It is official, the Montreal Canadiens have been mathematically eliminated from the 2015-2016 NHL playoffs. The inevitable happened Saturday night when the Canadiens lost 5-2 to the New York Rangers at the Bell Centre in yet another uninspired effort. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending how you look at it, family commitments prevented me from viewing the past couple of Canadiens games this past holiday weekend. While I cannot recap or comment on the games played Thursday and Saturday first hand, it appears that I did not miss much. The narrative has not changed. The Canadiens, decimated by injuries are having trouble scoring, their goaltending tandem of Mike Condon and Ben Scrivens put up valiant efforts but are inconsistent and head coach Michel Therrien continues with baffling decisions especially regarding player’s time on ice allotment.
David Desharnais’ return to the lineup did not displace Alex Galchenyuk on the team’s top line. That is the good news. The bad news is that Therrien fell into his old habits of trusting Desharnais more and playing him more than Galchenyuk. It does not matter if Galchenyuk was apparently having a difficult night against the Rangers. These are learning experiences for the young centerman and there is only one way to learn from mistakes, by playing through it. In only his second game back from injury, Desharnais played 18:12 minutes against the Rangers compared to the 15:19 minutes that Galchenyuk played. The Canadiens were being steamrolled in the game, does Desharnais really need those minutes? Unless this is part of showcasing Desharnais as Summer trade bait, the playing time makes zero sense.
Besides taking away time from Galchenyuk, Desharnais is also taking away time from the development of former 1st round pick Michael McCarron. Unless that is the Canadiens are planning on developing McCarron as a 4th line center. Then by all means he should be centering the fourth line with Mike Brown and Stefan Matteau and playing 11 minutes a game including less than 2 minutes seen on the powerplay (on a night that the Canadiens were 0-6 with the man advantage). The Canadiens brought McCarron up as a reward for his strong rookie campaign in the AHL and to prepare him for next season. At the moment, there are too many bottom 6 players on the Canadiens. I don’t mind that they tried McCarron on the right wing against the Detroit Red Wings last Thursday. However, if they were going to play him at RW instead of C, would he not be a better option than Paul Byron and Torrie Mitchell on the top two lines at RW? Byron and Mitchell are excellent 4th line players and penalty kill specialists. McCarron has to be a better option there, especially considering that he could create space for Galchenyuk and Pacioretty as well as take draws on his strong side. Instead, even with Sven Andrighetto back in the lineup against the Byron continued to stay on the top line.
Desharnais also suffers from the misusage as he is at his best on the 3rd line, be it as center or left wing. With sheltered minutes away from the oppositions best lines, Desharnais has found success and an ability to contribute. Desharnais is an everyday NHL player, I am not disputing that. He was worked incredibly hard to get to where he is and by all accounts is a terrific person and teammate. However, Therrien is not doing him any favours by overplaying him. It is not fair to Desharnais and it is not fair to his teammates.
With the Canadiens eliminated from the playoffs, the city of Montreal has lost a little jump in its step. Springtime and playoff hockey go hand in hand in Montreal and not only will Geoff Molson be losing out without the additional revenue that playoff hockey brings in, the entire city will suffer somewhat financially as merchants around the Bell Centre and downtown will miss out on their additional revenue as well. The only bright news is that each loss brings the Canadiens closer to a top draft pick. The higher the pick, the Canadiens get a better chance at drafting a player with immediate impact.
Perhaps the best case scenario over the remaining six games is similar to the result of last Thursday’s game against the Red Wings. The Canadiens lost 4-3 but showed some heart and resiliency by just coming up short of a comeback. Some might call that a win-win situation without even picking up the two points.
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