectively over the last few games whereas Andreas Martinsen was very involved in the game when he made his Canadiens debut.
Julien has now earned his players trust. The wins are there for them to see that if they follow his lead, results will follow.
The Canadiens start their Western Canada road trip with a game Tuesday night against the Vancouver Canucks. Alexander Radulov was not on the ice for practice as it appears that he is likely to miss a second consecutive game with a day to day lower body injury. Unsurprisingly it appears that Alexei Emelin may be on the outs for Tuesday's game as Brandon Davidson, the lone newcomer yet to appear in a game practiced in his place alongside Jeff Petry.
Emelin's play has been the weakest of all Canadiens defensemen throughout their winning streak. Interestingly though, it appears as though Julien prefers to keep Nathan Beaulieu with Benn rather than move one of them up to play with Petry. However, since that duo has been playing so well, perhaps they become more like a second pairing and Petry and Davidson will play slightly less against the Canucks. Against the Rangers, the Canadiens defensemens ice time was distributed quite evenly with everyone getting between 23-26 shifts in the game.
Tomas Plekanec took a maintenance day and so without him and Radulov, the Canadiens forward lines were:
If you have not already seen Bergevin avoiding the media at the annual general manager's meeting, take a look and drop a caption in the comments!
Cheers and follow along!
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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