By now, you've certainly noticed the changes Michel Therrien made at practice yesterday. He had Tomas Plekanec skating with Max Pacioretty and Brendan Gallagher, shifting Alex Galchenyuk down to a line with Brandon Prust and P.A. Parenteau, pushing David Desharnais down to a line with Lars Eller and Dale Weise, while Jiri Sekac slotted into the fourth line next to Manny Malhotra and Michael Bournival. Christian Thomas rotated onto the fourth line for drills.
On the first unit of the powerplay, the Canadiens switched to an umbrella setup, with a point man on the middle of the blueline, a player on each half wall, and two players down low.
Unit one was constructed as follows:
Subban up top. Parenteau and Desharnais on the boards. Pacioretty and Gallagher down low. According to Arpon Basu of LNH.com, today, they're practicing with Subban on the wall and Parenteau as the lone player up top. (Arpon also noted that Mike Weaver's taking shifts with Tom Gilbert at even strength, with Alexei Emelin rotating in with Markov and Subban. Is Therrien trying to scare Emelin, or will he follow through on scratching him?)
Unit two is traditional:
Markov and Gonchar are up top. Plekanec on the wall. Galchenyuk in the slot. Eller down low.
Let's start at five-on-five, where the changes are rather drastic. At this point, Plekanec's played with everybody else, so why not try him out with Pacioretty, who he's proven to have significant chemistry with on the penalty kill? Both players are extremely responsible, both are offensively capable, and both are great at interrupting the opposing team in the neutral zone. Gallagher provides the dogged puck pursuit in the offensive zone. This has potential to be a very good trio.
Galchenyuk's got three assists and no goals in his last seven games. He's struggled a bit matching up with the opposing teams' best players, and that's all part of the learning curve for him at centre. Nothing wrong with taking him out of those matchups and sheltering him a little bit. That said, you have to wonder how he'll perform with Prust and Parenteau. He's familiar with both, having played with Prust over the two years preceding this one, and having played with Parenteau at the beginning of the year--generating successful results.
Desharnais' been very good on the wing, and moving down to the third line with Eller and Weise, in favorable matchups, could be a recipe for more secondary scoring.
So, here's the problem: Sekac on the fourth line.
Nobody likes it. The general consensus is that Therrien hasn't given Sekac the opportunity to capitalize on the strengths of his game. He's seen most of his ice-time next to Prust and Eller, and has barely gotten a sniff of the powerplay despite proving to be one of Montreal's best possession drivers. He's got the speed, the energy, the skill to be a powerplay producer, so Canadiens fans are justified to be annoyed by his role reducing. But, with no goals and just one assist in his last five games, with reduced ice-time in his last three, this move shouldn't come as a shock.
Sekac will play his way up the lineup. The Canadiens might get a spark out of these lines, and back-to-back games Wednesday and Thursday should be good barometers for what changes are en route.
As for the powerplay, will the Canadiens actually employ these strategies in the games? Last time they practiced this way, they didn't apply it right away, burning a couple of powerplay opportunities before they actually succeeded on one or two. And then it was right back to the old formations.
It's notable that the first unit is going to include four forwards. Subban playing the half-wall is as intriguing as leaving Parenteau as the lone defender is risky. For a coach that has never been willing to put a forward on the point of the powerplay, this sure is a huge departure. Kind of an all-or-nothing approach, no?
It's also notable that Eller is finally making his way onto a regular unit.
At this point, the Canadiens should continue to change the powerplay personnel and strategy until something generates a goal.
We'll see what everything looks like in Columbus on Wednesday...