BIG GUYS, SMALL HELP
Bergevin fails to get a scorer
It was about this time last year when Hall of Famer Guy Lafleur said the Canadiens were a team with four fourth lines.
After Wednesday’s NHL trade deadline, you could say the Canadiens have improved. They are now a team with three fourth lines.
General manager Marc Bergevin didn’t make any blockbuster moves to help his team’s ailing offence, which produced only 21 goals during 13 games in February while getting shut out four times and posting a 5-7-1 record. The Canadiens needed overtime to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 1-0 Tuesday night at the Bell Centre with Carey Price making 26 saves for the shutout.
Only four forwards scored for the Canadiens in February: Max Pacioretty, Alexander Radulov, Alex Galchenyuk and Andrew Shaw. You have to wonder where the Canadiens would be without captain Pacioretty, who is playing the best hockey of his career and leads the team with 31 goals, more than double the 15 scored by both Radulov and Galchenyuk, who rank second.
Bergevin didn’t do anything to lift the weight off his captain’s shoulders by adding forwards Steve Ott, Andreas Martinsen and Dwight King on Wednesday. The three forwards have combined for 14 goals this season, led by King with eight in 63 games with Los Angeles. Ott (Detroit) and Martinsen (Colorado) have three goals each. Olé! Olé! Olé! The Canadiens did get a lot bigger, though, with Ott (six-feet, 193 pounds), Martinsen (6-foot3, 220 pounds) and King (6-foot4, 229 pounds).
As the always humorous Mike Boone — who does a live blog for every Canadiens game on the hockeyinsideout.com website — put it on his Facebook page: “Marc Bergevin is getting ready to face the 1975 Flyers in the playoffs.”
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the Broad Street Bullies who won the Stanley Cup last year. It was the high-scoring Pittsburgh Penguins.
“Scoring is at a premium and you like to add scoring, but it’s not out there, and if it ever was, the price was … you don’t get something without giving up anything and then you’re going sideways,” Bergevin said. “So you try to move forward and you don’t want to hurt your team. So we feel comfortable with what we have.” Really? Torrey Mitchell hasn’t scored in 37 games; Phillip Danault and Artturi Lehkonen haven’t scored in 16; Tomas Plekanec and Brian Flynn in 15; Paul Byron in 13 and Brendan Gallagher in 10.
“We had lines producing at all levels for a while and I know of late it hasn’t been the case,” Bergevin said. “But I feel comfortable our guys are getting more confidence as we move forward that will be able to chip in. I always say you could play with a bad foot, bad shoulder. But if you play with no confidence, it’s hard to play.”
Bergevin believes his team would have made the playoff last season if Price didn’t get hurt and he’s betting heavily on his goalie now, along with new head coach Claude Julien.
Unfortunately, neither of them can score.
“I honestly believe you have Carey Price, you get in the playoffs...,” Bergevin said, failing to complete the sentence. “Last year, Pittsburgh in November, they were willing to sell the team, fire the coach — which they did.”
And the Penguins did win the Stanley Cup — with Phil Kessel, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin leading the way.
But have no fear Canadiens fans, you now have Ott, Martinsen and King.
Bergevin was asked how those three can help the Canadiens score more goals.
“Dwight King has played in L.A.,” Bergevin said. “He’s a player who can move up and down the lineup. He’s played with (Anze) Kopitar at times this year. He’s won two Stanley Cups. I’m sure he could chip in offensively. But again, we need all our guys that had success earlier in the year to go back and start chipping in offensively like they did and we’ll be in good shape.” OK. But what if they don’t? This is Bergevin’s fifth season as GM and the club appears to be going backward after advancing to the Eastern Conference final in 2014. The Canadiens remain in first place in the Atlantic Division with a 35-21-8 record and have won three straight under Julien — all three in overtime.
With only one more season remaining on Price’s contract and two more for Pacioretty, Bergevin was asked about the Canadiens’ “window of opportunity” when it comes to ending a Stanley Cup drought that goes back to 1993.
“I don’t believe in that,” the GM said.
“In the salary cap world, you can’t load up hoping and then next thing you know for the next four years you got nothing coming. It’s not going to work.”
The Canadiens learned last season a team can’t make the playoffs with four fourth lines — as Lafleur put it. They might make it with three this year.
But how far can they really go?
In the salary cap world, you can’t load up hoping and then next thing you know for the next four years you got nothing coming. It’s not going to work.