Flashback to the eastern conference division finals of the 2014 NHL playoffs. The NHL’s best team in the regular season the Boston Bruins were matched up with the Montreal Canadiens. One of the greatest sports rivalries ever where almost every time they hit the ice you can see the hate flowing. The Bruins were the clear favorites for this series, As the best team in the league in a weaker eastern conference, this was viewed as a stepping stone for what was to come.
The Canadiens failed to get the memo that they were supposed to lose. A series that saw Montreal steal game 1 in Boston in double overtime then eventually find themselves down 3-2 before winning the final two games to clinch the series in 7. The drama didn’t stop after the final horn of game 7 either. During the traditional handshake line at the end of every series, Bruins forward Milan Lucic told Canadiens forward Dale Weise that he “will kill him next season.”
All this giving Montreal momentum into the Conference finals where they would play the New York Rangers. That series was potentially lost for the Canadiens just 40 minutes into that series. Rangers forward Chris Kreider crashes into Carey Price the Habs goaltender, injuring him knocking him out for the rest of the playoffs. Dustin Tokarski the Habs backup goalie gave a heck of an effort though, the most goals he allowed in a game was 4 and that came in game 5 in which the Canadiens ended up winning putting up 7 goals of their own. Montreal ended up losing that series in 6 games and you can’t blame goaltending even though the future MVP Price was out, but sometimes the mental effect of not having your best player can have a bad impact.
Regardless of the loss, there was a hope for the Canadiens entering the 2014-15 season. With the experience gained for the Habs young core fans and Montreal media was hoping the team would take a step in the right direction. Looking at the Chicago Blackhawks in 2009 as an example, a young team taking a big step in development getting to the conference finals and have since won 2 Stanley Cups since 2010 and as we speak are getting ready for another conference finals match up this season.
Something seemed off this season for Montreal though. The one guy who took a big step in development was the guy who was already the best player on the team, goalie Carey Price. Going from one of the better goalies in the NHL to MVP winner (Most likely) he carried his team this past season. I don’t think it’s unfair to say that if it wasn’t for his play this season this team goes from one of the top NHL teams to one of the worst teams looking at a lottery draft pick this summer.
What went wrong for a team so promising? You have to start by looking at the forward group. Star American forward Max Pacioretty needs help. 37 goals and 67 points were his totals for the season. Looking at the rest of the team the stats aren’t bad and they’re probably better than the LA Kings of the past couple of years and we all know what LA has done in the past 4-5 seasons winning 2 Cups.
The thing to worry about though is the playoffs. Once a team gets to focus directly on you instead of being on a road trip where you play Montreal then go to Toronto that same night teams can focus on you team and your teams star players like Pacioretty, players like him get shut down and then where is your offense coming from? Looking at playoff stats a defensemen led the Canadiens in scoring in the playoffs. Not THAT big of an issue since PK Subban is one of the best Dmen in the league. After Pacioretty’s 5 goals in 11 games the next closest guy is Brendan Gallagher with 3 goals in 12 games, then no other Canadian has more than 2 goals in 12 games.
After Pacioretty there isn’t to much to fear on the Canadiens forward group and the Center position is especially concerning. Tomas Plekanec is pretty much the number 1 center. He’s a great player and a solid number 2 center and a great number 3 on a great team, but he’s not a number 1. Teams don’t win Stanley Cups without center depth. Plekanec a good center is going to run into trouble when he matches up against other great centers like a Jonathan Toews, Anze Kopitar, and others. If there is one thing, just one thing the Canadiens have to fix somehow this offseason it’s their center depth.
Defensively this team is confusing too. For a team that was number 1 in goals against per game, they gave up the ninth most shots per game. Not only were they low in the shot against ranking but they were top 3 in blocked shots adding another 1,400 shots that didn’t even get to the net not counting as an official shot. The Canadiens relied a ton on Carey Price this season and you can potentially look at two things, Montreal either got a lead and sat on it and let Price lead them to a win or they went down early had to press and that let other teams pressure them hoping Price would keep them in games until they got their goals.
This means the plan is bad or the plan the coach wants to put into effect, he doesn’t have the players capable of pulling it off. Not only does the coach have problems though the General Manager seems to have a weird outlook on things. The General Managers job is to build teams with the potential to win championships. Marc Bergevin Canadians GM had a quote along the lines of, “We just have to make the playoffs.” If that’s how he’s building his team he’s going to have a lot of disappointment. Did Anaheim go out and trade for Ryan Kesler adding to their center depth just to make the playoffs? No, that move was to turn them from a great regular season team and a team making the playoffs, to a Stanley Cup contender and one of the current final four teams.
In terms of help from the system the Canadiens don’t have much of what they need. They have Alex Galchenyuk who is a center but the coach has him playing the wing. He could be help but then he still have to develop into an NHL center which takes some time. No question that should have been happening this season or even last season so that he can turn into their number 1 or number 2 guy, you can almost turn this into a lost developmental season for Galchenyuk. The defensive prospects the Canadiens have aren’t much different from anything they have now and you obviously don’t have to worry about Price.
For a team thinking about the Stanley Cup last offseason, this team sure has a lot of problems and these problems aren’t easy fixes. Getting center depth will take time and if the current system the coach wants to play isn’t fit for his players you have to change that system or fire the coach. Most of the core players for Montreal are either in their prime or on the right side of their prime with a few exceptions but these are years you can’t waste or this management group will deeply regret it with no Cups or little success. It should be a very interesting offseason for one of the leagues “best”.
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