Nov 01 Dare We Dream?

The first month of this young season is already in the books, and look! The Habs are tops in the Northeast Division (although the Bruins have 3 games in hand). Raise your hand if you had them there, because I sure didn’t. The Canadiens have been a very pleasant surprise, as they have looked solid from the goaltending, out through the 4th line…with some problem areas in between that have yet to cause too much pain.

It’s tough not to get excited over the performance the Canadiens put forth in October 2010. They’re playing a more sustainable, solid game than the mirage that had Habs fans reaching dizzying heights this past spring, led by refocused Carey Price, reloaded Tomas Plekanec and reborn Andrei Kostitsyn. In past years, the Canadiens depended on power play success in order to win games, but now it seems that even strength play has become their forté. I for one, will take a team that plays well at even strength and struggles on special teams, than the opposite. But now is the time to start to put it all together. When you look back, it’s actually pretty amazing that the Canadiens did as well as they did in October: the clear-cut #1 defenseman has only played one game, the power play has been putrid, the second line has been virtually non-existant.

The signs are very encouraging for a successful season, but it’s still about 10 games too soon to proclaim this team is “for real”. November will prove to be a much tougher month for the bleu-blanc-rouge with matchups against the Bruins, Flyers (twice), Kings and Canucks. Not to mention teams that they always have trouble with: Maple Leafs, Sabres, and Hurricanes. If the Canadiens can emerge from November still on top of the Northeastern Division, the cold winter months will be a lot more palatable, as a winning Habs bunch makes just about everything better in Montreal.

But if that’s going to happen, some rough spots have to be ironed out, and fast. The power play will need to be much better. Stumbling and bumbling along with a single-digit success percentage is not a recipe for long term success, even if the penalty killing unit is top-notch. Cammalleri, while leading the league in +/- has got to get on something resembling a tear, especially on the power play. Markov’s re-entry to the lineup will only help him find that timing once again. A team like the Canadiens, as we saw in last spring’s playoffs agains the Flyers, can be worn down by bigger, tougher, more intimidating opponents. The Canadiens have made their opponents pay in past years by killing them on the power play. This helped preserve the Canadiens smaller players from physical punishment that adds up over the course of 82 games. If the Canadiens aren’t going to be lethal on the power play, eventually opponents will take liberties with the smaller forwards and wear them out the good ship Habs come April.

It’s clear that the Canadiens got through the first month of the year on the backs of Plekanec, Kostitsyn and the aforementioned Cammalleri. Gionta and Gomez, who combine for nearly 13 million big ones against salary cap have only combined for 2 goals and 4 assists, aka, the same amount of points that Benoit Pouliot has been able to post for nearly 1/10th the cap hit, and 7 minutes less of ice time per game. Hey, I’m just saying. It seems that Habs fans can’t ever be totally happy, and thus somebody has to be designated as the whipping boy. So far, that person has been Pouliot. While he admittedly has not shown much in terms of sustained desire and intensity, he is on a pace for about 50 points this season, which would represent terrific value for his relatively paltry salary. Whether or not he keeps this up is a matter up for discussion. The real issue among the forwards lies with high-priced Gomez and Gionta. Call it snakebitten, or call it lost in a fog, what we can all agree on is that a combined 6 points in 22 games is unacceptable. They need to start putting the puck in the net – immediately. They’ll get it together because history says they will, but the clock is ticking.

On the back end, the defense needs to not only chip in more offensively – both goals from defensemen came on the same night – but they need to get better at hitting the net with their shots from the point. The only two shooters – Subban and Spacek either telegraph their every move, or fire 3 feet wide. The defensive pairings also need to clean up their act in their own zone. While the shots against have come down dramatically from last season, we still see shades of the team that looked more like the keystone cops than a legitimate group of defenders. With 3 defensemen over the age of 35, the headless chicken dance is quite easily invoked once the opposition establishes itself in the Canadiens zone. Carey Price has been forced to make many, many big saves while bailing out his mates. Certainly Price’s .913 save percentage isn’t opening a ton of eyeballs, but rest assured that his modest stat belies how much better he’s been this season. His focus and determination are back to where they need to be, and that’s a huge relief for the Canadiens, and Canadiens fans who thought that the loss of Halak meant the end was nigh.

It would also be nice to see Lars Eller get some prime ice. He’s only been able to muster 1 assist in 11 games, and that’s no good. Don’t get me wrong, he hasn’t played poorly; he’s been strong on the puck, in the corners, and on the body, but he needs to show a little more of a scorer’s touch. Perhaps Coach Martin can help this along by playing Eller with some linemates with hands, and giving him more ice time than Tom “teacher’s pet” Pyatt. Nobody will ever say a bad thing about Tom Pyatt’s honest, hard-working game, but he’s a role player, and always will be. Eller, projected to be a core member of the team’s forwards in the years to come needs more ice time if he’s going to find his game at the NHL level. Let’s just hope that Jacques Martin doesn’t mishandle him like he mishandles virtually every player under the age of 25.

So while things are pretty rosy in Habsland, despite the gag-inducing loss to the Panthers on Saturday night, there are still lots of things to be worked on. A 7-3-1 record is probably better than 95% of fans would have expected after one month, but we can’t overlook the blemishes that still hang around the team’s neck. These issues need to be addressed very quickly because a one-line team cannot continue to win consistently for very long.

What’s your take on the Habs first month of the season?

Tags: Cammalleri \ Eastern Conference \ Eller \ Gionta \ Gomez \ habs \ hockey \ Kostitsyn \ Montreal Canadiens \ NHL \ PK Subban \ Plekanec \ Pouliot \ Price \ Spacek