A 12e place can be interpreted in different ways. If we were aiming for the first, it’s a bit embarrassing. But if we started from the 27ethat’s a huge improvement.
It is in this last situation that the Canadian finds himself shorthanded. With an 80% success rate, he is close to the top third in the NHL. This sentence will obviously never be part of the sports history books. However, in the life of the CH from 2022-2023, it is worthy of mention.
Across the league, over the past five seasons – excluding this one – 79.9% of penalties have passed without a goal being scored.
In the same interval, the Tricolore presented an efficiency rate of 77.3%. This deviation from the average, we will agree, does not make one shudder. So let’s put it another way: if he had increased his efficiency by 2.6 percentage points to 79.9%, the club would have conceded 30 fewer goals. It suddenly becomes awfully interesting.
Only compared to last season (75.5% in 2021-2022), the gain is enormous. “I think it was really a year to completely forget,” said David Savard on Monday after his team’s practice.
There have been many changes since then. In terms of personnel, the difference is clearly visible. Stéphane Robidas has taken over from Luke Richardson as head coach of this phase of play. Long-time contributors like Artturi Lehkonen, Ben Chiarot and Jeff Petry are gone. Sean Monahan, Kaiden Guhle, Mike Matheson and Johnathan Kovacevic took their place.
The “system” has also changed, again according to Savard. The distance between attackers and defenders has been tightened. Goalkeeper Samuel Montembeault evokes a “more compact” formation.
“We grant fewer passes through the enclave, notes Savard. These are hard games to stop, and when it starts, it puts the keeper in a difficult situation. So we made adjustments so that it happens less often. »
“We continue to adjust,” testifies Nick Suzuki, who is delighted with an improvement after a “difficult” start in this regard.
Montembeault agrees: “In the exhibition matches, it really didn’t work. But we worked a lot. »
There is that, but there is also the contribution of the goalkeepers, which is anything but to be neglected.
In each of the last five seasons, the number of goals conceded, short of a man, has exceeded the number of expected goals calculated by the specialized sites. Many goals should have been saves.
This season, the trend is reversed. The Natural Stat Trick site establishes that Montembeault and Jake Allen have already, alone, “saved” five goals.
The goaltender is often referred to as the most important player on the ice shorthanded. It is still true.
Success factors
Claimed on waivers at the very end of training camp, Johnathan Kovacevic obviously cannot compare the present situation with the past.
Three elements, intimately linked, are however obvious to him. First, communication and task sharing. “Everyone knows their role,” he explains. Now is not the time to do someone else’s job. The teams are so quick to exchange the puck, you don’t have time to think. When we focus individually on what we have to do, we create a unit of four and we are successful. »
According to him, this is made possible by the second aspect: clear instructions.
“It makes things much easier, continues number 26. It is precise, it is clear. If I know the system and trust it, I can play without thinking. »
Thus comes the third factor: the involvement of the coaches. That of Stéphane Robidas, of course, but also that of Martin St-Louis, “who gives of his own with observations here and there”.
“Both bring value to the penalty kill,” Kovacevic said. They have a lot of credibility when they speak, given their experience. They pass on their knowledge to us. »
“We coach a lot” the numerical disadvantage, confirms St-Louis. “We are starting to be much more detailed in our structure. When the camp started, we brought a way [de faire] different from last year, it takes a bit of time to build that. »
The head coach also speaks of work that is done in collegiality with the players. “You can’t come in and say: it’s the same way we do. We have to collaborate. »
No one knows if the team will be able to stay above the 80% respectability threshold until the end of the season, which would be a first since 2018-2019. For now, however, we have to admit that the recipe works.
In short
“Where is the suspension? »
Juraj Slafkovsky threw it with a smile, but he was half-serious. “Where is the suspension? asked the young striker on Monday morning in his team’s locker room. He was referring to the shoulder shot that Jason Dickinson of the Chicago Blackhawks delivered to the head in the third period last Friday. On the sequence, the Hawks player was not punished. Slafkovsky submitted to concussion protocol and did not play again in this meeting. He claims, however, to be fully recovered from this contact and to have felt no symptoms of concussion. “It’s fine,” he insisted. His remark about the suspension is obviously an echo of the blame he himself received for punching Matt Luff from behind a few weeks ago. He was then suspended for two games.
Drouin and Hoffman skate
Not much is known about the injuries afflicting Jonathan Drouin (upper body) and Mike Hoffman (lower body), but the two skated ahead of their team’s practice Monday morning. Drouin was injured on Nov. 5, and a recovery schedule of four to six weeks has been set. It is not clear, however, whether the calculation should be made from the date of the injury or that of its confirmation – November 15. We can nevertheless expect a return during the month of December. As for Hoffman, he is simply subject to “daily reassessment.” His name has not yet been officially placed on the injured list.
Allen vs. Sharks
The San Jose Sharks will be in town on Tuesday night, and it’s goaltender Jake Allen who will defend the Habs net for the occasion. Samuel Montembeault was given the start during the last two meetings, which resulted in as many victories. However, don’t look for controversy: Martin St-Louis reiterated Monday that Allen remained the team’s number 1. The veteran has won three of his last five starts but has posted an .878 save percentage and 4.13 goals-against average in the interval.