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Faceoffs Factor into Lineup Decisions |
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Tomas Plekanec was the 24th best faceoff-taking centre in the league last season, at 50% efficiency. Pretty impressive for Plekanec, considering he took the third most faceoffs in the league last year. Gomez hit the list at #60, 48% efficiency.
Jeff Halpern won 56% of the 546 faceoffs he took last season, while David Desharnais won 49.7% of the 445 draws he took, and Lars Eller won 42.4% of the 431 draws he took.
Considering Desharnais took more draws in 34 less games than Eller, it stands to reason he'd be a better fit at centre than Eller would at this stage of their careers.
That said, Eller was clearly more comfortable at centre, and Desharnais was clearly more versatile in his ability to play the wing.
The problem with Desharnais at wing is that he doesn't boast the size, speed or physicality to inflict damage, or draw a lot of penalties. In fact, playing the wing in the playoffs got him hurt.
As I delved into the discussion about the lineup the other day, it seems line assembly will be a very tough task for Jacques Martin.
A couple of notes...
- People tend to get bogged down in which wing a player prefers, when coming up with or tearing down line combos. Cole prefers right wing, as does Gionta, as does Kostitsyn... I'm aware.
As if they forgot that Jeff Halpern played the wing for a strong portion of last season, that Eller did as well, as did Desharnais. That Spacek prefers the left side by played the right for his first season with the Canadiens.
Coaches will do anything to find chemistry, even if it means placing a winger off his preferred side.
Not to say that players don't generally play the position they're most comfortable in, but over a season there will be several different line combinations.
-People are making way too much over some translated comments from Andrei Kostitsyn to a Belarussian newspaper. Apparently, Kostitsyn claims his relationship with coach Jacques Martin is not great. Shocker...
PS. His comments don't increase the likelihood of him being traded out of town before the start of the season.
-Fun day of golf with La Presse's/RDS's/Radio-Canada's/TheTeam990's (is there anyone the guy doesn't work for) Francois Gagnon. He won't mind me mentioning that in our brief discussion about the Canadiens (we mostly spoke about the PGA, and Tiger's awesome first-round 3-under to +7) he intimated that he believes they'll be a good team, and like you all, knows it all comes down to Price.
-On that note, and I've already written about this, this summer, this is a career-defining season for Price. If he's as good as he was last year, if he has that consistency, it will define him as one of the best goaltenders in the league. Winning, and winning soon, will be the difference between "He's the next Roberto Luongo" and "He's the next Martin Brodeur".
Not living up to the incredibly high standard he set last season will bring about more questions, and ultimately play a hand in Pierre Gauthier's ability to bargain him down from what should certainly be a lucrative contract extension.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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