Puck Drops on Canadiens Season, Predictions (Weber)

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Puck Drops on Canadiens Season, Predictions

By Brandon Smillie

Oct 5, 2017 • 1:22 pm

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After a long, and eventful, off season Carey Price and his squad roll into Buffalo tonight to kick start the NHL season against Jack Eichel and the Sabres. The game will start at 7pm EST and will be broadcast on TSN2 and RDS.

The Canadiens will be icing one of their most balanced, offensive line ups in recent history. Each line possesses high end scoring ability and good defensive ability. For all the concern all summer and camp about scoring I feel fairly confident this team will score more than last seasons 226 goals.

Lines at practice were: Pacioretty - Drouin - Gallagher Hudon - Plekanec - Lehkonen Galchenyuk - Danault - Shaw Byron - De La Rose - Hemsky

Mete - Weber Alzner - Petry Benn - Streit Morrow - Davidson

Price Montoya

Injured defence man David Schlemko was also doing some puck drills this morning so his hand may be close to healed as well. It would be hard to imagine Schlemko replacing Mete once healthy. Schlemko will likely replace Streit on the 3rd pair and Benn would shift over to the right side. Only way Schlemko replaces Mete will be if Mete struggles greatly against top opposition and even then I feel that Mete would be back next to Weber when the opposing team isn’t an elite club.

The first line is exceptional. I don’t even feel the need to write about it. But I will. Drouin has shown no issues at C this preseason and his elite level skill on the PP point and half wall fill the biggest hole Markov left. Chemistry with Pacioretty is already evident, but let’s be honest here. Drouin would have chemistry with anyone as long as they could keep up and listen to his direction. Gallagher's health will always be a concern due to his style of play and injury history, but should he remain healthy for 70+ games then I wouldn’t be shocked to see him hit the 20 G 25 A mark this year, maybe more. No issues here.

Every time I see the lines at practice posted by one of the many media members at the Canadiens practices they always list Plekanec’s line at 2nd on the depth chart. Am I the only one that doesn’t believe that’s the true 2nd line? Danault played admirably in the first line role last season and now he’s a 3rd liner with Galchenyuk? No, they are not the 3rd line. They may be the “3rd… line, but they are the 2nd line. The final two games of the preseason showed the potential of that line. Julien is making the right call insulating Galchenyuk with two of the Canadiens best two way players and the offensively ability of Chucky will benefit Danault and Shaw as well.

Plekanec gets the two kids to work with in Lehkonen and Hudon and I’m sure the job will be to teach them two way hockey while also using the speed of the kids to create offence and put pressure on teams with lesser depth. I say that, fully realizing I’m talking about a line with a rookie and second year player, but I’m satisfied with what I’ve seen from Lehkonen to believe he will be a reliable two way player. Hudon could struggle, but most rookies do. However, this rookie isn’t 18 or 19. He’s 23 years old, has worked hard in the AHL, and is coming into the season motivated. A 3rd line like this one should produce more offence than your typical 3rd line.

Then we come to the 8 minute a night, grinding fourth line right?

Oh no.

With De La Rose centering Byron and Hemsky the offence could be limited because DLR doesn’t have a high offensive ceiling. That would be missing the point of the line though. Byron is a burner who has developed the ability to finish in Montreal. This line simply needs to shut down secondary scoring units and catch slow defensemen by springing Byron along the walls. Byron will create his own offence through speed at even strength and on the PK. If Hemsky can remain healthy (big IF, I know) then the fourth line will also have much more depth than the average NHL team. DLR may get secondary points by default and while he only produced 31 points in 62 AHL games last season, it wouldn’t be far fetched to see him put up 15-20 points in this role because of Byron and Hemsky.

