Habs Weekly: Bad Time For a Break

The Habs started off the week on a high note, continuing their strong play from previous games.  However, the team then had a four-day break and came out of it with one of their worst outings of the season to end the week.

The Week That Was

Nov. 19: Canadiens 3, Oilers 0 – You’d have been forgiven if you didn’t have high hopes heading into this one.  Edmonton has turned things around after another tough start to their season while Montreal, though improving, still is well in their rebuild.  But full credit to Montreal who came out with one of their best defensive efforts of the season, keeping the Oilers at bay.  Meanwhile, Brendan Gallagher got a last-minute goal in the second to open the scoring while Kaiden Guhle’s second of the season gave them some much-needed breathing room to secure the win.

Nov. 23: Golden Knights 6, Canadiens 2 – To be fair, the Habs played relatively well (but boring) in the first and were better in the third when the game was out of reach.  But the second period?  Yikes.  Offensive zone turnovers were an issue while a lack of hustle in defensive coverage along with lapses in those coverages was even more problematic.  The end result was five goals on Samuel Montembeault in the middle stanza while Montreal managed just one shot on goal.  That says it all right there.

StatPack

Skaters:

Goalies:

Team Leaders:

Goals: Cole Caufield (12)
Assists: Matheson/Suzuki (12)
Points: Nick Suzuki (19)
+/-: Kaiden Guhle (E)
PIMS: Mike Matheson (27)
Shots: Cole Caufield (47)

News And Notes

– Kirby Dach hasn’t scored a goal in 12 straight games.  His longest goalless drought with Montreal is 14 games while the longest of his career was 17, a mark he reached twice in the 2021-22 season, his last with Chicago before being moved to Montreal.

– While Lane Hutson is still looking for his first professional goal, he has 11 assists on the season, tied with Logan Stankoven (Dallas) for the league lead among rookies.

– Michael Pezzetta has now been a healthy scratch for 11 consecutive games.  This feels like a good spot to note that the Habs could ask him to accept a conditioning assignment in Laval that would last up to two weeks but Pezzetta ultimately would have the final say on accepting or declining that request.

– Patrik Laine took part in some light drills at practice this week, though in a non-contact jersey.  Still, it’s a sign that he’s getting closer to returning to the lineup.

Last Game’s Lines:

Slafkovsky – Suzuki – Dach
Caufield – Evans – Newhook
Anderson – Dvorak – Gallagher
Heineman – Condotta – Armia

Guhle – Matheson
Hutson – Savard
Xhekaj – Struble

The Week Ahead

Tuesday vs Utah – The former Coyotes bolstered their lineup over the offseason, particularly on the back end with Mikhail Sergachev, John Marino, and Ian Cole.  However, Marino hasn’t played due to injury while Sean Durzi is out long-term as well.  Sophomore centre Logan Cooley has 14 points so far, three more than Juraj Slafkovsky if you’re inclined to compare.  The Hockey Club is also without starting goaltender Connor Ingram due to a short-term injury.

Wednesday at Columbus – Montreal had a strong game against the Blue Jackets earlier this month but Columbus has reeled off three straight wins since then against Boston, Carolina, and Tampa, three pretty good teams.  They recently welcomed Kent Johnson back while Dante Fabbro has been a nice add to their back end as he has four points in six games while logging over 21 minutes a night of playing time.

Saturday at NY Rangers – New York hasn’t been quite as strong as expected in the early going this season but they remain one of the stingiest teams in the league with their goalie tandem combining for a .922 save percentage.  (By comparison, Montreal’s is .881.)  Alexis Lafreniere is showing that his step forward last year wasn’t a blip while Artemi Panarin is once again one of the top NHL point-getters through the first quarter of the season.

Sunday at Boston – Technically, we’re leaning into the next week but the next Weekly column will come after this game.  The Bruins have underachieved in all facets of the game this season, resulting in Jim Montgomery being replaced as head coach by Joe Sacco (though Montgomery wasn’t out of work for long with him taking over in St. Louis).  Jeremy Swayman has a save percentage of just .887 in the early going while the team ranks just 23rd in goals scored with their top players all underachieving early on.

Final Thought

To say that everyone was expecting more from Juraj Slafkovsky early on this season would be an understatement.  While his big contract doesn’t kick in until 2025-26, it was fair to hope that he’d at least be able to maintain his level of performance in the second half of last season, if not build on it.  That simply hasn’t happened.

It’d be one thing if Slafkovsky was dealing with a bit of bad puck luck.  But that’s not it at all.  When he’s shooting the puck, it’s not exactly near the net; he has only hit the net with 38.6% of his attempts so far.  For a power forward who is supposed to be shooting from close quarters around the net, that should be a fair bit higher.  By comparison, Nick Suzuki – his frequent linemate until recently – is at 58.4% of his attempts hitting the net.  It’s hard to score when that many of your attempts aren’t on target.

But even more concerning is how he has looked disengaged in recent weeks.  While it’s important to remember he’s still only 20, he seems to be someone who is a bit of a ‘front runner’.  In other words, he does well when things are going well.  But when he slumps and the team struggles, his effectiveness plummets.  That’s not entirely uncommon for young players but they’re making him a focal point of the attack so that can’t happen.  Slumps will come and go but when one of your top players is looking disinterested on the ice that often, that’s a problem. 

If benching him for stints isn’t doing the trick, they might have to try the healthy scratch route.  It’ll make headlines, no doubt, but something has to give sooner than later; they can’t just wait and hope he turns things around on his own.  This could very well be just a blip in the grand scheme of things but this is something that better not be a habit long-term.