Review of the Canadiens quarter-season | Mitigating circumstances … and mistakes

Rarely has there been such a brutal fall in the history of the National Hockey League. Just months after reaching the Stanley Cup final, the Canadian finds himself at 29^e rank of the general classification for the rate of victories in the quarter of the following season, and the last rank watches it dangerously.

Mathias Brunet
Press

There are overwhelming factors that must be taken into account in analyzing this distressing quarter-season, but also a significant part attributable to the organization.

Let’s start with the extenuating circumstances, in order to push back our irritation for a few minutes.

Overwhelming factors

Marc Bergevin was right to recall during his media tour that a leading goalkeeper and a strong and tight defense were the pillars of his club during the astonishing breakthrough in the playoffs.

However, the team is cut off from three important elements at the start of the season: Carey Price, Joel Edmundson and Shea Weber, undoubtedly lost for eternity. Price and Edmundson may be back before the holidays, but it will be too late.

The CEO of the Canadian also spoke of a summer that was too short. And he’s right. The St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup on June 12, 2019. The final game of the final between the Canadiens and the Lightning was on July 7.

Training camp opened on September 23. It’s too little time to heal wounds and then undergo rigorous summer training, essential in today’s hockey environment.

The Lightning went through the same thing, you might say. And that does not prevent them from heating the Panthers and the Maple Leafs at the top of the Atlantic section.

Tampa is a very special beast. Much better stocked with talented players. More homogeneous. Now accustomed to reacting in such a situation, after two consecutive cuts. And more spared in terms of injuries; apart from Nikita Kucherov, the Lightning has not suffered any significant injury (Brayden Point has also just fallen in battle, but this weekend).

The loss of Danault

Accountability now. We underestimated the essential contribution of Phillip Danault. His loss in the center hurts.

At the same time, we overestimated the contribution of Christian Dvorak. He was said to be very reliable defensively. His game in the defensive zone makes us still regret Danault.

The poor man seems completely down on offense: three goals, eight points, in 20 games. We are a long way from Phillip Danault’s 53 points in 2019, at the center of one of the best offensive lines in the league in numerical equality.

But Dvorak wouldn’t be the only player to take several months to adjust to a new team. He is only 25 years old. He has time to regain his splendor.

Jake Evans must have been one of Danault’s dolphins.

Lack of chemistry

In addition, the Canadian had seven new players in his roster due to injuries and departures, eight if we add Jonathan Drouin, absent for ages. That’s more than a third of the team.

But instead of trying to quickly find a chemistry during the preparatory meetings, we multiplied the changes, of trios as of duos, in order to evaluate certain players.

Cohesion has not been there since the start of the season. The lack of stability of the suits surely didn’t help.

We have also often spoken of the difficulty for players to adapt to Dominique Ducharme’s system of play. The players seem to be thinking a bit too much on the ice instead of reacting. After 20 games, they should have assimilated the concepts. Is the system too rigid? Does it leave room for a certain creativity, for the manifestation of the athlete’s instincts? With a 5-13-2 record, all questions are worth asking.

The players are also to blame

And finally, you have to put the blame on the players, obviously. Jeff Petry appears to be suffocating in a role of number one defender. Not only is he not producing offensively, Chris Wideman even replaced him in the first wave in power play, but he’s at risk defensively.

Petry produced at a rate of almost 60 points last year, after three consecutive seasons of over 40 points. He has two assists on his record this year. Wideman, Ben Chiarot, Brett Kulak and David Savard have more points than him. Sami Niku has the same and has played 15 games less. Not normal…

Jake Allen doesn’t come up with catastrophic stats, but he gave up a lot of bad goals at inappropriate times. Yet we thought we had one of the best auxiliaries in the NHL before our eyes.

Despite all his courage, Brendan Gallagher has four goals and nine points in 19 games. Ditto for Josh Anderson in 20 games. Artturi Lehkonen and Joel Armia have two fewer goals than Ryan Poehling, who is 14 fewer games.

In short, the ship is sinking everywhere.

The Ovechkin phenomenon

He is 36 years old; he has just experienced one of his worst offensive seasons in his career (all the same respectable with 24 goals and 42 points in 45 games); team number one center Nicklas Backstrom injured; the other, Evgeni Kuznetsov, appeared to be approaching a return to the KHL. And now Alexander Ovechkin has the best start of his career with 15 goals and 30 points in just 19 games. And he is back in the race for the record goals of Wayne Gretzky, which we thought was unattainable. The CH will have their hands full on Thursday evening …