Let’s start with what’s going well for Joel Armia this season.
Posted at 6:31 p.m.
When the winger is on the ice at five against five, the Canadiens allow fewer goals than last year at five against five. He was already looking good with just 1.95 goals allowed per 60 minutes; he does even better in 2021-2022 with 1.54 goals, by far the best performance among the club’s main attackers.
It’s a feat when you know that the Habs, collectively, are in the bottom third of the league in this regard. His differential of -3, therefore, is the best skater who has played at least half of the team’s games.
End.
When ex-general manager Marc Bergevin handed Armia a four-year, $13.6 million deal last summer, it probably wasn’t with five-a-side goals-against statistic in mind. against five.
Without being an elite forward, the burly Finn made his mark through his defensive responsibility, of course, but also through his ability to use his size to recover and protect the puck. Without being his main asset, his scoring qualities can sometimes be surprising. In the playoffs, he completed, with Corey Perry and Eric Staal, a fourth line that often gave his opponents a hard time.
What happened, then, that Joel Armia now finds himself with just one goal in 31 games? And this, while the many absences to fill on the offensive lines gave him all kinds of opportunities to assert himself, including on the power play?
Asked about his offensive drought which does not seem to want to end, he marked a long pause before providing the most honest answer possible: “I don’t know. If I knew that, I’d probably fix it right away. »
No matter how hard we search the statistics, we can’t find it either. He is shooting at the same rate as last season, which is nevertheless lower than the two previous campaigns; in fact, during his first two years in Montreal, he progressed at the rate of a scorer of 20 goals.
His team’s number of quality scoring chances when he’s on the ice 5-on-5 has been steady for four years. So the problem is not there.
We can therefore look on the side of bad luck. Or lack of confidence.
“When you’re confident, you score goals and the points and wins add up, everything is easy,” he said.
However, this season is the one, since the beginning of his career, that he finds the most difficult “mentally and physically”. He himself had to miss five games due to injury. And we know the situation of the club in the standings.
“I really hope to reverse the trend in the next games. »
Not a lack of will
Two recent painful performances by Armia, in Boston and then in Chicago, generated their share of questions addressed to head coach Dominique Ducharme.
The latter, on Sunday, reiterated that his player had to use “his strengths” and that the accumulation of “small actions” would translate into scoring chances. “The more chances you have, the more goals or points you will get,” he added.
Ducharme does not hide it: “We know that he can bring more. It should be more constant. »
He, however, refused to question the number 40’s desire to surpass himself. From the outside, Armia can seem cold, detached. Still in a press briefing on Sunday, he sent the seven questions that were asked of him without really providing any interesting thoughts.
“It’s not a lack of willpower, assured his coach. He’s a proud guy. He wants to give more. But it is certain that he is looking for himself. »
Based on the combinations put together in training over the weekend, it looks like Armia will be patrolling the right flank of the third line, along with Artturi Lehkonen and Jake Evans. Two players he knows well and with whom he has had some success this season. It was on this line that he scored his only goal, on November 14 in Boston. And when the three have been evenly matched, since the start of the calendar, they have had more quality shot attempts, goals and chances than the opponent, according to the NaturalStatTrick site.
“We always play good hockey together,” Armia said.
“I want to focus on the rest of the season,” he concluded.
And, he says it himself: to “forget” his first 31 games.
In short: news from the infirmary
Dominique Ducharme provided updates on the situation of three injured team players. Here is a summary.
- Jake Allen: Injured in the “lower body” last Wednesday in Boston, Jake Allen had to be absent “at least a week”. However, Ducharme indicated Sunday that his goalkeeper, who returned to Montreal, would probably not join the Canadiens during his long trip which will end in Minnesota on Monday, January 24. With the next game scheduled for the 27th at home, Allen would therefore miss at least two weeks of action.
- Paul Byron: The poor guy caught COVID-19 over the holidays as he was about to return to the game after a long rehabilitation following hip surgery. Sunday, in Brossard, he skated for the fourth time since his return to his feet. He is still scheduled to join his team on the road “this week”, although he has yet to get the all-clear from doctors.
- Joel Edmundson: The defender was already nursing a back injury, which had regressed in the fall, when he too contracted COVID-19 over Christmas. Also, it was revealed last week that his father passed away after a long battle with cancer, so Edmundson spent time with his family to grieve. Considering all these circumstances, “he almost has to start his conditioning from scratch,” said Dominique Ducharme. No potential return to play date is currently being considered.