All in all, I don’t think there’s too much to be concerned about. They definitely could use another top quality 2nd C, but that’s only if Danault doesn’t grow into a consistent 50 point player, which I think he can. The only need I could see being addressed at this time is on defence. If Mete can’t handle the NHL at full speed the Canadiens will struggle to produce points from the back end. I don’t think there will be a major challenge defensively regardless, but injuries could force Bergevin’s hand in finding help very quickly.

Predictions….

OK, aside from my previously written summer projections (see my Archives section) I really didn’t want to do an article like a Friends title: The One With Predictions. But, in the spirit of hockey Christmas Day I will just talk about how I see the Atlantic shaking out.

Atlantic Division Predictions:

1. Tampa Bay Lightning. The TBL have all the offence you could want despite dealing away Jonathan Drouin so scoring would only be an issue if injuries crept up on them… again. But, no team can have that kind of bad luck for 3 seasons right? They could also falter due to defense and goaltending being a bit lean, but the scoring can bail them out. If Vasilevskiy struggles as a starter then Budaj can step in and provide quality stops.

2. Montreal Canadiens. Montreal has forward depth, addressed the first line C issue of the past 2 decades, one of the best D in the game, and one of the best Goaltenders in the world. Injuries are a concern for any team and if they happen on the blue line then Montreal will have to adjust but there is a lot of high end talent, and coaching, that should make them a front runner for a top 3 finish.

3. Toronto Maple Leafs. The Maple Leafs are going to score, lots. They have a excellent coach who finds any opportunity to swing the games in his favour. The Leafs defence is very suspect though. As much flak as MTL has caught for having a rookie on the first pair, I can’t envision Ron Hainsey providing much better than 3rd pair quality play. Yikes. Their goaltender is also a bit bipolar with some nights being lights out and other nights costing them games. Their progression will be interesting to watch.

4. Florida Panthers. The Panthers have excellent offensive and defensive depth but some question marks in goal. The aging Luongo isn’t getting any quicker and James Reimer has consistently let his teams down. Add to that their most impactful forwards are consistently injured and they could end up further down the list. They are a wild card team in every sense but if they get healthy they should compete for playoffs, just not at the top of the division.

5. Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres should be making a turn this season under new coach, and Cup Champion, Phil Housley. The top 6 F group is good and Eichel is a top 10 NHL talent. Their fourth line is the typical energy/grind line so they must be prepared to roll 3 lines for big minutes. They improved their terrible defence with the additions of Scandella, Beaulieu, and Antpin. If Lehner can stay healthy again and provide good goaltending they may be a part of the wild card race. With Nylander and Mittelstadt coming in the near future they will be scary good.

6. Ottawa Senators. The early loss of Karlsson and Methot should be felt immediately as the Sens D looks atrocious right now. Sending down Chabot made sense (he was lost), but considering they will be playing with Claesson, Phaneuf, Oduya, Ceci, Borowiecki, and Wideman could it have made more sense to break him into the bottom pair with some PP time? The Sens can score with their top 6 F’s but any extended time without Karlsson could be devastating in this surely competitive division.

7. Boston Bruins. The Bruins have incredible talent in Bergeron, Marchand, Pastrnak, Rask, and Krejci. That’s where it ends though. Their #1 D is the soon to be 41 Z Chara and if people were concerned about Montreal using Mete in a top role then they should look at Boston’s D that includes the minimally experience in each of its pairs with Carlo, McAvoy (who struggled in preseason), and Grzelcyk. The Bruins will still be a pain in the ass, but they won’t be playing in the spring.

8. Detroit Red Wings. The Wings are finally embarking on the path of the rebuild, only 2 years too late. Regardless, it’s where they are now and the future isn’t completely bleak with players like Larkin, Mantha, Athanasiou, Rasmussen, and Cholowski but the silver lining hasn’t appeared yet. Their defence and defensive prospects are ugly and so is their goaltending. Couple that with terrible cap circumventing deals that will soon be biting into their cap and Detroit may see an extended absence from playoff action after nearly 3 decades of participation. They are (should be?) All In For Dahlen.

Drop the puck.

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